At the dawn of the 1980s,
Magnum T.A. burst onto the wrestling scene.
With his athleticism, charisma,
and movie star good looks, he quickly became
a top star for Jim Crockett Promotions,
and a valuable weapon in the company's
war against Vince McMahon.
All the big guns come here when they want to
get it done, and that's why Magnum T.A. is here.
At that point in time, Jim Crockett Promotions
was the only other wrestling promotion in the country
that had the ability to compete with Vince McMahon.
There's only one Hulk Hogan, daddy.
I believe that Magnum could've been for Crockett
what Hulk Hogan was for WWF.
There's only one Magnum T.A.
There will ever be only one Magnum T.A.
It was like being a rock star.
I was given the keys to the city.
The sky is the limit.
But Magnum's meteoric rise to fame and fortune
would end in an instant.
The blow took me right into the roof,
and my C5 vertebrae exploded.
Throwing his life and career into tragedy and chaos.
He is in the intensive care unit at
Charlotte Memorial Hospital.
Terry Allen was the future.
You put all your cards in that basket and,
the basket was turned over.
This, you know, devastating thing
changed everyone's reality.
Healthy, wealthy, wise.
All of a sudden, boom... gone.
The story of Magnum T.A. is
the story of what might have been...
not just for the man, himself,
but for the entire wrestling world.
He was told he would not walk again.
♪
This is WrestleMania.
This is the thing of today. Hulkamania is running wild.
In the early 1980s, professional wrestling
explodes in popularity, dominated by Vince McMahon,
his star, Hulk Hogan,
and his powerhouse promotion, the WWF.
This Vince McMahon is a genius.
But down south, a rival wrestling company
stands in defiance of the growing McMahon empire.
They know that Jim Crockett...
the wrestling network is the best thing going!
That's why they're here! Yeah!
As smaller companies across the country fold,
Jim Crockett Promotions represents one of the last
lines of defence against the WWF's nationwide takeover.
But where the WWF showcases kid-friendly cartoon personas,
Crockett's brand of pro wrestling is a world of
blood, grit, and glamour.
Soon to appear on Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,
Mr. Jim Cornette!
Woo!
I'm Jim Cornette.
I've been involved in wrestling for over 40 years,
but in the 1980s, I was one of the managers that led
many of Magnum T.A.'s opponents to the ring.
Crockett, in the Carolinas,
had a tremendously strong base of fans.
And also, that roster-
from Ric Flair, and Dusty Rhodes...
The Road Warriors, The Rock 'N Roll Express...
It went on and on.
That was the gathering place now for all the top wrestlers
that were going to oppose Vince McMahon.
Crockett Promotions, around 1985,
we are on the rise.
We were clicking on all four cylinders.
My name is David Crockett.
Jim Crockett is my father.
I'm Tony Schiavone joined by Mr. Jim Crockett,
President of Jim Crockett Promotions.
You had Vince McMahon, WWF,
that was wanting to take over the country.
It is well documented in the official
World Wrestling Federation magazine that
Mr. Hogan's popularity is, indeed, worldwide.
And, we liked what we were doing.
So, we said, "Nah, that's not gonna happen."
We had a great staple of wrestlers.
Nobody can beat the American Dream!
But, we needed that special something.
Crockett needed somebody for the future.
And if you had a character, kickass babyface over here,
and a legend over here, you always needed
the matinee idol, the movie star
right there in the middle of everything.
Who would be the good guy?
♪
Earliest memories of television, like 6,
7 years old, were watching professional wrestling
with my dad.
And it evoked all these emotions of watching guys
that were like real live action superheroes.
So, as a little kid, you start thinking, maybe,
maybe this is something I could do.
And, I was the most unlikely guy to be doing this
'cause I had no athletic background.
My name is Terry Allen, better known as Magnum T.A.
I started out wrestling in the 9th grade,
and I applied myself to it like nothing I'd ever done.
So, as I worked my way up the ranks,
by the time I'm a senior,
I end up winning the state tournament.
Magnum is from Norfolk, Virginia.
And, he was working at a bar in Virginia Beach,
and that's where tons of the Carolina wrestlers would go,
because that was kind of a...
a vacation spot.
When you were up in that part of Virginia for the weekend,
the guys would go party in Virginia Beach.
In the 70s, I was in college,
and I was working security in nightclubs and bars,
and the wrestlers would come down to
the place where I worked.
