10 Times Wrestlers Held Championship Belts Hostage

8. Stan Hansen - AWA World Heavyweight Championship

Tessa Blanchard Impact Champion
WWE

Stan Hansen had multiple paymasters to consider at the peak of his drawing powers in the mid-1980s, but it was easy to see why he elected to protect the investment made in him by All Japan Pro Wrestling rather than Verne Gagne's American Wrestling Association.

By 1986, he was earning substantially more working lucrative tours for the AJPW than trying to keep a schedule requested of him at home, but Gagne's attraction to his drawing power resulted in a leaning on Hansen all the same. The company hadn't yet been entirely strip-mined by Vince McMahon's insurgent World Wrestling Federation when 'The Lariat' became the Heavyweight Champion, but they didn't need an AWOL titleholder as the competition ramped up.

When that materialised, Gagne moved to get the title off Hansen as quick as he could, but his Champion was too busy making much better money defending it in Japan. Things turned uglier from here - Gagne ran vignettes lambasting Hansen as a coward for not facing Bockwinkel on home soil, resulting in him eventually receiving the physical belt back in tatters after Hansen - for real - ran over it with his truck.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett