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Explore the people, places, events, achievements, struggles and stories that shaped our journey.
Movements, leaders, victories and the continuing fight for equality.
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Meet the people whose lives, choices and achievements shaped the journey.
Black towns, communities, institutions and places where history happened.
Moments that changed communities, movements, institutions and the nation.
In 1968 Shirley Chisholm became the first Black woman elected to the United States Congress. In 1972 she launched a campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, breaking another political barrier.
MORE →Reflects the personal views, recollections, and perspective of the author, Mike Davis.
This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985
 Hansen, c. 1985 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | John Stanley Hansen II[8] August 29, 1949[8] Knox City, Texas, U.S.[2] |
| Education | West Texas State University |
| Spouse | Yumi Hansen |
| Children | 4 |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name | Stan "The Lariat" Hansen[1][2] |
| Billed height | 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)[1][2][3] |
| Billed weight | 321 lb (146 kg; 22.9 st)[1][3][4] |
| Billed from | Borger, Texas[1] |
| Trained by | Dory Funk[2] Dory Funk Jr.[2] Terry Funk[2] |
| Debut | January 1, 1973[2] |
| Retired | January 28, 2001[5][6][7] |
John Stanley Hansen II[8] (born August 29, 1949),[8] best known as Stan "the Lariat" Hansen, is an American retired professional wrestler.
Hansen is known for his stiff wrestling style, which he attributed to his poor eyesight,[3][9] and for his gimmick as a loud, violent cowboy who wanted to fight everybody,[5][6] which he further emphasized by appearing in interviews with a cowboy hat, leather vest and bullrope while often chewing on tobacco.[7][10] Hansen became established as a massively successful and popular gaijin in Japanese professional wrestling where he eventually became more well-known and revered than he was in his native United States.[5][6] In Japan's AJPW promotion, he held seven different championships.[5][6] Overall he is a ten-time world champion.
Outside of wrestling Hansen played a small role in the movie No Holds Barred in 1989 and in 2011 he released his co-written biography, The Last Outlaw.
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Hansen played college football for the West Texas State Buffaloes.[1][10]
Hansen made his professional wrestling debut in 1973, grappling part-time while trying to make it as an American football player. The following year, he tried out for the Detroit Wheels the short-lived World Football League, but did not make the team, and so began wrestling full-time.[11][12] In 1975, Hansen first teamed with future partner Frank Goodish, who later adopted the ring name Bruiser Brody, while competing in Leroy McGuirk's Tri-State territory.[13]
Hansen made his first tour to Japan working for All Japan Pro Wrestling in September and October 1975. He feuded with Dutch wrestler Anton Geesink and the Great Kojika.
In 1976, Hansen made his debut for the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) and only two months after he began competing for the company, he began feuding with the WWF Heavyweight Champion Bruno Sammartino over the title.[1] During a title match, Hansen broke Sammartino's neck while they were wrestling[4] and it was from this incident that both Hansen and promoters claimed that Sammartino's injury came about from the enormous power of his lariat.[1][7][11] However, a botched powerslam is what actually caused Sammartino's injury.[3][11] After Sammartino recovered, Hansen faced him for the WWWF Heavyweight Championship once again, at Showdown at Shea, but was unsuccessful. He left the promotion in 1977.[1]
He returned in 1980, rekindling his feud with Sammartino and facing Pedro Morales and Andre the Giant on several occasions. He also developed a heated feud with the then-WWF Champion Bob Backlund which culminated in a steel cage match at Madison Square Garden.[14]
Hansen first came to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) in January 1977 through the booking of Vince McMahon Sr. With his "reputation" as the man who broke Bruno Sammartino's neck, Hansen quickly became a top heel, facing Antonio Inoki and other top New Japan stars like Seiji Sakaguchi and Tatsumi Fujinami. In addition, while touring Japan regularly, he faced top American wrestlers including Andre the Giant, Dusty Rhodes, Bob Backlund, and Hulk Hogan. Hansen established himself as a dominant force in Japan by competing in New Japan's MSG (Madison Square Garden) tournament between 1978 and 1981. Hansen would win the NWF World Title from Antonio Inoki on February 8, 1980, one of the only two wrestlers to dethrone Inoki during his seven-year reign. From November 21 to December 13, 1980, Hansen did a tour for NJPW, where he competed in the first MSG Tag League tournament (later renamed the G1 Tag League). He teamed with Hulk Hogan, but they failed to win. He returned that April to wrestle Antonio Inoki in an unsuccessful match. However, he defeated Inoki via countout in a MSG League match on May 20, 1981, after hitting a lariat on Inoki, knocking him off the apron. He returned for several more one-off shows until leaving the promotion in December 1981.[15]
