411’s Dark Side of The Ring Report: ‘Shattered: The Magnum T.A. Story’

-Shout-out to my friend Kent, who has been looking forward to this episode since it was announced. Let’s get to it!

-As a reminder, Chris Jericho is our narrator.

-As I figured coming in, we are going to get a lot of “Magnum could have been Crockett’s Hulk Hogan” comments from the talking heads. They really like getting Hogan into this series whenever they can and I mean, I understand why.

-A Magnum T.A. story starts with fans outside in line for WrestleMania I at MSG. Sure! The 80s were dominated by Vince McMahon and his top star, Hulk Hogan. Down South stood a company in defiance of Vince and his expanding empire. JCP is called one of the last lines of defense against Vince’s takeover and while WWF is kid friendly, JCP is blood, violence, and excess.

-Jim Cornette is back as he should be, and gives us a brief history of JCP and their star-studded roster. David Crockett (son of Jim Crockett) notes that in 1985, JCP was on the rise. He notes Vince was trying to dominate and they weren’t letting that happen as they liked what they were doing. They talk about how when you had a super heel, you needed a top baby face and it didn’t hurt if he had movie star looks.

-Terry Allen introduces himself and says he is better known as Magnum T.A. He was born in Virginia and started wrestling in 9th grade. Like a lot of guys who got in the business he was found working as a bouncer in night clubs and bars where wrestlers would hang out. Buzz Sawyer, who Cornette calls a talented wrestler in the ring, but an obnoxious, crooked, surly, malcontent son of a bitch outside of it, is the one who discovered Magnum. He became friends with Magnum and got buddy-buddy with him and told him it was hard to get in the business and needed $10,000 for a wrestling license. Magnum’s mom believed in him and got the money from her parents. Buzz takes the money and shockingly vanishes from The Carolinas. Cornette notes Buzz is an asshole and saw someone he could sucker out of money.

-Cornette talks about wrestling license and how they still exist in some states that have an athletic commission that regulates pro-wrestling, and they generally cost between $10 and $25. The producers ask if Magnum ever got the money back and he says no. He tells a story of letting Jimmy Garvin know what happened and Jimmy knew Buzz. Jimmy Garvin pops up and says he told Magnum to look up Buzz and pay him a visit. Magnum left the next day and headed to Portland and knocked on Buzz’s door. Buzz was a little shocked to see him, but took Magnum to his ring downstairs and started showing him the ropes. The thought was Buzz was just going to run Magnum off, but Cornette notes it backfired as Magnum became a bigger star than Buzz ever was. The next night Magnum wrestled Buzz on television and people noticed how well he did and figured he was trained by Buzz. Magnum notes he wasn’t as Buzz only worked out with him for two hours.

-Jake “The Snake” Roberts is up next and says “I am what’s left of Jake The Snake Roberts.” He puts over Magnum.

-Magnum gets a call from Eddie Graham and packs up and heads to Florida. He says the day he stepped foot in Florida is when he really started learning the business. Dusty Rhodes was the booker as we all know and Jake notes that Dusty was their Muhammad Ali. Cornette explains to everyone what a booker is and compares it to a movie director and he saw Magnum as his next star. Magnum calls Dusty the most influential guy in the history of his career.

-Bill Apter is here and he calls himself the most recognizable journalist and independent broadcaster in pro-wrestling of the last 50 years. Shots fired? He notes that Magnum looked like Tom Selleck and Andre told Terry he should be called “Magnum T.A.” as he got it from Magnum P.I.

-From Florida Magnum moves to Mid-South and we get some cool footage. He notes he came to Mid-South as Magnum, but didn’t know the character. First, they had him come to shows in suits and ties and that didn’t work. Then they tried a Punk Rock look and that flames out as well. He calls Dusty and he tells Magnum to get a brand new Harley Davidson. Magnum found his niche with a biker’s jacket and the Harley. He was a combination of Bruce Lee, Clint Eastwood, Charles Bronson, and John Wayne all in a leather jacket. Cornette notes he had the perfect look and was the total package. Jake notes he was burning up the ladder and had it all, but “of course, not very long.”

-Commercials!