And you know, they're, you know,
ribbing with me because I'm a big guy.
There was a guy there that saw me,
and his name was Buzz Sawyer.
Buzz Sawyer was one of the most talented in-ring
performers in the history of wrestling,
and was one of the most obnoxious,
crooked, surly, and...
discontented son of a bitches in the world outside of it.
So, Buzz Sawyer sees me.
He's like all buddy-buddy.
Said, "Look, you know, it's really hard to get
into this business, but I can help you."
I feel like this guy is really gonna help me.
So, now I see this as a potential career path.
So, he comes even to my parents' home and
talks with all of us.
Tell us, you know, how tough the business is to get in,
but he has these inroads, and he can help me.
And he tells me a wrestling license costs $10,000.
10 grand.
And, my mom and dad are like, "Phew, 10 grand."
10 grand, might as well have been 100 grand in,
you know, 1979.
My mom believed in me, and she went to her dad,
my Granddaddy Smith, and...
he gave me the money.
Gave me the money. He said, "I believe in you."
And, so...
we give him the money and, you know,
so I'm gonna get in. He's gonna get, get me in the door.
The next thing I know, Buzz has left the Carolinas.
"Psh!" Mind blown.
Buzz was just trying to bilk an aspiring young man out of
some money, and saw where he could get it.
He was an asshole!
Wrestling licenses are still a real thing,
and were a real thing at that point,
in states that have athletic commissions.
If they have an athletic commission,
you have to be licensed to be a wrestler, a manager,
an announcer, or whatever.
They generally cost between 10 and $25.
[Off-screen] [Laughing] [Jim] So... [Laughing]
So, there was no- Buzz Sawyer
wasn't gonna sell Magnum T.A.
any kind of wrestling license.
No.
So, one night, I tell Jimmy Garvin my Buzz Sawyer story.
Jimmy knew Buzz.
He knew all too well what was going on.
Garvin does not lose his cool as quickly as Sawyer.
I encouraged him to go find Buzz and
ask Buzz to hook him up.
And I literally believe he left the next day,
and drove to Oregon.
I found out what his apartment number was,
and- [Clicking tongue]- Knocking on the door.
He opens the door, kind of surprised to see me.
So, he takes me down to the ring the next day,
and I work out for two solid hours.
I learn how to tie up, hit the ropes,
do some spots, take a backdrop.
It wasn't uncommon, in those days
if a guy saw some young perspective talent
that wanted to train or wanted to be taught:
"Yeah, I'll take this guy. He's an idiot.
We'll run him off, whatever."
But in this case, it came back to
bite him because Magnum turned out to be
a bigger star than Buzz ever was.
And, the next night,
I wrestled Buzz on television.
They all think, "Hey, he did a pretty good job."
They think I've been in the business.
They think I'm trained. They think Buzz trained me.
Well, he did. He trained me for two hours.
And then, I got booked 7 nights a week.
I knew Magnum from the get-go.
He burst onto the scene, man, and he was...
a breath of fresh air to watch.
Jake "The Snake" Roberts!
I am what's left of Jake "The Snake" Roberts.
He was no sucker, man.
He was just so hungry and wanted it so bad.
Terry's unrelenting drive and raw talent
earn him admiration from promoters,
fans, and fellow wrestlers.
His hard work pays off when a single phone call
propels his career to new heights.
Eddie Graham, that owns Florida Championship
Wrestling, so he, boom, picks up the phone,
gives me a call, and he said, "I got a spot for you."
And so, again, I packed up all my belongings and
off I go back across the country, and head south.
That's where the true education of the
wrestling business really started, the day I
stepped foot in that territory of Florida.
From Virginia Beach, Virginia,
weighing in at 240 pounds, Terry Allen!
So, when I first came to the territory in Florida,
the booker, the creative development guy...
American Dream, Dusty Rhodes.
Never met him.
I've seen his pictures on the cover of magazines.
Well, Dusty Rhodes was one of the
greatest wrestlers ever, man.
The best showman ever, without a doubt.
He was our Muhammad Ali.
The booker of a major wrestling promotion is like
the major motion picture director in Hollywood.
He decides the final say on the actors,
who's gonna play the parts.
How they're gonna do it, what their demeanour is,
the way that the thing is shot.
So, the booker was the director.
And Dusty Rhodes saw in Magnum T.A.
his next movie star.
