Magnum T.A.: What If The Car Wreck Never Occurred?
Let us take a trip back through time to over 35 years ago. In 1986, the wrestling landscape was a completely different monster than what we know today. However, one must admit that the introduction of AEW and the resurrection of the NWA have started to give a resurgence to the idea of wrestling territories once again.
In 1986, the World Wrestling Federation was not quite the juggernaut it would become, but it was clearly on its way. Its main competitor then was the Jim Crockett Promotions arm of the National Wrestling Alliance. While these two were the biggest wrestling companies in North America, Verne Gagne’s AWA and Bill Watts’ UWF (previously Mid-South Wrestling) were still having a degree of success though nowhere near the level of the other two.
Many consider 1986 the greatest year in Jim Crockett Promotions’ vast history and with good reason. It was such a memorable and eventful year that just this year, Tony Schiavone is using his podcast What Happened When with Conrad Thompson to revisit the year week by week. Looking back, it’s easy to see why it was such a successful year for the company. Dusty Rhodes was the head booker at the height of his creativity, and the roster was loaded. Featuring the World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair and the newly formed Four Horsemen of Arn and Ole Anderson, Tully Blanchard and their manager James J. Dillon ran roughshod over the promotion, that was simply the tip of the iceberg. You also had the Dusty still performing at a high level, the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express, Jim Cornette’s Midnight Express duo of Dennis Condrey & Bobby Eaton, the Russian conglomerate featuring Krusher Khruschev (Barry Darsow, the future Demolition Smash and Repo Man), Ivan Koloff and his nephew Nikita. Almost too many to name, but one name still managed to stand out amongst a roster of legitimate Hall of Famers, that man being Terry Allen, better known to fans as Magnum TA.
Magnum T.A. Is Born
While Allen had been in the business since the late ‘70s, it was not until he made a move from Championship Wrestling From Florida (another territory that by the mid-80s had seen much better days, unfortunately leading to the suicide of owner/booker Eddie Graham in January of 1985) to Mid-South Wrestling that he began to come into his own fully. The rumour is that none other than Andre The Giant suggested that Allen use the name ‘Magnum T.A.’ due to his resemblance to Tom Selleck, star of the insanely popular Magnum P.I. television show. He would gain notoriety in MSW before his biggest fame came when he signed with JCP in 1984. He would make a splash quickly, picking up the United States Championship from Wahoo McDaniel in early ’85 before moving on to the feud that would define his legacy.
Magnum would embark upon a feud with the as-yet-named Four Horsemen, particularly with Tully Blanchard for Magnum’s United States Championship. The two would have arguably the hottest feud of the year leading into what is still considered by many to be the greatest “I Quit” match in history at Starrcade 1985. Considering this was the night that Dusty Rhodes dethroned Ric Flair for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship (albeit in a Dusty finish as it would later come to be known), the fact that people remember the match between Magnum and Tully more fondly speaks volumes.
Coming into 1986, Tully would move more into a feud with Dusty Rhodes himself after Tully fired Baby Doll, and she aligned herself with Dusty, Magnum would slowly transition into a feud with the powerhouse Russian Nikita Koloff. Unlike today, much of what was aired on television from wrestling companies, especially in JCP, was simply promos and enhancement matches. This allowed a slow-burning feud between Magnum and Nikita. The story would be that Nikita challenged Magnum to show that he, as a Russian athlete, was superior to Magnum in every way. Magnum would accept the challenge as the stand-up babyface, but Nikita would continue to duck him at every turn. While Nikita’s promo skills were subpar, to say the least (not helped by the fact that he was actually from Minnesota and not Russian in the slightest), Magnum had an entrancing promo style. He was always straight with the viewer, looking directly into the camera with a serious look as he spoke the words that genuinely seemed from the heart. Given how close he was to Dusty Rhodes in real life, I think it is safe to say that the American Dream certainly affected Magnum’s promo style without taking anything away from the talent he brought to the table.
Following months of a slow burn, the two would finally meet for a contract signing in which Magnum brought his mother along while Nikita brought his ‘Uncle’ Ivan, the Russian Bear. Nikita would insult Magnum’s mother resulting in the Champion losing his temper and going off the deep end. When NWA President Bob Geigel (the most charismatic man you will ever see!) chose to tell Magnum that his actions were inappropriate, Magnum accosted him, resulting in him being stripped of the Championship.
What would follow was a Best-of-Seven series that laid the groundwork for future similar scenarios, perfected in WCW by Chris Benoit and Booker T, then later used between Booker T and John Cena in the WWE. Nikita would take an early 3-0 lead before Magnum would make a grand comeback resulting in a tie-breaking seventh match. Nikita would prevail in the end, going off to defend the United States Championship against new challengers, while Magnum was poised for bigger things.
