Carlos Colon vs. Stan Hansen (Cage Match) (3/14/87)

[El Boricua]

Carlos Colon vs. Stan Hansen (Cage Match) (3/14/87)

[elliott]

The feud that keeps on giving comes to a close. The cage match in this arena with no floor seating really gives off the Roman Gladiator feel that Phil Schneider has talked about in the past. Slugfest to start with the crowd reacting to every Colon punch and headbutt. Hansen is awesome flailing around the ring trying to escape and getting punched in the face repeatedly. Hansen tastes the cage first but is able to fight back with a lowblow. Hansen’s selling is fantastic again as he stumbles around trying to regain his senses while throwing brutal kicks at Colon. Now its Colon’s turn to taste the steel cage and he gets busted open. Hansen is awesome working the cut over and nailing Colon with his brutal kicks and knees to the face. Both guys are covered in blood by this point. Hansen attempts a desperate escape out the door which leads to Colon going on offense and the crowd is coming unglued as Colon blasts away at Hansen’s face and does his reverse kick to the balls signature spot. Colon kicks Hansen in the balls so hard Hansen tries to climb the ropes. Hansen manages to nail a desperation lariat and tries to climb out over the top leading to these two fighting on the top turnbuckle. Hansen is borderline Terry Funk with his stumbling around screaming in pain selling. This dude belongs on anyone’s list of best sellers ever. Right below Invader I and Sangre Chicana. Every escape attempt is so dramatic because the crowd is just living and dying with Carlos here. Colon tries desperately to go to the legwork that has done him so well in this feud and Hansen is desperate to keep Colon off the leg and stay out of the figure 4. When Colon starts dropping those elbows on the knee you know its coming and the crowd is just building and building waiting for it but Hansen keeps getting away. This is MASTERFUL. Masterful stuff by both guys. When he finally puts it on the fucking world may as well end because nothing else matters anymore. Hansen is locked into the Figure 4. THEN SOMEBODY! I Don’t know who. Comes out to try and interfere only for INVADER to run out for the save and the tons more people run out and theres the craziest brawl ever with a dozen guys outside on the floor while Hansen is locked into the figure 4 and it is one of the wildest most insane scenes/pops/moments in wrestling history. Colon leaves a crippled Hansen in the ring and rund out to join the fight. This is AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING. This might be Hansen’s best match ever. Think about that for a moment. Maybe the loudest sustained crowd reaction I’ve ever seen/heard. Invader I is left laying and bloody at the end of the video so it benefits from amazing Invader bloodloss selling. This is probably one of the 10 best matches in wrestling history and after watching it all over again its probably the single best feud in history. If you haven’t seen THIS? What the fuck?

[AJS]

This series has been incredible to watch, and it comes to an end as many classic feuds do, inside the cage.

 

Hansen is reluctant to get in and I can't say that I blame him. Colon is eager to get going and pulls Hansen inside and the punches start. Hansen's head is slammed into the cage and he's looking to get out of there immediately. Low blow from Hansen who then takes over viciously with kicks and then introduces Colon's head to the cage. He can't get control for long. Colon comes back full of fire with punches and then a cartwheel. This crowd are with him for every moment.

 

Hansen manages to deck Colon a few times and goes for another escape. Colon goes after him at the top of the cage and punches him back down to the mat. Once back on the ground floor, the set up for the figure four begins. Hansen kicks him to break free. He snap mares Colon but misses a knee drop. The relentless Colon is right back on the leg. Hansen does not want any part of this, so he punches Colon and makes his way to the cage door. He is close to escaping but is pulled back in.

 

Hansen misses the knee drop and tries to escape again by going over the top of the cage. Once again Colon manages to pull him back down to the mat. And he's right back on that leg. He goes for the figure four again but Hansen won't let it happen. He goes for the door again and is super close to escaping this time. close but no cigar. Hansen begs off from Colon who goes back to the leg. Hansen blocks the figure four yet again and hits Colon with a boot. another escape attempt but he's going nowhere. Another figure four attempt and there will be no breaking free this time as it's well and truly locked in. The crowd loses it here. Someone tries to interfere but is stopped and there is fighting now outside the ring. Colon breaks off the figure four and goes to join the battle.