[Cheering]
Dusty had the potential to see talent and charisma
within people that didn't know how to bring it out.
Right here is the global
tag team champion, Terry Allen!
And he became the most influential guy on my career,
of anybody that I ever came in contact with.
Dusty pushed Magnum T.A.
to the heights of pro wrestling.
He believed in him, he teamed with him.
They were personal friends.
Hello, everyone, this is Bill Apter.
And I am the most recognizable journalist and
independent broadcaster in the world of pro wrestling
for the past 51 years.
People used to say that he looked like Tom Selleck.
And Andre The Giant thought so much about that,
that he said to Magnum, "You look like Tom Selleck.
You should call yourself Magnum T.A."
And that's how it happened.
Back in the 80s, there was a TV show with a star
named Tom Selleck, and it was about a detective,
and his name was Magnum, p.i.
So, Andre looks over at me and he says,
"Boss," he said, "you're ready."
And I said, "What do you mean, I'm ready?"
He said, "You're ready for something."
He said, "But you need a handle."
So, he tied it all together and took the Magnum and
the Terry Allen, "T.A.", and put that name together.
After just over a year in Florida, Magnum T.A.
returns to the road, this time joining the high-octane
wrestling circuit known as Mid-South.
Magnum T.A.!
Action continues now the popular star, Magnum T.A.
Here's Buddy Nichols to tell us about it.
He's really a very personable young man,
one with a lot of wrestling talent.
And as we mentioned last week,
one with a lot of desire and an opportunity to go
a long way in this wrestling business.
So, I come to Mid-South as Magnum T.A.
I don't know what Magnum T.A. means
at this point in time. It's a name.
I don't know how this translates into me.
And, nor do the people that have brought me in.
So, one week they're telling me to wear suits and ties.
And, we do that for a couple weeks and they say,
"You don't really seem comfortable in that."
Oh, then they say, "Well, maybe..."
you know, punk rock was kind of a thing,
they wanted me to wear like some punk rock clothes.
I'm not comfortable at all in this,
but we go through all these little things
they're trying to do. Nothing's clicking.
So, I call Dusty up.
I said, "I need to do something else.
They don't know what to do with me."
He said, "I got it, baby. I got it, it's all good."
He said, "Well, I'll tell you what you do." He said,
"You go down and buy you a brand-new Harley Davison."
So, I bought a motorcycle jacket when I bought the
new bike, and I ride that bike into town with
that jacket on, and everybody looks,
and it changed the whole perception,
immediately, of who I was.
Clint Eastwood, and Charles Bronson,
and Bruce Lee, and John Wayne
all wrapped up in one package in a leather jacket.
He had the perfect look for professional wrestling.
The perfect size, the physique, the face,
the whole nine yards.
This incredible "it" factor that I had not seen in
a lot of pro wrestlers, he had it.
He was going up the ladder, man.
He had it all.
He was burning it up there for a while.
But, of course...
not very long. [Sighing]
Magnum T.A. is a rising star and
a fan-favourite in the Mid-South territory
when he receives an offer that will
change the course of his career.
I get the phone call, and Dusty says,
"I want to introduce you to Jim Crockett."
He puts Jim Crockett on the phone with me, and says,
"Look, I will promise you if you come here,
I will give you the greatest opportunity that anybody
could ever ask for in the business."
I first met Magnum T.A. when
he walked into the office.
You know, here's this tall, what-
6"1, 6"2- very well built,
blonde hair coming down.
These piercing eyes. And this husky, raspy voice.
Looking at the women in the office, they all-
you know, they do that.
So, that is the total package.
The camera, who is the main judge, loved him.
All the fans have been waiting for this man,
Magnum T.A.! And here he is!
You didn't have to put lights on him to make him look good.
He just, he glowed.
Magnum T.A.'s coming for one reason,
one reason only.
Coming for the US heavyweight championship.
Almost immediately, Crockett goes and
barters a deal to go on TBS, on the SuperStation.
The moment we went on the SuperStation,
everything changed.
They territory started popping immediately and,
we blew the roof off the place.
♪
My name is Tamara Howell.
And, I was married to Terry Allen.
We were together from 1981...
until 1988.
He got this raincoat jacket.
He loved it. It was his Jesse James look.
We did talk about having a family,
but we were waiting until he became
the world championship title holder.
