Magnum T.A. Says Seth Rollins Is His Favorite Guy Right Now, Is Proud of Cody’s Work With AEW

– Magnum T.A. spoke with CBS in Baltimore promoting this weekend’s Crockett Cup and discussed the launch of AEW, Seth Rollins and more. Highlights are below:

On how he’s doing these days: “In this last weekend, I was going up to Fort Wayne, Indiana. I went and did a Heroes and Legends show or something they had up there, and I drove there from Charlotte, which wasn’t right around the corner. It was about 600 miles, so it was quite the adventure. But the deal is since I’ve had this career-ending accident when I was 27 years old and my spinal injury that I’ve got has left me with permanent nerve damage on my right side. So getting around has always been a challenge. But about the last six years I’ve been using a Segway. I’ve got a seat on it, and it gives me great mobility and enables me to interact, do all the things that I like to do in life, and you can’t check those things on an airplane. They have big lithium batteries in the bottom of it, and they’re not deemed safe for being in a compressed airplane.”

On being part of the Crockett Cup this weekend: “I obviously got a soft spot in my heart for the NWA and what Billy Corgan and these guys are doing to try to keep the history of that alive and as relevant as they can in 2019. I want to support them any way I can. I remember when I first heard that they were trying to revive all of this. I was very skeptical, because I thought somebody’s going to try to do it in such a way that there’s just no way they’re going to be able to duplicate it. But I think they actually have a healthy approach to what they’re doing, and they’re not trying to relive or revamp what was so strong and powerful 30 years ago. They’re taking a different approach with it and still featuring the World’s Heavyweight Championship, which was so prestigious back in the day. They’re honoring the tradition. They’re not doing anything to lessen what once was, and I don’t think they have any aspirations of trying to compete on a world level with the WWE. But there’s certainly a place for it in the history of the business of wrestling. The NWA should be out there.”

On if he’s surprised the Rock n’ Roll Express are still wrestling in 2019: “Yeah. I would be, if it were not for the fact that I’ve had the activity I’ve had for the last couple years. I see them at every single event that I go to. Ricky and Robert are just still full-blown [and] have never stopped. They just have never stopped performing from what they were doing in the ’80s and the ’90s. My hats off to them, ’cause honestly they’re both still in great shape, their timing is still impeccable and they represent themselves well. If there’s a fountain of youth, both of those guys have dipped into it and have been able to remain healthy and injury-free and able to keep doing it. So my hats off to ’em.”

On how closely he’s been following the NWA: “Well, last year they gave me a call and I went and appeared at a show they did in Nashville, Tennessee and Cody Rhodes is my godson, and at the time he had won the NWA title from Nick [Aldis at All-In] in Chicago. I was there and I saw that. I saw him win the title and they were having the rematch there. That was the first time I got to meet Billy and talk with these guys, and I’m very impressed with Nick and the way he represents the World’s Heavyweight Title. I think they’re doing the best that’s capable of being done in modern times to keep that NWA title out circulating around the globe and keeping it represented. Of course you’re never going to be able to have what it was in the ’70s and ’80s, when it was in the territory days and all these flourishing territories would have the champion come in and challenge their champion in each of the prospective territories. But in lieu of that being available, I think they do a good job of traveling him around the globe and showcasing the 10 Pounds of Gold.”

On what modern guy he thinks would have done well in the old Crockett promotion: “My favorite all around guy that’s out there in the product today is Seth Rollins. He can talk for two minutes, five minutes, 10 minutes, whatever it needs and be in character and tell a story and has amazing athleticism and the ability to go out there and go for 10 minutes or 30 minutes or an hour. I think he would have been incredible back in the day. I would have loved to have been able to work with him. I’m saying there’s lots of people that have come over the 30 years that I would have loved to have the opportunity to get in the ring with, but of the current generation, I think he is certainly the cream of the crop, and AJ Styles as well. They’re two kind of different animals. I met Seth and talked to him, and I’m just very impressed with his overall ring skills and work ethic and everything else.”

On Cody’s work with AEW: “I’m tremendously proud. Cody kind of got the best of all the gene pool from Dusty [Rhodes] and Michelle. He’s very charismatic and got all the things that you need to have. The mic skills and the in-ring skills and all the things you could want from a talent and a performer. But he also studied the game and had his dad in his ear every day talking to him about the business, the psychology, the business model, what it takes to make it work. His lack of satisfaction with the way his talent was being utilized in the WWE and being true to himself and knowing he had more to offer speaks volumes of him because he had a very lucrative contract… Now that there’s so many people out there that are interested in seeing something else successful [other than WWE], the timing was just right. So I hope they hit a home run. Nobody’s going to put the WWE out of business. They do what they do better than anybody in the world, but if Cody’s group can take this niche that they have, the social media machine they’ve already jump-started all this with and produce just a good, solid wrestling show product that has good content and is episodic and hooks the viewers in, they can be another good avenue out there for the wrestling fan to be able to enjoy what we all love.”