 

Wow! This is one of the greatest cage matches ever with one of the greatest crowds ever. The reaction from the people when Colon managed to execute the figure four after all those tries was stunning. The two men gave everything again and it was amazing to watch. Hansen almost escaping the cage only to be pulled back in was incredibly dramatic. I must admit I found the ending to be slightly strange although it did amuse me also. Colon calmly leaves the ring to join a fight outside. Not quite sure what to make of that! overall though, a fantastic ending to a white hot feud between two of the greats.

[KB8]

How great was Stan Hansen? It's not like his rep needed a boost or anything, but I think this series shows him in a light we never really got to see him in elsewhere, at least not to the same extent. When I think of Hansen I think of that whirlwind of redneck fury, the guy who shows up, wreaks havoc, then leaves. He did all that in Puerto Rico, but over the course of this feud he progressively started to show ass like I've never seen before. This is probably my favourite of his Puerto Rico performances, because he got to be both those guys: the Hansen we all know, but also the Hansen who was prepared to just cut and run. There's a discussion going on in another right now about selling in the broader sense of not just selling pain or how much something hurt, but selling a character, a wider situation -- a reaction from the wrestler that's supposed to convey an emotion and in turn elicit a reaction from the crowd/audience/viewer. Well, Hansen was amazing at all of that here. It might honestly be his best selling performance ever, in that broad, all-encompassing sense. First half of the match is more of a straight up brawl, with guys getting their face raked against the cage, forehead biting, bleeding, everything you'd come to expect from a cage match in Puerto Rico. Colon is just all over Hansen, jumping off the ropes with headbutts and punches, so Hansen punches him in the dick to take over. Like the last match he's only on top for a little while before Colon makes his comeback, but this time you get Hansen hitting a kind of desperation lariat to Colon's forehead, and afterwards both guys are left lying in a bloody heap. Then Colon goes after the leg, and the back half of this is just phenomenal. I've never seen a better build to the figure four. Everything Colon does is geared towards putting on that hold, while Hansen decides he's had quite enough of this and simply wants to be gone. Everything HE does is geared towards escaping. The best thing he can do now is get out of there before Colon breaks his leg. Colon is relentless and won't be denied. Hansen's offence is basically limited to pot shots to try and create some distance, but they're the stiffest fucking pot shots you'll see, whether it's a punch to the temple or a knee to the face. If he can't get out the door he'll try and scramble up and over the cage, and I really can't stress how amazing he was at putting across how desperately he wanted out of there. While selling the damage to his leg. Colon deserves credit for all of this as well, because if Hansen is gonna run for his life then the opponent better make it look like it's warranted, but man was Hansen unreal here. The bit where he takes off his boot and tries to bludgeon Colon with it was amazing on its own, but the fact he just tried to run out the door afterwards made it stick out all the more. It's Hansen. He just wellied somebody with a cowboy boot. And now he's running away?! That right there should tell you the kind of badass Colon is. Fucking hell this was great.

[dawho5]

I love how this plays off of the last match. When Hansen gets even the slightest whiff of Colon going after his leg, he immediately starts heading for the door at every opportunity. The progressively closer escape attempts are awesome. The other thing I love about all of that is how badass it makes Colon look. He has no interest in escaping. He is here to make Hansen pay. So he patiently works towards the figure four (again) and once he does get iton, he hangs onto it long enough so he can walk out of the cage at a leisurely pace. Right into a massive brawl that he immediately joins. I don't think I've ever seen a guy getting out of a cage look so much like a clear cut victory. It usually ends up looking more like survival, but here Colon and Hansen structure the match in such a way that Colon gets his definitive win over Hansen by hurting him enough to just stroll out of the cage. I'd call that pretty ingenious.