Here, we were at the baptism of
Dusty and Michelle's son, Cody.
That's pretty special.
The minute I make the emotional decision that
I'm gonna settle down and I'm gonna get married,
immediately, my career path says,
"We want to promote you as a sex symbol.
We want you to be our superstar.
We want you to be the- the people, everybody,
tear their hair out and want to get a hold of."
[Cheering & match bell ringing]
He was the rock star.
The cheers for Magnum were the squeals of
the women in the audience.
It was hysteria.
[Terry] It was just absolute insanity.
And it was the wild, wild west from
the partying standpoint,
the girls in every port, in every place.
It was bad.
You know, it was like Animal House, 24/7.
And more than any red -blooded male can handle.
They were getting the motel key and
panty treatment every night.
It was insane.
They had more sex on the way to the ring
than I've had in my life.
[Off-screen] [Laughing]
You always play to the audience,
whether it's male or female.
I mean, the women crying?
They'd want to get close to him after the match and
get blood off of him. You know,
"Oh, I'm never washing my hands again!"
[Laughing]
Well, I definitely could see his popularity.
We were in a mall.
We were in a boot store, and this girl
just fainted, seeing him.
She got all flustered, and turned red, and fainted.
So, I think if everyone thinks you're the
best thing since sliced bread,
you might start believing that.
I didn't work outside of the home.
I always would unpack his dressing bag
from the night before.
And, when I was doing that, he had pictures in there.
I had taken out the pictures,
and I just was flipping through them.
And, then I stopped, and I was like,
wait a minute, I don't have that bag.
I thought it was me in the picture,
but she had a different handbag than
I would have carried so,
and I realized that wasn't me.
And I hadn't been wherever they were, so...
As Terry's rising fame pushes his marriage to the brink,
a powerful opponent emerges, a Soviet era strongman,
bringing the Cold War to the wrestling ring.
Was I intimidated by Magnum T.A.?
Ah, ah, I think it was the other way around, ah...
I think he was intimidated by me.
I am Nikita Koloff,
better known to the wrestling fans as...
"The Russian Nightmare". [Speaking Russian]
I hail from the great state of Minnesota.
Not from Russia like I portrayed
back in the wrestling days.
Well, in the 80s, the United States
and Russian political situation-
here you have Magnum T.A., American made.
So, you had the Russian might
against the American made.
Magnum T.A. or-
[Russian accent] "Maga T.A.",
as I used to call him,
he had that whole look of that all-American.
I'm like, man, this is, you might say,
a match made in heaven.
And they had this incredible series,
the 'Best of 7' series.
It was one of the greatest feuds in
pro wrestling history.
Between the number one challenger,
who is Nikita Koloff,
and the former champion, Magnum T. A.
There's gotta be a clear-cut winner for 4 matches.
And Nikita Koloff, there's never gonna be a day
in my life that I'll look up to a Russian and
call you a superior athlete.
Match #1, I have set myself to be this physical specimen,
and so, to go up one-nothing.
So, the way we just built the story and how each match
was finished, you know, whether it was a,
a dominating victory on my part.
Going up two to nothing.
And then to go up three to nothing.
And then he catches me by surprise,
and he wins that first.
Three to one.
And the winner of match #4...
Magnum T.A.!
He slips by and wins, three to two.
Oh, my gosh, there's hope.
There's hope for America.
Match #6, and he squeaks out another victory,
and now it's three to three.
And it's gonna come down to that final match, #7.
[Cheering]
The man standing before you right now is
the man that's gonna take it all home.
Bring it home right here, United States of America.
It couldn't have been set up any better.
[Cheering]
And Nikita Koloff gets the 1, 2, 3.
[Match bell ringing]
Man, I want to tell you,
the fans were not happy that night, boy.
Talk about heat.
The heat on me elevated
to a whole 'nother level.
And so, of course, Magnum, now he's got to chase and
get back that US title that, by the way,
sets you up as #1 contender for the
world heavyweight title back in those days.
Now the chase is on.
1986 was pretty much the culmination of a
long-running rivalry between Dusty Rhodes and Ric Flair
for the world title.
And next in line, whenever that trigger would have
been pulled, was Ric Flair and Magnum T.A.
Into '87, '88, that would have been
the direction they were going.
Who's gonna be the world champion?
Who's gonna be the dominant guy in the NWA-
Ric Flair or Magnum T.A.?