-Magnum is a rising star in Mid-South and gets a call from Dusty to introduce him to Jim Crockett. He is told if he makes the jump he will be presented with the greatest opportunity. Crockett noticed how all the women in the offices always paid attention to Magnum.

-We meet Tamara Howell, the ex-wife of Terry. She tells us they were together from 1981-1988. They discussed having a family, but were waiting until Magnum became World Champion. She shows home photos including them at the baptism of a baby, Cody Rhodes. Cool!

-Magnum talks about settling down, but yet he has to be a sex symbol in wrestling. Cornette talks about the squeals from the women and Magnum notes it was like Animal House 24/7 and it was more than any red blooded male could handle. Cornette: “They had more sex on the way to the ring than I had in my life.” I had to pause to get the laughter out after that one! The producer even broke laughing with that. Crockett says women would reach out and touch Magnum’s blood and say they would never wash their hands. Tamara says they were shopping in a mall and a girl fainted when she saw Magnum. Tamara was a house wife and took care of all of Magnum’s laundry and one day found pictures of Terry with other women.

-Nikita Koloff, with the sweet looking mid 80s US Title, is next and it’s funny hearing him talk without the fake Russian accent. Yes, he really wasn’t Russian! I know, MIND BLOWN! He tells us he hails from the great state of Minnesota, but played up the Russian gimmick because it was the 80s and we have all seen Rocky IV. Apter notes that Magnum and Koloff had a best of seven series and calls it one of the best rivalries in wrestling history. Koloff goes over the story of the series with him winning the first three matches, and Magnum gets a win by the skin of his teeth in matches four, five, and six to tie things up. They have the seventh match in 1986 in North Carolina and Nikita gets the win and the crowd is pissed! Now Magnum has to chase to get The US Title so he can go after The World Title.

-Cornette brings up that in 86 it ended the run between Flair and Dusty and heading into 87-88 they were going to pull the trigger on Magnum having a run with Flair and The World Title. Magnum says the 10 lbs of Gold was the top prize in the sport in the 70s and 80s. The powers in the NWA had a meeting in New York and the decision was made to make Magnum the next World Champion.

-Before getting there they wanted Magnum to get away from Nikita and have a program with a fresh new heel, Jimmy Garvin. They were going to tear the house down in Greenville, but it never happened because that was the night of his incident.

-Commercials!

-Bill Apter notes that Magnum was heading straight to the top and Crockett says Magnum was the future as they had everything riding on him. Magnum notes he had more money than sense and bought a Porsche 911 Turbo. He had the need for seed and the car was loud and fast and he liked it. His plan was to be World Champion at 27 and then retired at 30 so he could go drive in NASCAR. He thought it was ridiculous to be out there wrestling in your mid 30s.

-Oct 14, 1986: He does have the match with Garvin and gets the win. He drives his car home on a rainy night and is on a two lane road about five minutes from his house. He knows the road as he has been on it a thousand times. It was pouring and there was a divot where water had gathered. He made the turn and he started to hydro-plane. He tried to counter and made the situation worse. He spun the other way and hit a telephone pole that cut in half. He compares it to being hit by a freight train and realized he wasn’t okay when he couldn’t move. They had to use the jaws of life to get him out of the car and couldn’t airlift him because of the heavy rain. “It changed my life, it changed the people I work for. It changed my family.”

-Tamara says the police called her and she was frightened when she saw the Porsche and thought it meant Magnum was dead. She was told he fractured some vertebrae and needed immediate surgery. He was told he may end up having neck down paralysis and was told he might even need to be on an iron lung or ventilator. He was being shot up with morphine every time he blinked as a way to try to communicate with the doctors. His wrestling career was done as he was never going to be able to get in the ring again.

-Commercials!

-We get some news coverage of the accident and we see what remains of the telephone pole. DAMN! They also show the corvette and as Cornette notes it was a miracle anyone was alive. The accident was the top story on The Charlotte Observer. The hospital received 8000-10000 phone calls and a ton of flowers were left in the lobby. They show footage of fans gathering for candlelight vigils. Magnum’s mom meets the press and offers an update on her soon.

