Stan Hansen And His Bullrope To Be Inducted Into WWE Hall Of Fame With Class Of 2016

The weekend of WrestleMania 32 is going to be one of the biggest for WWE in years for a number of reasons. Not only will the gigantic pay-per-view happen on Sunday. NXT Takeover: Dallas happen will on Friday, and on Saturday night, the 2016 class will head into the WWE Hall of Fame. Another inductee has been named, and Stan Hansen may be one of the most deserving yet.

He was known for his sheer strength, brutality, and letting tobacco chaw spill down his chin and chest as he wrestled. Stan Hansen was nicknamed “The Lariat,” and it was because of the gigantic clothesline he would deliver to his opponents to finish him off.

On Monday afternoon, WWE.com officially announced that Hansen would be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame with the rest of the 2016 class.

Hansen marks the sixth confirmed name into the 2016 class for the WWE Hall of Fame. It is expected that he will be the last one, as that’s a rather great and full class, but there is always the possibility that WWE could announce another person.

Sports Navi was the first to announce of Hansen’s induction, and that shouldn’t be overly surprising that it was revealed by Yahoo Japan. Most of Hansen’s career took place in Japan, where he was and still is seen as a wrestling legend.

Some of his best and most notorious battles came against the one and only Hulk Hogan. Oddly enough, though, he had also spent time being the tag team partner of Hogan while in New Japan Pro Wrestling as well.

Hansen spent a very small amount of time in WWE (then WWF), as he was only with the company in 1976 and then again from 1980-1981.

Stan Hansen pretty much started out his career in Japan and graced the wrestling fans in the United States with his presence for a little while before heading back to NJPW. He was well known for carrying his bullrope to the ring and using it when things didn’t quite go his way.

Longtime wrestling fans remember Stan Hansen for many reasons, but a big one came in 1976 when he had a match at Madison Square Garden. As Bleacher Report remembers, that was when Hansen broke the neck of legend Bruno Sammartino.

Other fans won’t forget how he won the AWA World Championship from Rick Martel in 1985. Sure, he never actually lost the title, but he gave it up by driving over it in his pick-up truck. There are many other great moments from his career that ended with his retirement in 2001.

The full 2016 class going into the WWE Hall of Fame now stands as.

• Sting
• Stan Hansen
• The Godfather
• Jacqueline Moore
• Big Boss Man
• Fabulous Freebirds (Michael “PS” Hayes, Terry Gordy, Jimmy Garvin, Buddy Roberts, Badstreet)

Obviously, Sting is leading the class and is the key focus of this year’s WWE Hall of Fame ceremony happening the night before WrestleMania 32. That’s not to take anything away from all of the others in the class, though, as they’re all worthy of induction.

Every single 2016 inductee is long overdue for going into the WWE Hall of Fame, and it should make for an amazing night of speeches, memories, and stories.

While there are the fun, the legends, the icons, and more in the 2016 WWE Hall of Fame class, Stan Hansen brings the brutality. His incredibly violent and unique style in the ring made him well-known around the world even though he spent very little time in WWE (WWF), and he’s going into the hall where he belongs.

[Image via WWE]