In the 70s, 80s,
the National Wrestling Alliance World's
Heavyweight title is the most coveted wrestling title
you could go after.
That 10 pounds of gold belt was an amazing thing.
And he was gonna get that...
no doubt about it.
Because, the powers that be loved him, you know.
And they trusted him.
The "powers that be" are the promoters of the
National Wrestling Alliance, the governing body of the
majority of the nation's regional territories,
including Jim Crockett Promotions.
There was a meeting that Dusty, and I,
and Jim Crockett had,
where we flew up to New York,
went out to dinner.
And, they told me that the decision had been made,
the NWA had blessed it, and that I was gonna be
the next world's heavyweight champion.
♪
The trajectory was to take the next step,
move away from Nikita so I could
move back into that chase.
But in the meantime, we've got this new,
brash, fresh, smack-talking heel
named Jimmy Garvin that comes in.
And we got this great new opportunity.
This is "Gorgeous" Jimmy Garvin!
And this angle with Terry, and Patty and I
was gonna be huge.
And I have confidence because I know that I'm the greatest
athlete in the world, and nobody can beat me.
But, you know, I had that match with him in
Greenville, South Carolina that night...
[Thunder]
...heck of a match, and we were
getting ready to blow the territory wide open.
It just never happened because that was
the night of the incident.
And now, here's your host, senior editor of
Pro Wrestling Illustrated, Bill Apter!
Last week's show with Magnum T.A.
got such a great response, we've asked the
US champ, Magnum T.A., to be with us again this week.
Magnum, 1985 was a darn good year for you.
What's '86 have in store for you?
Well, '86 will be a continuation of the quest
that I started in 1985, which was for the world's
heavyweight championship held by Ric Flair.
He was going right to the top.
I could not see any road taking him
anywhere else except to the top.
We had everything...
sunk into him. Terry Allen was the future.
As Magnum T.A. closes in on
the heavyweight title,
he begins living the life of a world champion.
At that time, I had more money than I had sense.
I walked in the Porsche dealership,
and they had a brand-new 911 Turbo sitting out
on the floor, and that was the Mac Daddy.
"Write me up, I'm taking it."
It was quick and it was cool, and...
[Screeching tires]
I had the need for speed, like Top Gun.
You know, it had a combustion engine in it,
and it was loud, and it was fast. I liked it.
My plan was to have a run with the belt, I'm 27.
By the time I'm 30, out of it,
and then go drive NASCARs.
I didn't want to be running around in my underwear
in front of people at 37 years' old.
I thought that was ridiculous.
On October 14th, 1986,
after defeating Gorgeous Jimmy Garvin
in front of a roaring crowd in South Carolina...
[Thunder]
Magnum T.A. hits the road in his
prized Porsche 911.
I'm 5 minutes from my house.
I'm on a two-lane road that
I've driven hundreds of times, and it's like
the horse turns the corner and knows
the barn's right there, and I'm on the track.
[Thunder]
It was raining so hard, you know, coming back,
you could barely see.
The road that I was traveling on that night had a little,
slight bend curve in it.
Right in the middle of the curve,
was a little divot in the road where water had
gathered probably 2, 3 inches of water
all the way across the road.
When I went around the corner and that dip
right in the middle, the car hydroplaned.
When a car hydroplanes, it means your tire patch
loses contact with that road, so my tires were
actually floating on top of that water.
So, I did what I had done before to counteract
something, and I made the situation worse.
[Screeching tires]
The car spun violently the other direction,
and I broadsided a telephone pole
so hard that it cut it in half.
[Impact]
It happened so fast, it was violent.
And the blow was like I had been hit by a freight train.
♪ [Horn blaring] ♪
I didn't know I was not okay until I couldn't move.
And I was so big in the car that my shoulder was
right up against the door.
And I had just maybe an inch of headroom,
so the blow took me right into the roof.
The emergency crew came, and one of them
grabbed me by my jacket to try to pull me up.
And the other guy stopped him and said, "No, don't."
I can't move, so they use the jaws of life,
cut the whole top of the car off,
peeled it back like a tin can.
And, stabilize me, they couldn't air lift me out
'cause it was raining so hard, took me by ambulance.
It changed my life, it changed the people
I worked for, it changed my family.
It changed everybody in a nanosecond.
[Thunder]
The police called me.
They were taking him to the hospital.
