goodhelmet Posted May 25, 2015 Report Share Posted May 25, 2015 I am asking this because eventually we are going to have to make hard choices in our rankings. I figured I would start with two West Texas boys who will do well in the final ranking. Stan or Terry? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dylan Waco Posted May 26, 2015 Report Share Posted May 26, 2015 I can't do this yet. This is going to be one of the toughest things for me in the end. Both are number one contenders for me. I think Funk has more versatility as a character, and probably as a worker, but he doesn't have the depth of great performances (at least not on tape). Could easily see these guys as 1 and 2 on my final ballot, but I don't know what order yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoe Posted May 26, 2015 Report Share Posted May 26, 2015 I voted Stan. Though Funk's versatility really makes this close. It ended up who I'd rather watch and it's Hansen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dylan Waco Posted May 26, 2015 Report Share Posted May 26, 2015 I think at the end of the day with these two it comes down to who you think was better in Japan. Comparing them in other ways it's kind of amazing how close they are. Â Funk was better in Memphis and WCW, with all time great feuds in both. Hansen was better in Puerto Rico with an all time great feud there. Because of footage issues I'm not positive who was better in the WWF but of what we have I'd say Funk. That said Funk does not have Hansen's AWA run which was very good, with some all time classic matches, and Funk had nothing like that in the WWF. Funk was better as an independent wrestler, but Hansen didn't do a ton of that. Funk was better in the 70's, Hansen was better in the 90s and it's hard to say who was better in the 80s. Both had good-to-great tag teams with partners who otherwise left a lot to be desired. Funk was both an all time great face and an all time great heel, but Hansen is probably the best ever at what he did. Hansen has more four star plus matches on tape, but Funk is one of those guys who was always entertaining where Hansen would occasionally eat guys up and not be so fun in the process. Hansen is the best ever homesteading gajin, while Funk is the best ever "loser leaves town" outlaw wrestler. Â Again it really comes down to Japan. I can honestly see arguments both ways there depending on what you emphasize. This will probably be one of the last decisions I make before I turn in a ballot. No way I can vote now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clayton Jones Posted May 26, 2015 Report Share Posted May 26, 2015 Outside a few exceptions, Hansen in AWA was a disappointment to me in a way that I don't think Terry could ever be in a major run in any territory. Otherwise career VS career it would be difficult, but the lack of high end matches from Hansen in AWA makes me lean towards Terry, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodhelmet Posted May 26, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 26, 2015 I thought walking Leon White through one of the greatest wrestling lessons in the history of wrestling lessons, plus the fun brawling in the AWA was more than enough to give Stan some AWA points. Â My biggest problem with Hansen is his reverence for Brody as his tag partner. Gobbling up other teams and spitting them out is a real black mark on his career. On the other hand, I think you have to give Terry credit for the heavy lifting he did getting the Japanese to care about lame, old, brittle Dory. In singles matches, Dory was a huge letdown in the 80s footage and to get good/great matches with that as your partner is a plus. Thumbs up for Terry. On the other hand, even though I praise Terry for reinventing himself in the 90s, the stuff is a huge hit or miss. His inconsistency in the 90s is a huge negative when comparing him against guys who were much more consistent at an older age. Â Neither guy will be my #1 or even Top 5 but they will rank high. I just have to decide if the Brody tag work could knock Hansen below Funk and his wacky garbage worker stuff in his old age. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benjaminkicks Posted May 26, 2015 Report Share Posted May 26, 2015 I'm a huge fan of both guys. In my first draft of my GWE list I had Funk at #1 and Hansen at #3, with Jumbo right in between at #2. Â So for now it's Terry, but there's still plenty of time for that to change. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted May 26, 2015 Report Share Posted May 26, 2015 Can't vote at this point. Both are N°1 contender to me. I would need to watch more 70's stuff and more Puerto Rico. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grimmas Posted May 26, 2015 Report Share Posted May 26, 2015 I think whoever wins this for me will be number one on my ballot. Â It's so difficult to make this decision for me. I'm leaning to Stan, but I love Funk. Â I need to watch some more 70's Funk and a little more early 80's Stan to completely decide on this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted May 26, 2015 Report Share Posted May 26, 2015 I can't imagine Hansen in my top twenty right now. That may change. