Stan Hansen looks like such a boss hoss and has no shame in whipping at the Japanese fans with his lariato. There's such strong crowd energy heading into this match. They slug it out for a while and when Kawada starts with the kicks, Hansen retaliates with one of his own. Kawada's selling and facials are great throughout and when Hansen smells blood, he immediately begins targeting the leg. It's great to see Hansen relax into the legwork, either on the mat or shinbreaking Kawada on the guardrail. Kawada sacrifices his bum leg to fire back at Hansen, but that only pisses Hansen off more, leading to a nasty cowshit kick and a gutwrench suplex. Hansen sells strong for Kawada after a big kick folds Hansen over the guardrail. Kawada controls for a while, hits a great elbow drop from the apron to the floor, peppers Hansen with machine gun elbows.
The crowd energy builds around the potential for Hansen's lariat. Several times during the match, you can hear the crowd getting excited for Hansen to signal for the lariat but instead, he kicks or elbows him, and the crowd dies down. Hansen's defense is solid, as he blocks a kick with his forearm, or quickly tosses Kawada away when he goes for the Stretch Plum. Kawada instead chops out his legs with kicks and locks in the dragon sleeper, switching arms to prevent Hansen from escaping, until they collapse into the ropes. Awesome. When Hansen finally calls for the lariat, the crowd heats up and he connects with the enzui lariat but he purposely breaks the hold. Throws a little water onto the fire and I get why he doesn't want to end it that way. Hansen's a man. He wants you to see the lariat coming. Great jackknife powerbomb before he just murders Kawada with his lariato. I probably love this match a lot more than most people. Lots of ups and tons as far as crowd energy goes, but it's a smartly worked match for Hansen and one of his best solo performances.
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