On my way to the hospital...
[Thunder]
I was behind the tow truck that
had his Porsche on it.
And, to see the Porsche the way it was,
was very frightening.
The roof was off...
It was a mess, it looked like...
he probably was dead.
Well, they took me aside and they told me that
he had fractured his vertebrae.
They needed to get him into surgery, quickly.
My first view of a medical professional that's giving me
a diagnosis, you know, he would use the words,
"C5 quadriplegic," and, "neck-down paralysis".
Million to one shot of ever attaining any level of
mobility beyond sitting in a wheelchair and being
taken care of by someone for the rest of your life.
Matter of fact, they were just trying to figure out
how I was gonna breathe.
They said my lungs were paralyzed.
I mean, they were saying things to me like,
"Well, maybe you might be able to be on
an iron lung instead of a ventilator."
A guy's in intensive care,
they've got him all hooked up.
They keep him sedated.
You just fear for the worst. You know, and it was...
you know, is he truly gonna make it?
You know, what was going through his mind?
They're shooting me up with morphine every time I blink
because they can't communicate with me.
If I try to communicate anything,
they think I'm hurting.
So, I'm in such bad shape, they're just zapping me
with the moon and stars.
♪
My brother came in, and he just said...
"He'll never, ever...
get in the ring again."
According to the police report,
Allen was going south here on Sardis Road,
away from town, when his car went off the road
on the far side back there, about 200 feet.
He apparently tried to correct and bring it back
onto the road, but it was slippery,
and he ended up on this side,
slamming into this telephone pole
with enough force to break it in half.
♪
Memorial spokesperson, Cecily Newton,
explained that Magnum has a spinal cord injury that is
localized to the 5th cervical vertebrae.
And, it exploded.
It sent the bone fragments back and created
compression on the spinal cord.
[Jim] It was on every news channel.
You saw the pictures of that car.
And it's an absolute miracle that anybody was alive.
It was completely destroyed.
It was the front page of The Charlotte Observer.
It's a type of situation where you don't believe it
has happened until you actually see him,
and no one has been able to see him so,
we're still kind of stunned.
Radio, newspaper, we really didn't have internet.
So, it was all word of mouth.
I'm sorry, ma'am, that's the only thing
I'm permitted to release at this time.
Memorial Hospital has fielded some 8 to 10,000
phone calls about Magnum T.A.
since the wrestling star was admitted.
The hospital lobby looks like a florist convention.
I think he received the most letters of anyone there
at their hospital.
I do have the newspaper clippings and bags,
and bags of mail we received.
The hospital got so many calls,
they had to shut the switchboard down.
There were candlelight vigils of fans outside the hospital.
We love you, Magnum!
A lot of people held him close to their heart.
Marion Allen has been with her son since the accident.
This afternoon, she wanted to thank all of the people
who have sent prayers and cards.
It has been rough in a lot of cases,
but I just don't think I could have gotten through
this time without all that love and positive energy that
I felt flowing around me.
Back in the day, like, we didn't go to the hospital
'cause kayfabe, you know, I was a heel,
he was a babyface, so...
didn't go to the hospital. We just didn't do it.
In the 1980s, wrestlers and promoters still go to
great lengths to maintain the illusion that wrestling
is real, a practice known as "keeping kayfabe".
So, Flair and the Horsemen or any of the heels couldn't...
go to the hospital and see Magnum.
So, what they did was, one of our people that
worked at the office was also
a Charlotte City police officer,
and he arranged with the hospital to sneak Flair and
some of his guys up a back stairway and into the room
in the middle of the night so that nobody would
see 'em so they could go and see Magnum.
Flair came to my room with the 10 pounds of gold,
laid it on my chest, said, "I'm giving you this one.
I'm waiting 'til you come back in the ring and
get the other one."
When Magnum had his accident, he was,
obviously, automatically without income.
And in this case, all of the guys
on the roster got together and said,
"We will donate whatever from our cheque
per week to Magnum," and Jim Crockett,
as the promoter, would match the total of everything that
was collected by the wrestlers.
So, whether it was $25 a week or $50 a week,
out of everybody's cheque, but there were 30 guys...
and then he'd match it.
I was there every day.
I went to the hospital every day.
And I helped feed him, bathe him,
helped him with everything that he needed.
So, I don't really get to have real soul searching
moments about all of this for about 30 days.
