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Kayfabe! Timeline: The History of WCW – 1985 As Told by Magnum TA
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Kayfabe!
Timeline: The History of WCW – 1985 As Told by Magnum TA
Compared with the WCW Timelines from ’89 and ’94, this comes off as somewhat lacking. Magnum isn’t a bad interview, but, he’s rather low-key in comparison to Cornette and Bischoff. This is a pretty basic interview, Sean asks the questions, and Magnum gives the answers, but, there isn’t a ton in the way of tangents of stories with only a few exceptions. It’s a bit like the 1999 ECW Timeline, in that Magnum was just one of the boys, so he didn’t really know a lot of office stuff, even though he and Dusty were good friends. Magnum’s best stuff comes at the very beginning: He talks about joining up with Crockett and leaving Mid South, and how Bill Watts wasn’t exactly thrilled with his decision. Magnum was also taking a big pay cut by making the jump, but, his family wasn’t smartened up, and after having his first six-figure year in Mid South, they thought he was having six-figure weeks because he’d won several battle royals, with a $50,000 prize.
As expected with this series, Magnum is asked about the usual stuff that you’d expect, He gives his memories of the boys, his memories of the big angles at the time, etc. Sean humorously starts about by asking how well Magnum remembers the 1980’s. But, Magnum doesn’t really give any huge revelations. He thought Buddy Landel was his own worst enemy. Most of the boys disliked Tully Blanchard. There was no way in hell that the Pro Wrestling USA deal was going to work out (although the fact that the boys got shafted on their Superclash payoffs was new, although not surprising). As much as everyone loves the I Quit Match with Tully, he’s more proud of the Best of Seven with Nikita, because he’d only been in the business for five years, but, he had the chance to be the ring general. Magnum also puts to rest the longstanding notion that, had he not crashed the car that night, then he’d have won the NWA Title at Starrcade. He thinks he’d have regained the U.S. Title from Nikita, or continued the angle that he’d just started with Jimmy Garvin.
What I found most impressive here was the research that KC did for this. They bring up several topics and moments that were completely unheard of. Such as Sgt Slaughter making a one-night return to assist his old tag team partner Don Kernodle in his feud with the Koloffs, in a big Northeastern market on 3/30/85 (possibly an attempt to sabotage an MSG show on 3/31/85). There’s also an incident where the JCP crew flew nine hours to Hawaii to work for Lia Maivia, but, Lars Anderson’s big mouth caused some problems and they were ready to just fly back home, until things got resolved.
