Carlos Colon vs. Stan Hansen (11/9/86)

[El Boricua]

Carlos Colon vs. Stan Hansen (11/9/86)

[elliott]

And now more Colon vs Hansen! GODDAMN Disc 3 has to be the best disc ever conceived. This time Colon meets Hansen at the bell with a headbutt and punches and is all over him at the start. No doubt trying to avoid a repeat of the previous match. Hansen is awesome stumbling around trying to get his jacket off as Colon beats the crap out of him. Awesome part about these matches is that Hansen works so much of them in his chaps because these two are all over each other. Hansen blades early but manages to take back over. This spills back outside quickly and Hansen blasts Colon into the dugout wall and rubs his face into the fence. Both guys are bleeding now as Hansen posts Colon. Hansen sets Colon up against the post to go for a lariat of death by Colon moves at the last second and Hansen destroys his arm giving Colon an opening. More payback spots as Colon smashes Hansen’s arm into the dugout and posts it.

 

I gotta say I love Hansen taking backdrops. If you watch closely you can see the way Hansen hits the ropes when he’s running at them himself is different than the way Hansen hits them when his opponent Irish Whips him. I’m serious no bullshit. Watch closely your next Hansen match. When he hits them he is forceful and coordinated. Yet when his opponent whips him into the ropes he is clearly giving off a more out of control vibe which really points to an incredibly aware/in control wrestler. Basically Matt D is wrong. Hansen is a genius J Oh right the backdrop. This can all be seen beautifully in this match with Hansen taking the backdrop. I LOVE how he takes backdrops. Totally out of control. Conversely, my biggest criticism of El Dandy is the way he takes backdrops because he takes everyone the same: Like a high board diver. They’re beautiful and graceful and would create no splash in the pool. When Hansen takes a back body drop, everyone is getting wet.

 

Back to the match as Colon keeps on top of Hansen but Hansen manages to load up the elbow pad AGAIN and just destroy Colon. Knowing this is Puerto Rico, payback is going to be a bitch. Somebody…the commissioner? Comes out to stop Hansen and call him out for cheating but he eats a lariat too. Hansen in this setting is perfect perfect perfect. But this makes two Hansen vs Colon matches not as great as that Al Perez match. And the thing is, these Hansen vs Colon matches are GREAT!.

[AJS]

Hansen and Colon bring the intensity as usual and have some vicious exchanges. I'm so used to seeing Hansen jump his opponent at or before the bell that it genuinely caught me off guard to see it done the other way around. I liked that. What we got here was great, but I felt it was too short to be anything truly special. I preferred their first bout.

[WingedEagle]

Colon is the aggressor this time out as he jumps Hansen at his entrance and again it takes Stan forever to remove his chaps, which absolutely heightens the intensity and violence they're projecting. They quickly make their way around foul territory at Hiram Bithorn and they maul each other against the backstop, fencing, the ring and everywhere possible to draw juice.

 

Some great post shots here as well that really swing momentum and build to Hansen posting the Lariat arm when Colon ducks. Colon Cartwheel, punching and biting turn the volume up before Hansen loads the pad for another finish that extends the feud.

 

Yet another awesome Hansen performance and brawl from Colon.

 

***3/4

[KB8]

A step below their first match, and I guess it kinda sort of maybe feels more like feud progression than a fully formed match, but fuck it. It's these two, and it was good, and it was very different from that first match. This time Colon jumps Hansen at the bell, and in one of the few occasions I can ever remember we get Stan Hansen very much on the back foot to start a match. Colon busts him open and throws his awesome headbutts while Hansen tries to rid himself of his chaps and jacket. It's this kind of thing that makes me think Hansen is the best to ever do it. If you've seen one Stan Hansen match then you've seen him beat the crap out of somebody. If you've seen several Stan Hansen matches then you've seen him beat the crap out of several somebodies. He might be the best ever at that particular aspect of pro wrestling. But his selling and ability to show vulnerability or, in those rare instances, even fear; those are the things that really put him over the top. I hadn't watched any Hansen outside All Japan in ages, and that was never an environment where you were likely to find Hansen outright begging off or borderline stooging. But he wasn't afraid to here, and Stan bastarding Hansen asking for a bit of reprieve made Colon seem like a badass in his own right. There was some dueling limb work in this, and it didn't last long or anything, but I liked how it came about. First Colon goes for a high knee in the corner and hits the turnbuckle, so Hansen jumps on this opening and goes after the leg for a little bit. He soon drops it in favour of throwing Colon into a fence and mushing his face into it, but it was cool while it lasted. Shortly after this Hansen tries to lariat Colon on the floor, but Colon moves and Hansen lariats the ring post, so Colon works the arm for a short spell, wrapping it around the post and bashing it off the dugout. That doesn't last long either, but both felt like examples where an opportunity presented itself for one guy to inflict some extra damage on his opponent, before eventually going back to the more attractive option of beating his head off something solid. Hansen kicking the shit out of the commissioner post-match ruled as well. I don't remember ever seeing him lariat somebody while they're on all fours, but he did it here and of course it must've sucked being on the receiving end of that.

[dawho5]

Everything feels like a natural progression here. Colon jumping Hansen so he doesn't get ambushed like he did last time. Hansen momentarily working the leg, Colon going after the arm after Hansen bangs it into the ringpost. Oh, and all the hate, intensity, violence and blood. God I love Colon vs. Hansen.