Hansen returned at NJPW's Super Fight In Tokyo Dome event in 1990, where he had an infamous inter-promotional match against Vader. The match for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship saw Big Van Vader (representing New Japan, while Hansen represented All Japan) get struck in the nose during the entrances by Hansen's Bullrope, breaking it. Both men were known to use a stiff style of wrestling, resulting in a nasty exchange where each man threw legitimate punches, during which Hansen unintentionally poked Vader's left eye with his thumb during their brawl, causing the eye to pop out of its socket. After removing his mask, Vader pushed the eye back into its socket and held it in place with his eyelid. The match ended in a draw.[16] Hansen returned in June for a few more matches, teaming twice with Riki Choshu and once with The Pegasus Kid.[17]
In 1981, Hansen abruptly left NJPW to join All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW). While in AJPW, Hansen became the only man to pin Antonio Inoki and Giant Baba in championship singles matches. He continued wrestling from 1982 to 1999 in World's Strongest Tag Determination League. He wrestled primarily in tag matches, where he formed many teams with the likes of Bruiser Brody, Terry Gordy, Ted DiBiase, Genichiro Tenryu, Dan Spivey, Bobby Duncum Jr., and Big Van Vader. Hansen also engaged in a renowned brawl with André the Giant in Japan.
On April 13, 1990, the World Wrestling Federation and AJPW held a supershow called Wrestling Summit at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, in which Hansen lost to Hulk Hogan in the main event.[18] Hansen won his first Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship by defeating Terry Gordy on June 8, 1990, and wrestled a rematch in NJPW against Vader on June 12.[19]
Hansen competed in the American Wrestling Association (AWA) from 1985 to 1986. He won the World Heavyweight Championship on December 29, 1985, from Rick Martel.[1] On June 29, 1986, he no-showed a title defense against the number one contender Nick Bockwinkel due to disagreements with management, forcing the AWA to default the title to Bockwinkel.[3] Rumors suggest that Hansen was actually in the building that evening and had been informed by AWA promoter Verne Gagne of the pending loss to Bockwinkel. Hansen allegedly called All Japan Pro Wrestling president Giant Baba to ask if losing the championship was acceptable, but Baba had already lined up challengers for Hansen and did not permit Hansen to drop the championship. In the end, Hansen refused to drop the title to Bockwinkel and was stripped of the championship; Bockwinkel was given one of the tag team belts, which was then billed as the AWA World Heavyweight Championship due to Hansen still possessing the true title belt. Hansen immediately returned to Japan and defended the AWA World Heavyweight Championship, despite being stripped of it.[1][11] The AWA threatened legal action if Hansen continued to carry the belt and refer to himself as the organization's champion, so Hansen responded by running over the belt with his truck and mailing it back with the mud tracks still on it.[1][3][11] This chain of events was reviewed in an interview with Hansen at an NWA Legends convention, in which he expressed regret over the way he handled the situation and ultimately complimented Gagne.[11]
In late 1990, Hansen began appearing in World Championship Wrestling (WCW), feuding with Lex Luger over the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship. On October 27 at Halloween Havoc, Hansen defeated Luger to win the title, ending Luger's record-setting reign at 523 days.[1][20] On December 16 at Starrcade, Hansen lost the title back to Luger in a bullrope match. During this period, Hansen continued working tours for All Japan, teaming with Dan Spivey to finish second in the World's Strongest Tag Determination League in November and December. Hansen wrestled another rematch with Vader at the WrestleWar '91 pay-per-view in February 1991. On April 18, Hansen and Spivey won the AJPW World Tag Team Championship from Terry Gordy and Steve Williams, and teamed occasionally upon their return to WCW. In June, Hansen left WCW and returned full-time to All Japan after a disagreement over an idea to group him with The Desperados, a trio of bumbling cowboys looking for Hansen through a series of vignettes.[11] His last WCW match occurred on June 23 in Atlanta.[21] As a result of his departure, The Desperados' angle was dropped and the trio was quickly dissolved.[11]
In August 1993 Hansen made his Eastern Championship Wrestling (ECW) debut in Philadelphia. His first match he defeated ECW TV Champion Jimmy Snuka by disqualification. Hansen's last ECW appearance was at ECW UltraClash 1993 where he teamed with Terry Funk defeating Abdullah the Butcher and Kevin Sullivan by disqualification.