The Car Wreck
Or so it would seem. Unfortunately, on October 14, 1986, Magnum would be involved in a horrific car wreck that prematurely ended his career and nearly his life. If not for his physical condition being that of a star wrestler, he likely would have died that night. He was paralyzed for months, and doctors feared he might never walk again. Thankfully he would eventually make a strong enough recovery to live a decent life, though he would never wrestle again. Due to this, the decision was made to turn the dastardly heel Nikita Koloff into a babyface to take Magnum’s place against Ric Flair. As the story went, Nikita had a change of heart out of his respect for Magnum following the wars they had been through earlier in the year. But one has to wonder, how would the rest of 1986 turn out for Jim Crockett Promotions, and what could have been had Magnum not crashed that fateful night?
Magnum receiving treatment in the hospital.
If The Accident Had Never Occurred: Magnum’s Run Re-Imagined
Everyone knows that Magnum TA was intended to be the next significant challenger for Ric Flair’s NWA World Heavyweight Championship or ‘Big Gold’ as it was known after being introduced earlier in 86. It’s been discussed in the years since, but how would it have gone down, and how would booker Dusty Rhodes wrap up the most lucrative year in Jim Crockett Promotions’ history?
Keeping in mind that the money was in the arena shows and that television was an infomercial for those shows, to do a fantasy booking or what-if scenario for a year like 1986 is vastly different than it would be for something of the more modern eras, even if it is no less attractive.
Leading out of the Great American Bash season and into Starrcade, things were seemingly stronger than ever for the NWA and Jim Crockett Promotions. The Four Horsemen were the perfect heel group leading the charge, allowing them to focus on different parts of the card while keeping everyone they worked and feuded with intertwined. As such, leading into Starrcade, we had the recently reunited Minnesota Wrecking Crew of Arn and Ole Anderson back together following a stint on the shelf for Ole. They would head into the year's biggest show, working with the Tag Team Champions, The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express. Interestingly, it appeared that the two other Horsemen, World Champion Ric Flair and Tully Blanchard, had swapped opponents from the previous year. Tully would be chasing the Television Championship against Dusty Rhodes while Magnum now had moved on from Tully and was gunning after the head Horseman. The great thing that Dusty did as the booker was made sure that while everyone had their feud, they would intersect, and several times, you would see the babyfaces all come together against those dastardly Horsemen.
It would make sense that all conflict, bar the occasional scuffle around the interview podium, would be kept off the Saturday night TBS show as well as the syndicated shows while leading into Starrcade, the arena house shows would continually feature tag matches pitting Dusty and Magnum against Flair and Tully, usually ending in some DQ finish that would see Arn and Ole show up only to be chased off by Ricky and Robert of the RnR Express.
Finally, at Starrcade, the Night of the Skywalkers, it would be the crowning of a new World Champion, with a slightly altered card featuring the following matches.
Ric Flair (C) vs. Magnum TA – NWA World Heavyweight Championship
Tully Blanchard vs. Dusty Rhodes (C) – First Blood Match for NWA Television Championship
Nikita Koloff (C) vs. Ron Garvin – United States Championship Match
Rock ‘n’ Roll Express (C) vs. Minnesota Wrecking Crew – NWA Tag Team Championships
Midnight Express vs. The Road Warriors – Skywalkers Match
The rest of the card would remain unchanged, only seeing Big Bubba Rogers not competing in a match, hopefully leading to him not being too gassed to catch Jim Cornette falling from the scaffolding!
Regardless, November 27th, 1986, would be the night Magnum TA became the World Heavyweight Champion. This would be a clean victory, too, allowing Ric Flair to take a little time off from being Champion and give him a much-needed break. The night would also see Ron Garvin pick up the win and the United States Championship following a backfired attempt at interference from Ivan Koloff and Krusher Khruschev. This would free up Nikita to move up the card and be the first challenger to Magnum’s World Title while the Horsemen regroup.
Following the botched interference that cost Nikita the US Title, Ivan and Nikita take out their frustrations and beat Krusher out of the NWA (Barry Darsow was leaving for the WWF to become part of Demolition around this time) showing that if they would do that to their own “family” then what would Nikita do to Magnum. Besides, Nikita was the only wrestler to get the better of Magnum thus far in his run, so he would be perfect to headline the arena shows against Magnum as 1986 draws close.
Perhaps at some point, we can pick up in the timeline and see how 1987 would have panned out. Still, it is easy to imagine that the much-maligned Starrcade 1987 would see an eventual rematch between Flair and Magnum instead of Ron Garvin being the World Champion heading into the NWA’s biggest show the year. Of course, one can surely never know how things would have gone….
Where would you see Magnum at the end of 1986 had he never been hurt in a car accident?
