elliott

Matt, I'm not trying to troll you here but I'm having trouble reconciling your Hansen criticisms with this post: http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/16445-one-and-only-demolition-thread/?p=5508971 It seems like you're knocking on the door of criticizing Hansen for the same things you praise Demolition for.

Ok since we only get 3 I vote for the matches mentioned against Kobashi, Kawada, and Taue. I suspect that this will end up being a "different strokes" issue because if you asked me what it is that I like about Hansen his charging forward approach to match structure is something I would point to because he did it so well, the style fit his character so well, etc. I feel like a force of nature like Stan Hansen should be forcing people to survive the charge/figure out a way to negate it. I think the way he worked offensively was utterly brilliant for what he needed to portray in the ring. Also, as I've said before, I think his selling is excellent and completely logical. He's a big badass Texan who knows he can withstand random shots from these punk Japanese guys and on his way to blasting through them. He's going to charge forward to put you off your game and make you play his way. If you can figure out how to slow down the train or even derail it, that's a credit to your abilities/toughness. Anyway, I'm rambling now. Even if you watch those matches and hate them or just don't see what I see, I'm still interested in reading your thoughts on them.

I loved Sayama on the Other Japan set and really wish he had gone back to NJ and then to UWF2.0 with everyone else. The Fujiwara feud was absolutely tremendous and I really liked the Maeda matches as well. Also, I had no idea he still wore the tiger mask for a bit in UWF1.0 and I can't even put into words how much I love that he did.

Agreed that the Inoki matches are definitely worked differently and there was a few that I did like a lot. So yeah, add the 4/3/80 one if Matt wants to take a look at more than the early 90s stuff we're suggesting. I also give major props to people able to have good/interesting matches with Inoki. The 75 match against Destroyer is also great to see Stan in a totally different setting. Matt should just get Will's mega Hansen set and review the whole thing Also Matt, the Taue match from 94 is on Ditch's site.

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'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?

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

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."

Loss had the best throwaway line about this match in the yearbooks that has always stuck with me since I read it: "Quentin Tarantino would love this match." This is so true. Tarantino really needs to make The Terry Funk Story.

How much 90s Hansen have you seen?

Onita is a great pick. Also thought about Hansen for matches vs Andre, Funk, Colon, Vader, and Tenryu. Vader deserves a mention as well for matches vs Inoki, Choshu, Takada, and Hansen. Tenryu for his entire career post 1985ish. Can't believe I didn't mention him with Choshu and Hash Piper, Dusty, and Randy Savage are 3 other US based workers I thought about.

I thought about mentioning Buddy Rose but I didn't on purpose. Technically, yes. He absolutely belongs and is probably #1. But he was usually working super long tv main events every week which were major matches in his territory. I can't explain it but it feels weird to have him in the discussion. Probably because I think the Portland house show main events that Buddy and Piper worked probably looked like the TV main events that Buddy and Piper worked together. Bill Dundee worked differently in the studio than he did in the MSC. But yeah. Buddy Rose was awesome on TV.

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.

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.

Great call. Can't believe I forgot Buzz.

Riki Choshu and Epic are basically synonymous as far as I'm concerned so he's the first guy I thought of. Hashimoto is next on the list. Sangre Chicana and Perro are the definite standouts for Lucha. Again, will post more thoughts when I see who other people come up with.

The first guys that came to mind were Bill Dundee, Arn Anderson, Dustin Rhodes, and Regal. Will have some thoughts later when I see who some other folks come up with.

Who are your favorite/the best wrestlers in big epic settings?

Who are your favorite/the best TV match wrestlers?

I nominate Phil Hickerson. I don't have match reviews but I promise I will watch and review everything online I can find before the project ends. I really wanted to read his thread and ask for match recommendations but saw he wasn't nominated so I figured I'd toss his name out. I also wanted to nominate the complete opposite of my last post and I can't imagine two more different people in the same profession than Phil Hickerson and Chikayo Nagashima.

I nominate Chikayo Nagashima. Match reviews from Yearbooks: http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/19930-mayumi-ozaki-sugar-sato-chikayo-nagashima-vs-chigusa-nagayo-sonoko-kato-meiko-satomura-gaea-011997/ http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/27168-reiko-amano-chikayo-nagashima-vs-toshie-uematsu-sonoko-kato-oz-academy-062198/ http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/27972-chikayo-nagashima-vs-meiko-satomura-gaea-010899/

Suck a dick, no homo Dipset, remix. Let's go. Off topic but... Hahaha! Never in a million years would I have expected you to be a Cam'ron fan. Even if he is a poet of Shakespearean proportions I actually smoked a blunt with Cam'ron and Jim Jones at a Marriott in Raleigh, NC last year and we talked about 80s WWF the whole time.

Apparently we all did because I was quoting They Live with a co-worker all day, got off and then saw the news. Sad day.

Steamboat and Savage are two other guys I could see everyone voting for. I was going to say Rey Jr but I wouldn't be all that surprised if Parv was like "fuck Rey Jr."

I wonder if he ever finished the Hokuto: The Woman Theme tapes.