Upon his return to AJPW, Hansen began a major feud with Mitsuharu Misawa, during which time they traded the Triple Crown Championship between one another.[1] Following Giant Baba's death, Misawa became the new booker and quickly began de-emphasizing Hansen and other foreign talent, in favor of new native recruits such as Takao Omori and Yoshihiro Takayama.
In 2000, Misawa and all but two natives defected from the promotion and formed Pro Wrestling Noah (NOAH), although Hansen chose to remain loyal to AJPW instead of joining the talent exodus. Despite remaining with AJPW, Hansen's ongoing lumbago at the time began to worsen, which ultimately lead him to wrestle his final singles match on October 21, 2000, as part of a tournament for the vacant Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship.[11] Hansen lost the semi-final match to old partner Genichiro Tenryu, who went on to win the tournament and the title. His last match altogether was a six-man bout on the 28th, in which he, Steve Williams and Wolf Hawkfield lost to Johnny Smith, Yoshiaki Fujiwara and Masanobu Fuchi.
Hansen announced his retirement on January 28, 2001, during the Giant Baba Memorial Spectacular event.[5][6][7][22]
Soon after retiring, Hansen successfully underwent surgery on his back and knees, the latter of which were both replaced.[22] After recovering, he became the commissioner of AJPW's Pacific Wrestling Federation championship governing body, which saw him appear during Triple Crown and World Tag Team Championship matches to issue proclamations of the matches.[11] In July 2007, Hansen voluntarily resigned from the position, with Hiroshi Hase replacing him.[11]
On April 2, 2016, Hansen was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by his rival and friend Vader.
In 1989, Hansen had a small role in the World Wrestling Federation-produced movie No Holds Barred, which starred Hulk Hogan.[23]
Although he famously stated during his wrestling career that he has "9 kids",[24] Hansen has four children. He has an elder son John III, and daughter Elizabeth Hardee, from his first marriage.[10][22] He had two more children with his current wife Yumi: Shaver (born December 19, 1987), who played baseball at Baylor University before being drafted by the Seattle Mariners as the second pick in the sixth round of the 2009 MLB draft,[13][25] and Samuel (born February 21, 1991), who also played baseball for the University of Texas at Arlington.[13][26]
1 Hansen won the championship after Ted Turner purchased Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling from Jim Crockett Jr. and renamed the promotion World Championship Wrestling. Hansen's reign was also prior to the championship being renamed the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship.
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Source: Wikipedia. Article content is retrieved live through the MediaWiki API.
John Stanley Hansen II (born August 29, 1949), best known as Stan "the Lariat" Hansen, is an American retired professional wrestler. Hansen is known for his stiff wrestling style, which he attributed to his poor eyesight, and for his gimmick as a loud, violent cowboy who wanted to fight everybody, which he further emphasized by appearing in interviews with a cowboy hat, leather vest and bullrope while often chewing on tobacco. Hansen became established as a massively successful and popular gaijin in Japanese professional wrestling where he eventually became more well-known and revered than he was in his native United States. In Japan's AJPW promotion, he held seven different championships. Overall he is a ten-time world champion. Outside of wrestling Hansen played a small role in the movie No Holds Barred in 1989 and in 2011 he released his co-written biography, The Last Outlaw.
