Athletes - Stan Hansen

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	Athletes - Stan Hansen

Stan Hansen (born John Stanley Hansen) is a former professional wrestler famous for his cowboy hat and his tobacco chew that he spit on his opponents. He currently works as an on screen persona for All Japan Pro Wrestling.

Career

Stan Hansen started wrestling in 1973. He wrestled in the World Wide Wrestling Federation and achieved his first amount of infamy by breaking Bruno Sammartino's neck. It was from this incident that Hansen - and promoters who booked him - claimed enormous power for his Lariat move, although what had caused Bruno's broken neck was actually a botched bodyslam.

In the mid to late 1970's, Hansen wrestled in Georgia Championship Wrestling where he teamed with Tommy Rich and Ole Anderson. He also made forays into New Japan Pro Wrestling, where he feuded with its top star, Antonio Inoki. In 1981, however, Hansen abruptly jumped to All Japan Pro Wrestling, which remained his foreign affiliation until his retirement. Hansen is the only man to pin Inoki and Giant Baba in singles matches for titles.

He wrestled in the American Wrestling Association in 1985 and 1986 and won their World Title. He no-showed a title defense on June 29, 1986 forcing the AWA to default the title to his opponent, Nick Bockwinkel. Hansen was in the building that night and had been informed by AWA promoter Verne Gagne that night of the pending loss to Bockwinkel. Rumors say Hansen called All Japan Pro Wrestling president Giant Baba to ask if this was acceptable. Baba had already lined up challengers for Hansen and thus said no. Hansen was given the option of dropping the title to Bockwinkel or being stripped, Hansen chose the latter. Hansen returned to Japan and defended the AWA title there. Due to the fact Hansen had the physical title belt a new one had to be made. To compensate, Bockwinkel was given one of the tag team titles the night the title was stripped.

He wrestled most of his latter career in All Japan, where he formed teams with Bruiser Brody, Terry Gordy, Ted DiBiase and Genichiro Tenryu.

In 1990, Hansen wrestled in World Championship Wrestling and feuded with Lex Luger over the United States Title while it was still under the banner of the NWA. From there Hansen continued to trade the Triple Crown with Mitsuharu Misawa and others.

Hansen's last match was in 2000, during a tournament for the vacant Triple Crown, a semifinal match against the returning Tenryu. He officially retired later in the year and in 2001 he became President (Commissioner) of All Japan's Pacific Wrestling Federation title governing body.

Profile

Height: 6 ft 4 in (192 cm)
Weight: 321 lb (146 kg)
Date of birth: October 12, 1949
Town of birth: Borger, Texas
Trained by: Dory Funk
Debut: 1973
Managers: Larry Sharpe, Freddie Blassie, Buck Robley
Nickname: The Lariat

Finishers and signature moves

Western Lariat / Lariat
Elbow drop

Championships and accomplishments

All Japan Pro Wrestling

4-Time AJPW Triple Crown World Heavyweight Champion
1-Time NWA International Heavyweight Champion
3-Time PWF Heavyweight Champion
1-Time AJPW United National Champion
4-Time PWF Tag Team Champion (with Ted DiBiase
twice, Bruiser Brody
once and Austin Idol
once)
1-Time AJPW International Tag Team Champion (with Ron Bass
)
9-Time AJPW Unified Tag Team Champion (with Gary Albright
once, Dan Spivey
once, Terry Gordy
3 times, Genichiro Tenryu 3 times and Ted DiBiase once)

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Stan Hansen ]

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