After multiple watchings, I still love the 9/30/80 Backlund-Hansen match and their 2/16/81 MSG match. Fun matches. I've never cared for their cage match. I'm pretty sure that I've seen the 3/16/81 MSG but I'm drawing a blank on it. The 12/09/80 match in Japan was on Dan's Misc NJPW set... draw a blank on it as well, which strikes me as not leaving a mark like the 9/30/80 and 2/16/81 matches.

 

I liked Yohe's comments on it half a decade ago when watching the Hansen set:

 

The first two Backlund matches (9-30-80 & 2-16-81) are great. Bob really takes moves from Hansen like no one in Stan’s career. Backlund must be the strongest wrestler pound for pound in history. The first match in MSG, really got over with me. Super stuff & I can’t think of another match on tape that I like more. Dumb ass WWF rules and a small cage that looked 8 foot tall killed the cage match. Backlund walking out…. just left you (& the fans) with an empty feeling. And it was the blow off match.

 

These matches disprove any idea that Bob couldn’t brawl. A lot of the matches have them trading punches in the middle of the ring and Bobby looks great with one of the greatest brawlers in history. In the first matches, all the stuff out side the ring had a purpose and was executed like a ballet.

 

I liked the Bob series a lot the last time I watched it but I don't think it is one of the 10 best Hansen feuds/series. I definitely like Hansen vs Colon, Funk, Kobashi, Kawada, Baba, Tenryu, Slaughter, Vader, Hennig, and Martel better overall than the Backlund series.

 

Don't interpret this as a knock of the Backlund feud. I liked it for the most part and thought a couple of matches were great. This is more of a another "Holy shit Stan Hansen was fucking awesome" post.

Hansen could come away from this feud with a better rep, for sure. But I think he holds up strong enough even without the PR run.

 

I agree and disagree with this. I thought of Hansen as the greatest of all time before I watched any of the Colon matches. I felt his Japan work was enough to view him as the GOAT. But the most common criticisms of Hansen's case for GOAT were:

1. He was a one trick pony brawler

2. He never had a truly great run outside of Japan.

 

I can understand the one trick pony criticism but I don't agree with it at all as I think Hansen was pretty clearly a versatile worker if you look at his career as a whole. And really this hasn't been too strong a talking point because everyone tends to agree that Hansen was so overwhelmingly great at his "one trick" that it didn't really matter.

 

The knock was usually the second point. He only had a great run in Japan. I always thought that was a pretty silly criticism as well, but it definitely existed. The Colon feud not only gives us a "great run" Hansen had outside of Japan, but it gave us probably Hansen's best feud on tape.

 

So while I agree that someone could only watch Hansen's Japan run and argue him as the greatest wrestler ever. But the Colon series is a major major major feather in Hansen's cap because not only is it another all time great feud for Hansen, it absolutely puts to bed the "only had great matches in Japan" criticism forever.

Maybe I was just disspointed with the Bob stuff next to my memories of it. The first time I watched it I text a friend to tell him to watch it and the second time it just felt underwealmed. I haven't seen the 2/16/81 MSG match so I will need to track that down. Its just a strange paring to me. I feel like I could watch the same match between these two 5 times and have 5 different opinions on it.

 

I am really looking forward to finding a moment to watch this Colon stuff.

 

Bottom line is, Hansen is an all time great.

I like Hansen outside of Japan so much more than in Japan.

😲.

I like Hansen outside of Japan so much more than in Japan.

 

But you're super-weird.

Okay glad its not just me. SUPER WEIRD!

It's a fair argument.

Of course its fair, its wrestling. Its all subjective.

I meant the fact that I was super weird.

 

But, it stems from the fact I like matches with broader and deeper selling more than hard hitting, face crashing affairs. From what I've seen of Japan Hansen, I'm fine with the stuff where he's really dominant, but that's about it. I like how he tends to sell outside of Japan better. He's one of the most naturally logical wrestlers I've ever seen, as in, you watch his matches and think "Yeah, okay, this is what would happen," and it has this intrinsic logic in a way that I appreciate in other wrestlers and respect in him, where it's more driven by action than thought, where all other options are sort of squeezed out so that there's really only one way it could go.

 

I just don't always dig that one way.

 

It's remarkable, though. Absolutely. It's just not for me.

But, it stems from the fact I like matches with broader and deeper selling more than hard hitting, face crashing affairs. From what I've seen of Japan Hansen, I'm fine with the stuff where he's really dominant, but that's about it. I like how he tends to sell outside of Japan better.

 

How much 90s Hansen have you seen?

Some. Enough that I wasn't rushing to see more. It was exhausting in a bad way.

Ok now I'm really curious what you watched

 

I've mentioned this before but I view Hansen selling (especially in the early 90s) as "wounded dog selling." He's hurt but that just makes him more dangerous because he's desperate. The desperation makes an "unpredictable" wrestler even more "unpredictable."

That's not necessarily opposite to what I'm saying. I'm just saying I'm not enthused by that particular narrative.

And that's fine.

 

I find it to be pretty spectacular given the totality of his career so I'm intrigued by your criticisms.

Yeah, in all seriousness, I wanted to read more of Matt's contrarian Hansen reviews.

I think it'll be a good amount of the same but name me three matches to watch from the era and give me a week and a half. I haven't done full write ups so it doesn't matter if I've already seen them.

I'll defer to Childs if he has anything specific because my suggestions are the most boring ones. The 7/29/93 match against Kobashi I think is the best example of the "wounded dog" selling.

 

I can't remember the date of the Taue rib injury match either but that would be good to watch. Let me try and figure out which year that was. i wanna say 94 Carnival?

Yeah it was '94 Carnival. I was going to suggest that or the 4/18/91 tag with him and Spivey against Gordy/Doc. Maybe the 2/28/93 Kawada match because it's been pimped so heavily on the board. And then maybe one of the Inoki matches from 1980-81. That would give one a pretty fair cross section of Hansen in Japan.

The 4/3/80 Inoki-Hansen did best in dvdvr voting FWTW.

Hansen's selling of the ribs against Taue is the best selling that I've ever seen Hansen do. Hell, his selling against Kobashi in the 7/29/93 match is fanfuckingtastic... and the selling against Taue is on another level. To the degree that other than Kawada on 12/03/93, I have a hard time thinking of any better selling... and I'm not sold Stan even takes a back seat to Kawada's best.

 

So...

Yeah it was '94 Carnival. I was going to suggest that or the 4/18/91 tag with him and Spivey against Gordy/Doc. Maybe the 2/28/93 Kawada match because it's been pimped so heavily on the board. And then maybe one of the Inoki matches from 1980-81. That would give one a pretty fair cross section of Hansen in Japan.

 

Yeah the 3 I was going to recommend were the two obvious ones vs Kawada and Kobashi from 2/93 and 7/93. The Taue Champion Carnival match was the other one from the early 90s.

 

I like the Baba series a lot more than the Inoki series so if I was going to pick an early 80s Hansen vs Japanese Ace match I might pick the first Baba match.

 

The Andre match is great to see Hansen in a setting where he is overmatched physically.

I've seen the Andre match a bunch of times. I like it fine but more as the exception, not the rule.

 

That taue one doesn't seem to be on youtube or dailymotion at a quick glance. I can check other sources later though.

I like the Baba series better as well but he worked differently against Inoki than he did against any of the All Japan guys, so I was thinking in terms of range.

 

The Andre match is both awesome and a glimpse of Hansen as Ricky Morton.