[1990-10-04-AJPW-October Giant Series] Akira Taue vs Stan Hansen

[Ma Stump Puller]

A pretty fascinating baby-Taue match that has only recently been aired in full. Well ok, it's not THAT fascinating once the match starts but still. The two do a lot of big-man stuff as they tussle in a collar and elbow for about a minute or so until hitting the ropes, having Hansen just say random gibberish to pop the crowd. Taue is surprisingly successful with a side headlock for pretty much the entire first half of this and I'd say Hansen does well enough trying to get it over; when he eventually gets to the corner ropes to break out of the first one he acts frazzled and agitated over the whole affair, immediately running back into Taue's clinch and getting stuck back in another headlock as punishment for being reckless. They tease Hansen going for the Choshu backdrop counter out of it a couple of times but just isn't able to really do so due to presumably Taue's sumo-induced base strength, letting him keep control of the hold even despite being lifted off his feet ever so slightly. Hansen logically then tries to break the hold by trying to use blunt force by attempting to move Taue's hands away from his head and is also slightly successful at this before getting shoved back to the mat again, firmly being outclassed. It's not exactly the most compelling work in the world but it definitely contains within itself a endearing look here at Hansen's ability to make Taue look so strong out of something as simple as being incapable of getting out of a headlock. Compare with their 1989 match where Hansen squashed Taue in a couple of minutes and you can definitely see the improvements already before any real fancy work is performed, Taue is much more of a threat and Hansen is cognisant to showcase that visually for a long duration of the match.

Hansen's explosion of violence as soon as he gets the rope break is really well done, with him hammering at Taue's head with forearms and dragging him outside for a small scuffle involving chairs and choking. Taue ends up miraculously snapping back on the headlock due to some random Misawa-lite forearms of his own. This time Hansen is a bit more prepared for the headlock, using a particularly nasty side neck crank to peel Taue away that felt shockingly technical for a guy who's main gimmick was being a wild cowboy. Most of the second half is focused around Hansen's strikes, mainly on his opponent's bandaged forehead. He throws in some decent power moves to truly exaggerate his dominance, multiple scoop slams and elbow drops to Taue's head to boot. Taue gets in a couple of neat comebacks that are noticeably very uncreative; he tries for Misawa's forearms again, he does Hansen's scoop slams and elbow drops right after he's just done them, hell he even throws in a Hogan leg drop right after for a near fall lol. His rookie tendencies bite him again as he attempts an suplex on his far larger opponent and inevitably pays for it with a weird modified suplex off the ropes and a DDT, but Taue hits the ropes. Hansen primes the crowd for a Western Lariat, it's only Taue's bad instincts (throwing Hansen off the ropes and attempting a shoulder charge when he knew the Lariat was coming!) that let him land the move for the big finish.

This was a fairly low-impact match but had a ton of strong psychology that, led by Hansen, gives Taue a good platform to showcase his early abilities at doing a more protracted 70's style showing. I think Taue himself also does a decent job here, bumping and selling well when it mattered while also showcasing that freakish strength that'll be his whole shtick later on. His lack of creativity is a fascinating bit and shows that he isn't quite there yet; he can certainly pretend to be Misawa with his forearm shots or Hansen with his slams, that doesn't really make him either of them in terms of success though and it shows given how he eventually fails with both approaches. He's trying to lend from Jumbo with the headlock sthick to boot and while it gives him the most success you clearly see that he has no gameplan beyond that in-match and has yet to truly find his niche yet. Either way it's a really interesting singles performance from both.