Is the Stan Hansen book out now? If so, has anybody picked it up yet?

http://www.crowbarpress.com/cbp-books/14-sh.html

I got my autographed copy yesterday of the Hansen book. Reading about his time at West Texas now.

A month or so later, when I was working a match with Gordon in Colorado Springs, we were scheduled to go fifteen minutes broadway. I was still green and stiff. During the match, Gordon told me to get him in a headlock. After I had held him for a few seconds, he said, "Squeeze harder." I did what he said, but each time, he would repeat what he had said. "Come on. Squeeze harder!" After a few minutes, I discovered I couldn’t squeeze at all. My muscles had tired out and were limp. I held his head in my arms so loosely that I could barely feel his head. Gordon then whispered to me, "This is how you’re supposed to hold your opponent. It’s called working." That was one of the first, great lessons I learned.

Pretty interesting to hear that from Stan Hansen of all people.

Sometimes I wonder if Stan's infamous stiffness isn't exaggerated by some guys for the eternal "rasslers are tough" bragging. I remember the Road Warriors once mentioning that Hansen was one of the guys who first taught them how to lighten up a bit and actually work a match. His clothesline might've been the hardest in the business, but I wonder if he was more subtle than we give him credit for on working some of his other moves.

Sometimes I wonder if Stan's infamous stiffness isn't exaggerated by some guys for the eternal "rasslers are tough" bragging. I remember the Road Warriors once mentioning that Hansen was one of the guys who first taught them how to lighten up a bit and actually work a match. His clothesline might've been the hardest in the business, but I wonder if he was more subtle than we give him credit for on working some of his other moves.

Depends on what era of Hansen you watch. In the 90s, he was an unstoppable machine of stiffness. He looked hard as fuck in the 80s too. I haven't seen anything Hansen related from the 70s, but my overall experience of watching him has always been translated as, "Hansen is a stiff worker and I never see him slap his leg."

Flair referred to guys like Hansen, Brody and Vader as being safe to work with. But he did say they made you earn it.

The Onion AV Club has a "Cowboy Bebop at His Computer"-quality writeup of the most recent Raw.

 

http://www.avclub.com/articles/wwe-monday-...-edition,60462/

 

Hey, who's that in the comments section?

The worst of Hansen's stiffness (ie. Vader's eye) was caused by his blindness rather than being intentional.

Flair referred to guys like Hansen, Brody and Vader as being safe to work with. But he did say they made you earn it.

He actually said that Vader was "TOTALLY safe." and really stressed it.

PWInsider on Sin Cara:

 

There was no discussion about the future of the original Sin Cara at this week's TV Tapings that we've heard. Hunico again worked as Cara at last night's taping. This is just conjecture on my part, but it certainly stands to reason that the longer this goes on, the less likely it would appear the initial Cara will return.

Any of you lads know more?

I haven't followed the story, but are you saying Mistico got fired and they put another luchador under the Sin Cara hood ? This is truly Max Moon redux.

Mistico got Wellness'ed, and Hunico worked under the Sin Cara mask because the 30 days wasn't over until this week. Yet Hunico is still under the mask. Mistico apparently rubbed practically everyone he came across the wrong way and it was thought that this was the opening they could seize to get rid of him but keep the Sin Cara gimmick. Especially since Hunico looked better than the original last week. May have been helped in editing, but there wasn't that point that is in most Mistico matches where you think "Is something going to get fucked up here?".

Flair referred to guys like Hansen, Brody and Vader as being safe to work with. But he did say they made you earn it.

Could this be where Vader's rep for taking liberties with jobbers comes from? If you're enhancement talent, you're not really in a position to give as good as you get.

Smackdown spoiler:

 

 

Mark Henry throws out Sin Cara to win the Battle Royal and become number one contender. Orton and Henry face off.

YES! YES! YES!

So as to not derail the Rey thread...

 

Of course there's the Taue-Bossman match from an earlier series that I would love to know what Taue Fans think about it.

Taue vs Big Gaijin is a problematic thing that I think decisively shows Taue as a tier below the other Corners. Taue vs Spivey and Taue vs Bossman aren't anything you want to share with skeptics. Taue vs Hansen produced good matches but not NEARLY as good as Hansen vs M/K/K. Ditto Taue vs Doc. The quality difference when Taue would tag with Jumbo or Kawada against gaijin was marked. Even the 'miracle' 10/21/97 Taue vs Ace match was more a product of raw effort and a receptive crowd than being due to things like execution or storytelling.

The "better than people give them credit for" thread is probably where you want to drag that to:

 

http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?showtopic=11814

 

Then delete out of here.

 

John

I don't know what Taue quite fits that thread

Well... I think the 12th post on the first page of that thread is you coming into the defense of Taue.

 

I also think it's reasonable to toss out issues with Taue: he wasn't so hot with the Gaijin. I'm not sure it's even limited to the Big Gaijin. I think he worked quite a bit worse with Kroffat & Furnas that the other natives, not just MKK but seemingly most of the other natives. I haven't recently watched Taue's 1990-93 stuff with other lower ranked guys on Stan and Gordy & Williams' teams, but he never struck me as being very interesting / solid / good with them. It's not like Misawa was fab with most: he seemed to like working with Kroffat & Furnas, so worked a little harder with them than others.

 

It's not a massive knock of Taue: any number of natives weren't as good with gaijin as with other natives. Just something to keep in the back of the mind when thinking about why Taue was abused by hardcores back in the day.

 

John

Anyone else seen Taue/Dreamer from 95? Woof. Five minutes of Tommy Dreamer squashing Akira Taue, followed by a nodowa and a pin. It's hard to say which guy was more at fault, they were nowhere even near being on the same page. Tommy was desperately trying to do nothing ECW-ish and keep it all sportsmanlike in the middle of the ring and everything, but the words "styles clash" don't even begin to describe it.

Well... I think the 12th post on the first page of that thread is you coming into the defense of Taue.

Like I can remember what happened back in.....

 

January 2011?

 

Oh.

Well he did do Wrestling Observer Live and Figure 4 Daily.

 

Speaking of Alan4l actually woke me up and texted me that he recorded this as he knew I would mark:

 

http://www.f4wonline.com/component/content...the-masterpiece

Good int, I listened to that yesterday then watched the 8/26/10 Masters vs McIntyre match people were pimping a few pages back.

I could def see what Masters was talking about re his selling. I didn't think the match overall was THAT great but Masters' performance once Drew went after his leg was awesome.

Well he did do Wrestling Observer Live and Figure 4 Daily.

 

Speaking of Alan4l actually woke me up and texted me that he recorded this as he knew I would mark:

 

http://www.f4wonline.com/component/content...the-masterpiece

Good int, I listened to that yesterday then watched the 8/26/10 Masters vs McIntyre match people were pimping a few pages back.

I could def see what Masters was talking about re his selling. I didn't think the match overall was THAT great but Masters' performance once Drew went after his leg was awesome.

 

Beats the other wikipedia generated interviews Masters has done. The "shoot" run in by Rek story was really funny. WWE switching finishes on Superstars is something else too.

Has anyone watched those Meltzer and Jim Cornette commentary sets?

 

The matches themselves look intriguing, but tell me what you know.

I think we watched the Brody-Bockwinkle with Dave & Corney at one of the KOC's. I don't recall it being terribly interesting.

 

John

I haven't seen those Wrestling Gold sets in years, but I recall it having some Memphis matches you would want to check out (especially Lawler vs Bockwinkel). Although, those matches are now on DVDVR Memphis set, a much better and interesting set.

 

The commentary is fun, and interesting at times.