All Japan Pro-Wrestling (全日本プロレス, Zen Nihon Puroresu; operating as All Japan Pro-Wrestling Co., Ltd. (オールジャパン・プロレスリング株式会社, Ōru Japan puroresuringu Kabushiki-gaisha) and usually abbreviated as AJPW or All Japan) is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion. A promotion bult on the Ōdō (王道; "King's Road" or "Royal Road") style of wrestling, All Japan was founded on October 21, 1972 by Shohei "Giant" Baba after he and Antonio Inoki left the Japanese Wrestling Association to establish new promotions. Many wrestlers had left with Baba, with many more joining the following year when the JWA folded. From the mid-1970s, All Japan was firmly established as a contender for the largest wrestling promotion in Japan along with its rival New Japan Pro-Wrestling (founded by Inoki). Their roster had increased to include several wrestlers associated with the National Wrestling Alliance, such as Stan Hansen, Ric Flair, Terry Funk and Dory Funk Jr., and Harley Race among others. Their native talent consisted of Baba, as well as the Baba-heralded ace Jumbo Tsuruta, Genichiro Tenryu, junior wrestler Masanobu Fuchi and the defected NJPW wrestler Riki Choshu. As the 1990s began and Tenryu had split from All Japan to form the Super World of Sports (SWS) promotion, stars like Tsuruta and Fuchi gave way to a younger generation; including the Four Heavenly Kings (プロレスの四天王, Puroresu no shiten'nō; also called the Four Pillars of Heaven): Mitsuharu Misawa, Kenta Kobashi, Toshiaki Kawada and Akira Taue as well as Jun Akiyama, Tsuyoshi Kikuchi, and gaijin wrestler Steve Williams. These wrestlers, led to perhaps All Japan's most profitable period in the 1990s. Western journalists such as Dave Meltzer delivered high praise of All Japan and its wrestlers, including Misawa, Kobashi and Kawada. Several matches that include the Kings and others within All Japan in the 1990s were given five-stars or more by Meltzer, and some are even purported to be some of the greatest matches in wrestling history. In 1999, Giant Baba died and the promotion was run by his widow, Motoko. Misawa was named president but left in 2000 after disagreements with Motoko. Misawa created Pro Wrestling Noah and every single native wrestler besides Masanobu Fuchi and Toshiaki Kawada left All Japan. This led to a loss of All Japan's TV deal and a period of hardship for the company. In 2001, they entered a cross-promotion agreement with New Japan Pro-Wrestling which proved very successful, allowing All Japan to remain one of the larger promotions in the country, although now firmly behind NJPW. In January 2002, Keiji Muto defected to All Japan, and was officially appointed as its new president that September. He would then acquire the rights to the company and Baba family stock by early 2003. By mid-2005, All Japan's attendance had dropped and the promotion seemed to be in trouble again; but by 2007, All Japan had new sponsors and seemed to have recovered. With established wrestlers such as Muto and 2000s ace Suwama, as well as Satoshi Kojima, Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki providing experience and drawing power, younger wrestlers were given opportunities to develop. By 2010, those younger wrestlers were increasingly positioned to take on larger roles within the promotion. Although the promotion continued to operate without a major television deal, All Japan had maintained a continuous presence since its founding in 1972, making it one of Japan's longest-running wrestling promotions. Today, wrestlers such as Reiwa era ace Kento Miyahara, Yuma Aoyagi, Yuma Anzai and the Saito Brothers continue to represent All Japan nationally. All Japan is a member of the United Japan Pro-Wrestling association, with president Tsuyoki Fukuda being a director for the association; as such in UJPW, they have frequently collaborated with other wrestling promotions and freelance talents to boost their strengths.