When things cleared a little bit,
I got out of the ICU, got in a room-
people were able to start relating things to me
that was going on in the outside world that
I was pretty oblivious to.
I love Magnum more than I love everyone else.
Sad what happened to him, man.
So talented and in good shape.
Don't want it to end his career or nothing.
Immediately I felt horrible.
Not for me, but for my friends-
for Dusty, for Jimmy-
because I knew everything they had built around me.
Their whole future, and plans,
and everything is built around me.
There was no Plan B.
Magnum T.A. was this shooting star that
we attached ourselves to.
We were flying high with him.
There was nothing to stop us.
But then, that shooting star went dark.
And with that, we went dark.
We were trying to find our way,
just like Magnum was trying to find his way.
I'm on a tour in Japan.
My first night back is in the
city of brotherly love, Philadelphia.
Dusty and Jim Crockett pull me into an office-
and it took 'em a few minutes, as I recall,
to really convince me, like, "No, we're not kidding."
Like, "This is for real.
He's lying in a hospital in Charlotte, North Carolina
right now, fighting for his life."
He's Dusty's guy!
He's his bread and butter.
He's groomed to be the next world heavyweight champion,
so obviously this leaves a void.
The last two weeks have been very difficult for
Dusty Rhodes, the American Dream.
Because Magnum T. A. and Dusty Rhodes
made their own rules.
We loved fast cars and fast times,
and that's the way we lived, on the end of that lightning
bolt that crashes through this vast earth of ours.
So, Dusty and Crockett and everybody else
was faced with, well, what do you do when
you're still making a movie, but your star is gone?
You gotta find a new star.
At that point, there was no major wrestling name that
was just floating around waiting for a phone call,
so Dusty looked within his own roster,
and said, "Who can possibly not take Magnum's spot and
look like him, act like him,
and do the same thing that will be seen as
a copy of him, but who can take that spot and
do it in a completely different way?"
And I have a new partner...
And that's Nikita Koloff.
I'm like the #1 most-hated guy in wrestling right now.
I mean, the fans love to hate me.
And I'm Russian. At this juncture,
I'm only two and a half years into my career.
[Cheering]
With the new plan in place, the challenge
becomes selling the story to the fans.
Jim Crockett called me, and he says,
"Would you be willing to come up to the hospital?
Magnum's asking for you.
He needs to talk to his fans, nationally,
about what's going on, and you guys' magazines
are the only way to do this."
Reporting from Magnum's bedside,
Bill Apter helps to engineer Nikita's transformation
into a babyface hero.
Bill Apter was the only- from the magazine side-
that I had built a bond with, and I trusted.
The story that was worked on was so heartwarming
'cause Nikita Koloff- and we had a picture of this
in one of the wrestling magazines-
it was a tear coming down Nikita's eyes for the cover,
and he said, "I cry for Magnum T .A."
And for the fans, for the very first time,
"Oh, my gosh, Nikita really does have a heart."
There was literally millions of people
like watching from the sidelines now,
that they were looking at this man,
that's now fighting this real-life battle,
and they're all pulling for me.
"How's he gonna handle it?
What's he gonna do?"
Despite being partially paralyzed and
confined to a hospital for months,
Terry Allen refuses to give up.
We all love him,
and we hope he gets better so he can wrestle.
If not wrestle, at least, you know,
be a part of the NWA still.
In April of 1987,
Crockett hatches a plan to bring Magnum T.A.
back at one of their biggest events of the year.
Baltimore Arena.
Terry Allen, aka, Magnum T.A.'s gonna
make his first appearance back in an arena.
And to see him again in person, was just something...
it's hard to put into words.
Magnum... T... A!
[Cheering]
For me, watching Terry Allen walk down that aisle,
that shows me that you can overcome almost anything.
And never give up.
I mean, for a guy who was supposed to be lifted
out of a bed and fed the rest of his life,
and bathed and all of that, to be able to walk under his
own power was an absolute miracle in and of itself.
I mean, I got choked up, like,
for real 'cause it was a surreal moment.
I can remember the moment, the emotion and the feel,
and the fans, and...
just like it was yesterday.
It was one of the most emotional moments
I've ever experienced.
They saw me come from, you know, death's door,
to never gonna walk again, to my gosh,
he walked to the ring.
Despite his enduring popularity,
it's clear that Magnum's wrestling days have come to
a permanent end, leaving his future uncertain.
