On Brand Segunda Caida: Stan Hansen in ECW

How awesome would it have been to see Stan Hansen wrestling in a small building with only 500 or so other lunatics cheering him on? Stan Hansen was not a guy you could just go out and see on the indies working old man faded glory matches. He was a guy who started making a name for himself immediately and then just stayed in major feds right up until his early 50s retirement. The only opportunity anyone had to see Hansen work a small indie was a few dates in 1993, when he worked a handful of ECW shows. Seeing Stan Hansen at the ECW Arena would be like getting a straight injection of pure uncut joy, so I figured I would take a quick look at Hansen's quick look at the east coast independent wrestling scene.


Stan Hansen vs. Jimmy Snuka ECW 8/7/93 (Hardcore TV #19)

ER: This was only about 4 minutes, but really great. How cool must it have been to see *this* era Stan Hansen at Viking Hall? I would have been losing my mind. He's a big loud bully and I could have watched him shove Snuka around the ring for another 10 minutes. Snuka was 50 at this point but still unexpectedly a bump freak, as right out of the gate Hansen hits a hard shoulderblock, and then without any running momentum just hits a standing shoulderblock that sends Snuka backwards over the top to the floor, a cool way to integrate the Harley bump. Snuka obviously realizes who he's working - not that he had a choice - and throws punches at Hansen as hard as he's getting them. He is someone with enough guts and career clout that he can walk right through a nasty chair shot and keep fighting, and not get punished for not selling it. The chair shot was great, Hansen hitting him with an already unfolded chair and wrapping it perfectly around his head. Hansen drops perfect elbows and even wrecks Snuka with the western lariat! I wasn't really expecting that. Some of these older guys were getting good paychecks once Eddie Gilbert got the purse strings, I didn't actually expect Snuka to work so hard. Eddie runs in to break up the surefire finish, and then Hansen ragdolls "Freddie" Gilbert (which was Jerry Lawler's son Kevin playing Eddie's kid brother), and there's not much in wrestling I love more than Stan Hansen disposing of a dweeb.

Stan Hansen/Tito Santana vs. Don Muraco/Shane Douglas ECW 8/8/93 (Hardcore TV #21)

ER: Short but fun tag that may have actually been much longer than we actually saw. The match - as several of these Hardcore TV matches are - is interrupted with an "emergency announcement", which is a nice excuse to show Abdullah the Butcher highlights leading up to his tag match opposite Hansen. But they weirdly opt to just clip the match right in the middle, and I have no idea how much we missed. What we got, was good. Muraco is a fun stooge for Hansen (and it's amusing to see such a big guy beg off, but I get it), and I was really looking forward to Hansen just mauling Douglas, but we don't really get that at all. It's possible we got it during the break, but alas. What we do get is a fine FIP Tito performance, with Hansen doing a great job coming up with a couple ways to miss a potential hot tag. Hansen somehow always finds a way to surprise me, and he breaks out a really cool tragic timing spot: He comes in to rescue Tito, but Tito manages to surprisingly break free on his own, except now Hansen is getting admonished by the ref for getting in the ring just as Tito is actually getting to his corner. Hansen rushes back to the apron and swipes for the tag just as Muraco grabs Tito and tosses him back across the ring. Muraco throws an awesome headlock punch in this, but Tito's fired up comeback punches are really great. Sadly the whole damn locker room interferes at the exact moment of Hansen's hot tag, starting with that damned Eddie Gilbert. This match clearly had the bones of a really good match, and what we got was good, but it really feels like we missed out on a large chunk of the middle.

Stan Hansen vs. Don E. Allen/Herve Renesto ECW 8/8/93 (Hardcore TV #22)

ER: Tough draw for Twisted Steel & Sex Appeal. Hansen is an all time great squash match or handicap match worker, as he works fast enough to bounce back between two different guys, and he hits hard enough that whichever guy isn't eating a beating is still convincingly selling his prior beating. This is all a tornado of hard kicks, nasty stomps to the head, big beals, lethal back elbows, none of them by Twisted Steel OR Sex Appeal. Renesto threw a dropkick at one point, but it didn't slow down Hansen one bit and only made Renesto more of a target. The whole arena was flipping out for this massacre, and I love how Hansen throws his back elbow as a charging move, running at his opponent like he's hitting the lariat but instead decapitating him with a back elbow. Neither feels like a good option to take. Allen eats a nasty elbow shot while standing on the apron, and Hansen graciously brings him into the ring with a damn quick snap suplex. Allen came into the ring so fast it looked like he was thrown from a car. Allen almost wimps out of the lariat, flinching hard as Hansen grabs him by the ponytail and starts swinging the arm, but it landed. From the ring, Hansen grabs for Renesto on the floor after the match, but Renesto dodges, which just enrages Hansen who rushes to the floor and strangles Renesto with his bullrope, tying him to the ringpost by his neck.

Stan Hansen/Terry Funk vs. Abdullah the Butcher/Kevin Sullivan Ultra Clash 9/18/93

ER: Now this ruled. This was part of one of ECW's first supercards, and this is some legitimately big talent in one match. The whole thing is worked as a chaotic brawl, no tags and no attempt at order. Funk obviously thrives in this kind of environment and drags everybody else with him. Hansen mostly pairs off with Abby, and I like them as a pair because Abby doesn't budge on strikes, and Hansen doesn't hold back on strikes, so the whole time he's just throwing knuckle punches and clubbing arms and the hardest stomps possible to the back of Abby's head and Abby just takes the stiffest shots and occasionally stabs at him. Sullivan climbs up the scaffold to escape Funk(there was a Doug Gilbert/JT Smith scaffold match right before this match) and Funk naturally follows, and Sullivan starts punching him right in the head the second Funk climbs up close enough to get his head punched. Terry is the king, so of course he finds a few ways to fall down each level of the scaffolding, holding on and hanging, limbs dangling, dropping down bit by bit as he's getting attacked, before eventually dropping into the ring and onto his head. Funk wraps a chair around Abby's head and holds it there while burying his boot in Abby's back, while Hansen punches away at Abby, there's a fork stabbing that misses it's mark and becomes friendly fire, Funk panics and takes down the ref and starts beating the shit out of him, Abby slams Funk's face into the mat a bunch, the ROPES BREAK because they can't handle big as hell Hansen and Sullivan running hard into them, Eddie and Doug Gilbert run out for the DQ, and this was literally just 8 minutes of cool old dudes punching each other really hard in the head. That's never not going to be a win, people.