Stan Hansen was a different ballgame. I broke my neck wrestling him in Madison Square Garden. I spent a month in the hospital and for a while it was touch and go because the doctors told me I came within a millimeter of being paralyzed from the neck down.
When I broke my neck, I was told that I came within a millimeter of dying or being paralyzed from the neck down. When it happened, I was numb on one side. In spite of how serious they were telling me it was, I never took it seriously. I kept saying it's going to be OK, I trained too hard to get hurt. Which is silly.
When I was four or five, I had an older brother who got paralyzed from the neck down in junior high school. Some kid did a wrestling fall on him and hit his spine. We had to take care of him. I went from being the baby to not really being the baby anymore.
Better to be paralyzed from the neck down than the neck up
When I would go into Madison Square Garden, I wasn't the most popular guy. Madison Square Garden, there's 16,000 Puerto Ricans with knives and great radios and stuff.
We still haven't played Madison Square Garden. That's a benchmark. Something will have gone seriously wrong if we don't play Madison Square Garden for this album.
We're in Madison Square Garden, I can't let you beat me in Madison Square Garden, are you serious!?
I may be paralyzed from the waist down, but unlike Gray Davis, I'm not paralyzed from the neck up.
It's still one of the proudest moments in my career boxing at Madison Square Garden. Some fighters who have won titles and championships have never boxed at Madison Square Garden. For a little kid just off a council estate to do it was a dream come true.
In my day, I, myself, in my prime, in the late-'50s-mid-'70s I was about 270-275. After I broke my neck and I was in the hospital for a month or so, I dropped the weight to about 250 and I kept that weight until I retired.
I already achieved my dream by fighting at Madison Square Garden for my second pro fight. I felt like I won the world title already, and I only had two professional fights. Madison Square Garden stands alone as far as boxing venues are concerned, and I dream about going back there again.
I had actually hurt my neck, and because I went a while without getting it taken care of - it was pushing up against the back of my heart - and because I have heart issues, they thought it was this whole big deal. So I spent a good three days in the hospital, two nights in the ICU.
I broke my neck, it's a classic neck break from chin to chest. If I had been alone, I would probably be dead.
My abiding childhood memory is watching my uncle perform to thousands in Madison Square Garden. He wore a white suit and came down from the ceiling on a rope, and the crowd went crazy.
Every race is different. If you come down the home straight neck and neck, the crowd cheering for you can decide the race.
I spent a day in a neck brace on a hospital trolley after falling from a horse and cart in Ireland. All the nurses thought I was a traveler, which made me laugh. Who else comes into a hospital saying they've fallen off a horse and cart?
Stan Hansen is arguably the most popular, most famous, foreign wrestler in Japanese wrestling history. One of the absolute biggest names in wrestling.