It makes you have to adjust your thinking.
You try to find a way to, to fit back into the industry.
I was an intelligent guy. I was still well spoken.
So, I worked as a colour commentator for a while.
I'll be working with you, Magnum.
I really look forward to that.
I know all the fans in Chicago look forward to
seeing you again.
It's gonna be great, and I can't wait.
Magnum finding his niche in wrestling after his accident
was very hard because, being around it,
you always want to be back in it.
The hard times continue for Magnum behind the scenes.
We settled into a normal life.
I thought our marriage was doing well, but...
We stayed together for about a month
after I got out of the hospital.
There was some infidelity
past the accident.
I felt like I had given pretty much everything I had.
I just couldn't do that anymore.
And it was so overwhelming for her
because the realities of all the things
that had taken place on the road, you know,
she becomes aware of because I'm forthcoming.
And I feel bad about it. This is a bad deal.
I loved him very much.
It was hard for me to leave him.
But, I think at some point, you're just like,
once something is done again,
you know, how many times...
can you let that happen?
As Terry's relationship ends,
the once mighty Crockett Promotions implodes.
At this point, nobody on either side of the
wrestling war or any of the fans or the observers
realized exactly how crucial this was gonna be
a point in the wrestling business.
All of a sudden, they had to start from scratch.
In 1988, Crockett makes a deal with media mogul,
Ted Turner, leading to the birth of
World Championship Wrestling,
and the end of an era for wrestling fans.
If Terry Allen had never been in the accident,
the future of the NWA, Jim Crockett Promotions...
the sky is the limit.
I do. I totally would've been satisfied being
recognized as the world's heavyweight champion,
having my run, having my time in the sun,
and pass it off to the next 20-year-old
that thought he could do it better.
If he never had the accident- movies, commercials,
lifestyle, the world heavyweight championship.
When they see Magnum T.A. come
out there to defend the United States heavyweight
championship, they know that I'm the man that they can
stand behind because I'm always out there 100%.
You know, he was right at the brink of
becoming the world champion.
No doubt.
For it to be gone in the blink of an eye, man...
It should be a lesson for everybody.
You know, that life can change- [Snapping]-
that quick.
[Terry] One time, I remember Dusty and I,
we were in Columbia at the Township Auditorium.
We're sitting on the back steps, and he said,
"Can you imagine how successful we could be as
something else if we worked as hard at it
as we are at this?" And, he was right.
I used the same commitment with the new opportunity
as I had done all those years,
and attacked it with the same ferocity that
I had when I was chasing the world title.
He is an individual that will not give up.
Here's a man that is classified as a quadriplegic.
He's not gonna let it slow him down.
Terry decides to leave the wrestling world behind and
sets his sights on a new career
far from the squared circle.
Along the way, he also finds another chance at love.
My name is Courtney Blanchard-Allen,
and I am Terry Allen's wife.
I first met Terry Allen in 1997.
Both of us were going through divorces.
And, we became really, really good friends,
and leaned on each other a lot for support
during that time.
And, through that friendship,
developed an intimacy and a relationship.
He's my best friend.
For me, it's another miracle.
I was given a chance to have a family.
So, I've done my best to be steady,
make a secure home and loving home for all the kids.
Make sure they're all provided and well taken
care of and loved, and it's been an amazing ride.
It was the end of Magnum T.A.,
but it wasn't the end of Terry Allen.
You can be sad for what could've been,
what the wrestling fans could've seen that
they would have enjoyed,
and what he could have accomplished.
But you can't be sad overall because he came back
from the wreck, he's lived a long life.
He's been successful in other things,
and he's had a family and fans that
still care about him.
Magnum T.A.!
[Cheering]
-That's a pin. -That's it!
That's gotta be some kind of a record!
He pinned him, it had to be less than 15 seconds!
Oh, you know, it's gotta be, yeah.
Yeah. He'll never tell you that.
He had just a small percentage chance of survival.
And, his ability to overcome absolutely anything has
proven true every day since that accident.
If he wasn't at peace with how it ended,
it wouldn't be so inspirational.
There are so many people out there
that want to know more about his story,
to be able to do the things that he can do now.
I lived the dream most people only dream of,
and never getting to see come to fruition.
The other "What if?" is, you know,
"What if I hadn't woken up at all?"
And I am so thankful that I did.