So I obviously haven't written anything in a few months. I HAVE been watching quite a bit, though. My motivation to write about it has basically been non-existent, but I figure if anything is going to get me back into the swing of things, it's Hansen.
Stan Hansen v Kenta Kobashi (All Japan Pro Wrestling, 7/29/93)
Well at this point I'm pretty much convinced Stan Hansen is the best wrestler that's ever lived. I literally don't remember ever reading anything that wasn't praise for this, and I'd assume it's still generally considered the best match of Stan's career. These days I'd rather watch him and Kawada beat the ever loving shit out of each other or see him play borderline-underdog babyface to Andre the Giant, but this is still a Hell of a fight that's better than 90% of anything in the history of pro-wrestling. Hansen is so great here. He gives Kobashi more of the match than I had remembered, but Kobashi is really good in his own right at filling the time. He goes Hell on wheels practically from the jump, and Hansen is almost left fighting an uphill battle the entire match. Match doesn't really tell the same story as Jumbo/Misawa from 9/1/90, but I got the same vibe from Hansen that I did from Jumbo at a few points -- he's a man that's been at the top of the food chain for a long ass time, and here comes this young guy trying to knock him off his perch. He had already come close earlier in the year, and he's coming close again. This is Hansen trying to hang on to his place in the world. Everything Hansen does looks like it's just about the stiffest version of it possible. For his first big transition/breakthrough he catches Kobashi coming into the corner with a boot to the face, and within minutes Kobashi's cheekbone is swollen and bruised. Then after the boot he goes and powerbombs him on the fucking concrete. His splash off the middle rope looks like it would obliterate your ribcage. Then there's the lariat, which might've been the nastiest lariat in the history of forever. Still, this is Hansen mostly fighting from the bottom, and for a guy that is maybe the best pure shitkicker in wrestling history, it's a tremendous performance and something you don't get to see from him all that often.
don't know if it'll help you motivation along any further but i've been e-mailing myself your old stuff and going back through your archives.. - it's been a fun ride so far! - did you know Big Josh and Arn did a 10-min. time-limit draw on Main Event '91?
ReplyDeleteThat's really cool. Glad to hear someone gets at least something out of this stuff.
ReplyDeleteActually had no idea they had another match together. Borne has been awesome as Doink in all of the stuff I've been watching recently, so I'll probably seek out the Arn match soon.
here's my shorthand write-up of it on my ongoing ballot for my blog's WCW Main Event '91 project:
ReplyDeleteBig Josh vs. Arn Anderson - 5/5
Seeing some Doink the Clown this year and his run here I admire Matt Bourne as he always made chicken salad out of chicken shit. I loved Arn extending his hand to shake pre-match and Josh squeezing it and Arn's eyes bugging out. Arn stalled out the 10 min. time-limit not engaging a lot but there were some neat moments to witness, although, to be fair, some lame ones also, like Arn not selling a backdrop on the floor. After the episode ends whoever recorded these left it on TBS and we got the first 10 min. or so of Girl Happy (1965) so that was an unforeseen perk.