Mitsuharu Misawa (三沢 光晴, Misawa Mitsuharu; born Mitsuharu Kotake (小竹 光晴), June 18, 1962 – June 13, 2009) was a Japanese professional wrestler and promoter. Regarded as one of the greatest wrestlers of all time, he is primarily known both his 18-year stint with All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), and his founding of Pro Wrestling Noah during the 2000 AJPW mass exodus. He was one quarter of the Four Heavenly Kings (プロレスの四天王, Puroresu no shiten'nō; also called the Four Pillars of Heaven) of AJPW, along with Kenta Kobashi, Toshiaki Kawada, and Akira Taue; the quartet's matches and ring-psychology would become the basis of the ōdō (王道), or King's Road style of wrestling. Debuting in 1981, Misawa became the second wrestler to assume the Tiger Mask persona, which he maintained until the end of the decade. After the departure of Genichiro Tenryu and his exodus, Misawa unmasked in May 1990 and began a rivalry with company ace Jumbo Tsuruta. At the behest of company president Giant Baba, Misawa would lead a team of young talents known as the Super Generation Army (超世代軍, Chō Sedai-gun), which saw many different variants throughout the 1990s, mainly involving Misawa and Kobashi. Following Misawa's victory over Tsuruta on June 8, 1990, AJPW sold out every Tokyo event they held into early 1996, and, as Tsuruta receded from the main event due to hepatitis C, Misawa was cemented as AJPW's new top star and ace. He won the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship from Stan Hansen in August 1992 and held it for the longest reign in its history; he later held the title four more times between 1995 and 1999. During this period, he became known as the Standard Bearer of Future Generations (超世代軍の旗手, Chō Sedai-gun no Kishu; literally "the Standard Bearer of the Super Generation Army"). Misawa remained atop AJPW throughout the 1990s. Following the death of Giant Baba in 1999, Misawa inherited his position, but conflicts with Baba's widow and majority shareholder Motoko led to his removal in May 2000. Misawa then led a mass exodus of the promotion's talent to form Pro Wrestling Noah, which was successful in the first half of the decade; as business declined and top star Kobashi temporarily retired in 2006 due to kidney cancer, Misawa continued to work a full-time schedule despite mounting injuries for the company's survival. He sought to mentor Naomichi Marufuji, Takashi Sugiura, and Go Shiozaki to be flagbearers for the promotion in spite of his age. On June 13, 2009, during a tag team match in Hiroshima with Shiozaki against Akitoshi Saito and Bison Smith, Misawa died after a backdrop suplex from Saito, and his death was attributed to the numerous injuries he had accrued for years before his death. Misawa is regarded by some as the greatest professional wrestler of all time, though the physical demands and consequences of the style in which he worked and the circumstances of his death have made his legacy (or at least that of ōdō) somewhat problematic. Misawa was an eight-time world champion and eight-time world tag team champion, having won the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship five times and the GHC Heavyweight Championship (which he was the inaugural holder of) three times. Fifty-three of the sixty-nine events at the Nippon Budokan that Misawa headlined were sellouts, a drawing record that has been compared to Bruno Sammartino's run at Madison Square Garden. Despite never working in the United States during the 1990s, Misawa had a significant influence upon independent wrestling through the popularity of his work among tape-traders in predominantly English-speaking countries. Misawa was named Wrestler of the Year by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (WON) on three occasions (1995, 1997 and 1999), and at the time of his death held the record for most WON five star matches, with 25, including one as Tiger Mask. Several of his matches have been dubbed some of the greatest of all time, including his match with Kawada on June 3, 1994, his match with Kenta Kobashi on March 1, 2003, and his and Kobashi's tag team match against Kawada and Taue (the Holy Demon Army) on June 9, 1995.
Daniel Eugene Spivey (born October 14, 1952) is an American retired professional wrestler best known under the ring names "Dangerous" Dan Spivey, Dangerous Dan, The Left Hand Man, Danny Spivey, Mr. America, and Waylon Mercy, initially working under the name Starship Eagle. Throughout his career, he has worked extensively for World Championship Wrestling, the World Wrestling Federation, and All Japan Pro Wrestling. He retired from wrestling in 1995 due to injuries and now works in alcoholism counseling in his native Florida. Spivey spent a lot of his career as part of various tag teams and is especially known in the U.S. for teaming with Sid Vicious and then with "Mean" Mark Callous as "The Skyscrapers" in WCW and teaming with Mike Rotunda to form The U.S. Express in the WWF. He started his career teaming with Starship Coyote, collectively known as "American Starship". In Japan he teamed with various wrestlers over the years winning the World Tag Team Championship with Stan Hansen and teaming with Johnny Ace for long periods of time. His last wrestling persona, Waylon Mercy, was inspired by Robert De Niro's portrayal of Max Cady in the 1991 remake of Cape Fear. While he only worked a few matches under that name, he later inspired the creation of the Bray Wyatt character as Spivey worked with Windham Rotunda to initially develop it.
Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.
MORE →Mae Jemison, aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1992.
