John Stanley Hansen II (born August 29, 1949) is a retired American Professional Wrestler from Texas. He is best known for his long and very successful career in Japan. He started his career in the 1970s in the Funk family's Western States Wrestling promotion in Amarillo, TX. He first made his name by breaking WWWF World Heavyweight Champion
Bruno Sammartino's neck with his "Lariat" clotheslinenote Among his many achievements, he is a former AWA World Heavyweight Champion, a former four-time All Japan Pro Wrestling Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion, a former eight-time All Japan World Tag Team Champion, holding the belts 2x w/Terry Gordy, 3x w/Genichiro Tenryu, 1x w/Dan Spivey, 1x w/Ted DiBiase and 1x w/Gary Albright, and a former NWA/WCW United States Heavyweight Champion. He is also on the list of wrestlers who bodyslammed André the Giant prior to Hulk Hogan doing it at WrestleMania III, doing the deed in All Japan Pro Wrestling in the early 1980s. (Though Hogan also did it several times before that match, as well.)
He has four children: a son and daughter (John Stanley Hansen III and Elizabeth Paige Hardee) from his first marriage; as well as two sons with his second wife Yumi (Shaver and Samuel).
"The Bad Tropes from Borger, TX":
- Affectionate Parody: Stan Hansen Hirota at NEO The Last Holy Fight in Itabashi Vol. 2 and Swann Hansen in Dragon Gate.
- Americans Are Cowboys: Hat, boots, everything
- Arch-Enemy: Bruno Sammartino, Terry Funk and Dory Funk Jr., Vader, Jumbo Tsuruta, "Dr. Death" Steve Williams, Mitsuharu Misawa, Kenta Kobashi
- Bash Brothers: With Bruiser Brody, Jimmy Snuka, Terry Gordy, Ted DiBiase, Gary Albright, Dan Spivey, John Nord
- Biography: His autobiography The Last Outlaw
- Blind Without 'Em: Hansen had very poor eyesight, but couldn't wear his glasses in the ring and refused to wear contacts. His in-ring stiffness sometime came from the fact that he couldn't always see where he was going, and sometimes misjudged distances and hit his opponents much harder than he meant to.
- Captain Ersatz: As to be expected, Fire Pro Wrestling has one of him.
- Catchphrase: "HEWWWWWWWWW!"
- Establishing Character Moment: Breaking Bruno Sammartino's neck made him an instant star.
- Everything is Big in Texas
- Expy:
- Prior to his transformation into one half of The Acolytes, Bradshaw (as Justin "Hawk" Bradshaw) wrestled straight out of Hansen, even using the Lariat and doing the "HEWWWWW!"
- While he's more of a Hoax Hogan expy, Bass Armstrong from Dead or Alive also takes some cues from Stan, being a big old Texan who dresses up as a cowboy from time to time, and dishes out lariats like his opponents were asking for it.
- Eye Scream: Once punched Vader so hard one of his eyes popped out of its socket. Fortunately for Vader, his eyelid kept it in, and he was able to pop it back in to its socket.
- Finishing Move: The Lariat (clothesline), Brazos Valley Backbreaker (Boston Crab)
- Foreign Wrestling Heel: In New Japan Pro-Wrestling and All Japan Pro Wrestling. Otherwise in the States he was just a heel.
- Lightning Bruiser: Big, strong, tough and, in Japan, even threw a dropkick or two. Taking it further, later on he was even known to bust out a suicide dive.
- Red Baron: "The Lariat," "The Bad Man from Borger, TX," (in Japan): "Fuchinkan" (Japanese for "unsinkable battleship")
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
- Left WCW in 1991 because he didn't want any part of the angle of the Desperados (Memphis veteran Dutch Mantell, Black Bart and Deadeye Dick (Randy Culley, aka Moondog Rex/Original Demolition Smash)) searching for him in the Old West.note Apart from a few appearances in ECW, Hansen never returned to the U.S. after this.
- Blatantly screwed over the AWA when he was brought in in the late 80s, when attendance was plunging and the company was looking to inject some fresh faces into their main event scene. This despite the fact that he was notoriously unreliable when working for other promotions. He soon won the AWA World Heavyweight title (seen in his picture above), but sure enough, a dispute with Verne Gagne led him to depart for Japan while refusing to drop the belt. He continued to refer to himself as the AWA World Champion in his appearances until the threat of a lawsuit finally convinced him to return the belt. Legend has it that he ran over the belt with a pickup truck and mailed it back to Gagne, tire treads and all.
- Tag Team: The Miracle Power Combination, with Bruiser Brody
