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This is a thread dedicated to one of the best wrestlers who never had the chance to reach his full potential. I’m talking about Magnum TA. Magnum began wrestling in 1977 in NWA, when wrestling was still territory based and would go on to have great success which was peaked as a two time NWA United States Heavyweight Champion. Magnum the look, charisma, mic skills, and the in ring ability to be on Hulk Hogan’s and Ric Flair’s level. Over the course of his career, he had solid feuds with The Four Horsemen, Wahoo McDaniel and Nikita Koloff.
His I Quit match with Tully Blanchard at Starcade 85 for the United States Championship is one of those forgotten gems that all wrestling fans could appreciate. Actually, the entire feud with Blanchard was one of the best of 1985. In 1986, Magnum would feud with Koloff over the US Championship losing it to Koloff just two months before his career ending injury.
In October of 1986, Magnum TA was driving in the rain and lost control of his vehicle, thus striking a light pole. The end result, Magnum has a career ending spine injure and we see the end of a very promising career.
In my opinion, the NWA was already showing signs of potentially pushing Magnum to be the NWA Heavyweight champion. He had wrestled Flair for the NWA title once, in a thirty minute mat classic. Of course Flair won the match but the fact he was being pushed into the main event and, the fact fans loved the man, I had no doubts he would have been champion in 1987 or at latest Starcade 88. Yes, I know NWA was high on Luger at the time, but I still think we would have saw Flair vs. Magnum over Flair vs. Luger. I also think it would have been a bigger draw since Magnum was on fire.
There are wrestlers you always think, “What might have beenâ€, and then there are wrestlers you think, “The cruel reality or life took away a great careerâ€. He is also, in my opinion, the greatest wrestler to never hold a World Championship.
Also here is an interesting random fact, he is actually Cody Rhodes Godfather. Yes, he and Dusty Rhodes were really close friends.
His I Quit match with Tully Blanchard at Starcade 85 for the United States Championship is one of those forgotten gems that all wrestling fans could appreciate. Actually, the entire feud with Blanchard was one of the best of 1985. In 1986, Magnum would feud with Koloff over the US Championship losing it to Koloff just two months before his career ending injury.
In October of 1986, Magnum TA was driving in the rain and lost control of his vehicle, thus striking a light pole. The end result, Magnum has a career ending spine injure and we see the end of a very promising career.
In my opinion, the NWA was already showing signs of potentially pushing Magnum to be the NWA Heavyweight champion. He had wrestled Flair for the NWA title once, in a thirty minute mat classic. Of course Flair won the match but the fact he was being pushed into the main event and, the fact fans loved the man, I had no doubts he would have been champion in 1987 or at latest Starcade 88. Yes, I know NWA was high on Luger at the time, but I still think we would have saw Flair vs. Magnum over Flair vs. Luger. I also think it would have been a bigger draw since Magnum was on fire.
There are wrestlers you always think, “What might have beenâ€, and then there are wrestlers you think, “The cruel reality or life took away a great careerâ€. He is also, in my opinion, the greatest wrestler to never hold a World Championship.
Also here is an interesting random fact, he is actually Cody Rhodes Godfather. Yes, he and Dusty Rhodes were really close friends.