Match Review: Terry Funk vs. Stan Hansen - Sep 11, 1982

A precursor to my favorite match of all time (and the first match I reviewed here). The crowd loves Funk and chants "Terry" during his entire entrance. Hansen gets a different kind of reaction, more excited in fear than delight. The ladies with flowers can't even get out of the ring before Hansen bumrushes Funk. They bowl over one of them in the chase, starting us with prompt chaos.

The ref tries to keep the two apart until the bell rings. Hansen immediately drives Funk into the ropes and starts to lay into him with chops and clubbing blows. Funk's selling really is over the top, but not in a cartoonish way to clown on Hansen. It makes Hansen looks like the biggest monster in the world. Funk isn't afraid of Hansen either, he fires right back at him with stiff jabs and Hansen's first bump gets the crowd to pop.

Hansen actually backs away from the ropes and lets Funk get back in without a cheap shot at one point. Funk exits right back out after one body slam. No courtesy this time around from Hansen who boots Funk's ribs as Funk comes back through the ropes. Hansen drops two knees on Funk's head. Funk's hand shakes but the rest of him is eerily still.

Any offense that Funk lands gets a huge reaction. Funk and Hansen roll on the mat. It's not matwork, it's the two of them trying to roll on top of the other so they can rain down blows. Hansen clubs Funk's chest and Funk boxes Hansen's ears. Even that relative lull doesn't quiet the crowd and a backdrop by Funk makes them roar. Funk later trips Hansen and tries a spinning toe hold to little success. The crowd wanted that one.

Hansen beats the hell out of Funk until he falls through the ropes. Funk grabs a chair from ringside and blindly throws it over his head into the ring. Stan Hansen catches it with one hand then immediately chucks it Funk's back. There's no deep meaning to that spot, but it made me laugh and made Hansen look even more bad ass.

Funk shoves Hansen into the ref, who takes a pretty poor KO bump even by ref standards. A second ref pops in only for Funk to throw him aside too. Hansen has Funk on his back and punches him in the forehead a handful of times until that second ref gets involved again. Bad choice, because Hansen irish whips him and then flattens the poor guy with a lariat.

Funk rolls out of the way of an elbow drop. The two Texans each have a handful of the other's hair. Their free hands trade punches until another wrestler sneaks in behind Funk. He's facing away so I can't see who it is, nor do I speak Japanese or know enough about early 80's AJPW to tell you who it is from context clues.This interloper takes Funk's arms and pins them back. Next, and this is key, he actually gets down on one knee while holding Funk, in case Funk tries to duck. That's a rare sight.  Hansen hits the ropes and lariats the helpless Funk. Funk rolls out of the ring and the original ref begins a count out. Hansen tries to drag Funk back in but the ref finishes his count and calls the match. The ref wants to raise Hansen's arm in victory, but he's not having it. Hansen stomps on Funk again and again then takes his rage out on some poor trainees until Giant Baba comes out for the save.

Match Rating: ***3/4. It's a hell of a match for what it is, but it never becomes the absurdly fun and violent spectacle of their 4/14/83 draw. Funk's selling for Hansen continues to be maybe my favorite thing in all of wrestling. The biggest spots in this are probably a couple of backdrops and bodyslams, yet those few moves get massive reactions.