Dark Side of the Ring S4E2 "Shattered: The Magnum TA Story"
Dark Side of the Ring
S4E2 "Shattered: The Magnum TA Story"
In 1986, just as his career was hitting its zenith, Magnum had a car accident that nearly killed him. It hurt to see him in this in present day, old, in an admittedly pretty cool motorized cart thingy, not able to use his right arm.
Y'all know I watched wrestling in the 80s. The good stuff, the NWA, Dusty Rhodes, Ric Flair, Magnum TA. This brought back so many memories.
It also told me a lot I didn't know. Andre the Giant came up with the name Magnum TA, because of the Tom Selleck show, and Terry Allen's initials. After the accident, to keep up the illusion of kayfabe, the bad guy wrestlers had to sneak in Ric Flair and others to visit Magnum. And there were amazing pictures of Dusty beside Magnum at his wedding to his first wife, and Magnum at the baptism(christening?) of Dusty's son Cody.
I was amused by Nikita Koloff(who was born Nelson Scott Simpson in Minnesota) telling in his very-not-Russian real accent how after the accident, they turned him into a good guy(they had feuded) to replace Magnum.
I remember how stunned we all were when the car accident happened. We had no internet then, so what I knew, I learned from the NWA show, and Pro Wrestling Illustrated, which I read as religiously as Hit Parader and Seventeen(I had layers even back then). Bill Apter, who ran PWI, was in this ep as well.
It left me feeling the way a lot of these episodes do, sad and wistful for those days.
S4E2 "Shattered: The Magnum TA Story"
In 1986, just as his career was hitting its zenith, Magnum had a car accident that nearly killed him. It hurt to see him in this in present day, old, in an admittedly pretty cool motorized cart thingy, not able to use his right arm.
Y'all know I watched wrestling in the 80s. The good stuff, the NWA, Dusty Rhodes, Ric Flair, Magnum TA. This brought back so many memories.
It also told me a lot I didn't know. Andre the Giant came up with the name Magnum TA, because of the Tom Selleck show, and Terry Allen's initials. After the accident, to keep up the illusion of kayfabe, the bad guy wrestlers had to sneak in Ric Flair and others to visit Magnum. And there were amazing pictures of Dusty beside Magnum at his wedding to his first wife, and Magnum at the baptism(christening?) of Dusty's son Cody.
I was amused by Nikita Koloff(who was born Nelson Scott Simpson in Minnesota) telling in his very-not-Russian real accent how after the accident, they turned him into a good guy(they had feuded) to replace Magnum.
I remember how stunned we all were when the car accident happened. We had no internet then, so what I knew, I learned from the NWA show, and Pro Wrestling Illustrated, which I read as religiously as Hit Parader and Seventeen(I had layers even back then). Bill Apter, who ran PWI, was in this ep as well.
It left me feeling the way a lot of these episodes do, sad and wistful for those days.