[1994-05-31-AJPW] Stan Hansen vs Tamon Honda

[Ma Stump Puller]

Naturally this is a squash, but Hansen is good enough that he is able to get the crowd properly into this with Honda's few big pushes and makes this into probably the best rookie vs vet showings of this entire card, because the gimmick was essentially just that bar the main event. Honda is SUPER green and you can tell that just by seeing the generic rookie offence moves they teach: the top rope knee drop, the body press from the turnbuckle, crappy chest forearms, scoop slam, you name it. Hansen does well at selling Honda's offence not by flipping all over or flailing, but solid match details, like him having to rope break off a tight headlock instead of powering out, which later gets him annoyed enough to start throwing strikes when Honda is able to catch him again in a headlock and by extension conceding the technical stuff, or Honda legitimately getting the best of Hansen in a brawl which annoys him so much that he smacks Honda with a row of chairs: all of these are neatly packed here alongside Hansen beating him down a lot, but it never feels contrived or hasty, which is always a positive of his matches. There's never a feeling that Hansen is "giving" Honda space to actually do stuff. 

There's some great strength spots as well for Honda as he gets a backdrop and some scoop slams on his far larger opponent, which impresses the crowd a lot. He misses the top rope knee drop, Hansen works on the leg until the ref gets in the way, leading for one last big bit of offence from Honda: namely, a DDT. There's a great sell at the end where Hansen counters the backdrop attempt right after this and hits his own. Afterwards, he sits there acting dazed and you almost think he was thankful he countered that: Honda the rookie managed to put Hansen in a little bit of danger, even despite his immense inexperience. He realises what he needs to do, and sets up a Western Lariat; game over. This is a short but very well put together match that makes Honda look great, even despite his near complete lack of moves beyond some basic stuff. Hansen naturally carries Honda to this bygone conclusion, but for what it's worth, Honda looks sharp and motivated, a far cry from his very dire AJPW stuff afterwards. Definitely worth seeing even as a oddity outing, but it's also a solid example of Hansen getting probably Honda's best outing in his early career (that was actually up to Honda, not just him being the pin eater in a six-man).