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerryvonKramer Posted May 26, 2015 Report Share Posted May 26, 2015 For some reason there seems to be less Terry as NWA champ on tape than Dory or Brisco or Race in the late 70s. I've struggled to find many 70s Terry matches, but he's looked fantastic in everything I've seen, including in clips vs Brisco, Race and The Sheik. Â There is footage of Hansen in WWF late 70s and again in 81, but I think generally that Terry's US work is stronger overall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheapshot Posted May 26, 2015 Report Share Posted May 26, 2015 My heart says Terry, my head says Stan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillThompson Posted May 26, 2015 Report Share Posted May 26, 2015 Both will rank high on my list, but I'm leaning towards Hansen as my #1 right now. A lot of people love Terry's 90's into 00's work, but I think it's more miss than it is hit. Conversely as he got older Stan seemed to find a role where he was never worse than decent and his matches were almost always a hit. That's a big factor in my voting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Childs Posted May 26, 2015 Report Share Posted May 26, 2015 I voted for Hansen, and it's not a hard choice for me, though I could see it being more complicated if we had a lot of Terry's singles work from the '70s. The bottom line is I respond to Stan's aesthetic more than Terry's. Some of Funk's goofier mannerisms take me out of matches, and as much as I respect the effort he put in during his lengthy old-man phase, I don't love that work on a GOAT level. I'm drawn to great offensive wrestlers, and I've never found anyone more captivating on the attack than Hansen. Combine that with his tremendous command of character and underappreciated selling and you basically have my ideal worker. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goc Posted May 26, 2015 Report Share Posted May 26, 2015 I don't think it's fair to say Hansen was a disappointment in AWA unless there was a bunch of stuff that didn't make the set. He was in my #1 match on the set vs. Curt Hennig and I never even considered putting another match at the top of my ballot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted May 26, 2015 Report Share Posted May 26, 2015 My favorite Hansen performance that I've seen so far is the Bockwinkel one. (Not saying the best, but my favorite). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goc Posted May 26, 2015 Report Share Posted May 26, 2015 The only disappointing thing about Hansen and AWA to me is that Jerry Blackwell was so broken down that they couldn't do more together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dylan Waco Posted May 26, 2015 Report Share Posted May 26, 2015 Yeah I have seen others say Hansen was a disappointment in the AWA but I don't get it. The Slaughter feud was more very good than great, so I guess that may be part of it, but the match with Blackwell, the match with Baby Vader and the match with Hennig were all excellent. Hell that Hennig match is one of my favorite sub fifteen minute matches of all time, and I'd rate it above every television match in the entire career of people like Bret Hart. I didn't really consider Hansen a number one contender prior to watching him in the AWA and Puerto Rico, but after that he's in the mix. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerryvonKramer Posted May 26, 2015 Report Share Posted May 26, 2015 Disappointing for me because it produced 4-star matches as opposed to the 5-star matches I was hoping for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cross Face Chicken Wing Posted May 26, 2015 Report Share Posted May 26, 2015 I want to say Hansen, but Funk is such a great character I can't quite pull the trigger yet. Not to say Hansen wasn't also a great character, just not on the same level as Funk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodhelmet Posted May 26, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 26, 2015 I have that Baby Vader match closer to 5 than 4 and consider it Vader's first true classic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dylan Waco Posted May 26, 2015 Report Share Posted May 26, 2015 Disappointing for me because it produced 4-star matches as opposed to the 5-star matches I was hoping for. Â I think I can count on one hand the number of times I've come into a match expecting it to be at that level. Can't imagine why that would be the expectation for Hansen in AWA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerryvonKramer Posted May 26, 2015 Report Share Posted May 26, 2015 Â Disappointing for me because it produced 4-star matches as opposed to the 5-star matches I was hoping for. I think I can count on one hand the number of times I've come into a match expecting it to be at that level. Can't imagine why that would be the expectation for Hansen in AWA. Â Hansen + Slaughter should equal greatness. It didn't. Not to me. Â I was lower on the Curt match than many of you, but then I'm lower on babyface Curt than many of you. Â But I did have Vader vs. Leon White at ****3/4 and his matches vs. Blackwell and Bock at ****1/2 Â It was more that the Slaughter matches didn't live up to what I'd hoped. Slaughter's propensity to work all-time classic brawls plus Hansen's propensity for awesome violence leads one to hope for something like that, but they didn't really deliver it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goc Posted May 26, 2015 Report Share Posted May 26, 2015 I put all that on Slaughter who was in his "I don't want to do much because wrestling is my part time job now" mode. I am pretty sure there is some interview with Hansen where he says Slaughter would always tell him "hey let's take it easy out there tonight" or something along those lines. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted May 26, 2015 Report Share Posted May 26, 2015 If Hansen was the greatest of all time, he could find a way to work around that compellingly. If he was the fifth greatest of all time, maybe he couldn't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.