-Garvin notes that kayfabe was strong so the heels couldn’t go to the hospital to visit him. They had to convince a cop they knew to sneak Flair and some of the other heels up the back stairs so they could visit Magnum in the middle of the night. Flair brought the 10lbs of Gold and put them on Magnum and said, “I am giving you this one, and I am waiting for you to get back in the ring for the other one.”

-Magnum wasn’t earning an income so the boys said they would donate a portion of what they made and Crockett said he would match it. That’s pretty sweet!

-Tamara says she was at the hospital every day and bathed, fed and did what every Magnum needed. Magnum said once he got out of the hospital and realized what was happening outside the world he felt horrible. Everything was being built around him and there was no Plan B. Crockett calls Magnum a shooting star and nothing was going to stop them with Magnum, but they now had to find their way, like Magnum had to find his.

-Nikita says he was on a tour of Japan and when he came back it was in Philly where they broke the news to him. They all realized it left a void and we see Dusty talking about Magnum’s accident on the air. They needed to find a new star for the spot and knew it had to be someone that was different than Magnum. Dusty picked Nikita who was just the biggest heel in the territory and he notes he was only 2.5 years into learning the business.

-They needed something to get the fans behind Nikita so they used Bill Apter. Magnum says he trusted Bill and they pitched a story with a photo of Nikita with a single tear down his cheek and the headline, “I Cry For Magnum T.A.”

-Commercials!

-Magnum was in the hospital for months, but refused to give up. In April of 1987 Crockett had the idea to bring Magnum back to a show for the first time. He walks to the ring with a cane and the place explodes with cheers! He hugs Dusty and Nikita and Nikita says he got choked up for real. Magnum says it was one of the most emotional experiences of his life.

-Even with the progress, Magnum’s in ring career was over, so he transitioned to color commentary. He always had the itch as it was hard being around the ring without being able to work inside it. Magnum continued to cheat on his wife even after the accident and she obviously had enough and who can blame her? Magnum admits it was a bad deal and he feels bad about it. She loved him and it was hard to leave, but how many times can you let something like that happen?

-Meanwhile Crockett starts tanking and makes a deal with Ted Turner and WCW is born. Crockett says the future of The NWA is different if the accident never happens and the sky is the limit. I don’t see it, as Vince was winning that war no matter what, but I grew up on Hulk Hogan and WWF, so I could be wrong. That’s not to say I didn’t watch NWA, but I barely remember Magnum because his career ended when I was five.

-Commercials!

-Next week it’s The Graham Dynasty.

-Magnum thinks about what could been and how he would have been satisfied as having a run with The World Title and then passing it to the next 20 something year old and seeing if he could do it better. Jake says what happened to Magnum should be a lesson to everyone about how life can change in the blink of an eye.

-Magnum is classified as a quadriplegic, but he doesn’t let that slow him down. He even found another shot at love and we meet Courtney Blanchard-Allen. My ears perk up with that combination of last names. They met each other in 1987 and both were going through divorces and leaned on each other as friends and became more than that. They don’t mention it here, but yes, that would be Tully Blanchard’s ex-wife, which makes Magnum step-dad of Tessa. Weird that they didn’t even mention Tully in this piece as he is often considered Magnum’s greatest rival.

-Courtney says that day to day is tough for Terry, but he will never tell anyone that. He loves sharing his story to help others and knows he has lived his dream. People say what-if, but he thinks what-if he never woke up at all and he is thankful that he did.

-I enjoyed this greatly as it wasn’t as heavy as other episodes of the series. I mean what happened to Magnum is awful, but as he noted, he survived the crash. Cheating on your wife that cared for you is kind of dirty, but that is between them and Magnum seems to have regrets for what he did. His ex-wife came off well here, and I felt for her. As I mentioned I do question the belief that JCP and the NWA were going to be saved because of Magnum. Every promotion that went under seems to think they had the next Hulk Hogan, but there is only one Hulk Hogan. It would have been fun to see Magnum get the run with Flair in 87-88, but they eventually found Luger and then Sting to fill in the void. Also, if it happened in 87 Flair/Magnum would have gone up against Hogan/Andre and I’m sorry, but that would have been a tough mountain to climb. Overall, this was a wonderful watch with some classic footage. Cornette was great as always and it was cool hearing from Nikita as well. Definitely check this one out! Thanks for reading!