This has been heralded by one of the best NJPW matches of the 80's. I'll hold my hands up and admit I was never a huge fan of Andre, but after recently watching some of his pre-WWF matches, I have a lot of respect for him, as I do Hogan, who with a full head of beautiful blond locks was a great worker, especially in Japan. But Hogan wasn't fighting Andre here. Stan Hansen was. Stan Hansen doesn't have beautiful lockers. He's mean and ugly and that's what makes him beautiful.
This match is a rare type for Hansen, because he plays a babyface underdog. The pace for the match is dictated as soon as Hansen goes for Andre as he enters the ring, only to be met by Andre's boot to his face. The crowd are wild the whole match and they really go nuts at the little things - like when Hansen armdrags Andre the crowd jump out of there seats. There's a great moment where Hansen clothelines Andre and Andre rolls out the ring, but Hansen sells the aftermath of the clothesline amazingly by collapsing into the ropes and dropping. The bumps in this match are crazy from both competitors and Hansen does a great job of giving all he has. He just throws everything he has at Andre and does everything he can to hurt him, in turn Andre completely ragdolls Hansen at times but Hansen keeps coming back for more. In the end, no one can separate these 2 Goliath's and the officials even take a beating trying to split them up after Andre gets his bad self DQ'd.
I love seeing Stan Hansen in this kind of spot. Undoubtedly one of the toughest bastards to ever set foot in a wrestling ring.
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