• Old School NWA Legend Celebrates His Birthday
Old School NWA Legend Magnum T.A. (Real name: Terry Allen) celebrates his 60th birthday today.
The story of Magnum T.A. is actually a very sad oneas he was supposed to become the NWA’s counterpart to the WWF’s Hulk Hogan, which means that he had the potential to not only become the face of the company but even could’ve turned Jim Crockett Promotions into a serious competitor against the World Wrestling Federation during the 80s.
Magnum was already booked to defeat “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair for the NwA world Heavyweight Championship in the main event of the Starrcade 1986 PPV, but unfortunately had a car accident a few weeks before the event, in which he suffered several injuries that forced him to end his professional wrestling career.
It’s safe to say that history would’ve been different if that accident had never happened. Who knows? It’s quite possible, that Jim Crockett Promotions wouldn’t have needed to sell to Turner in late 1988, so people like Jim Herd, who ruined a lot for a lot of people, never would’ve gotten hired. One can only dream.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAGNUM T.A.!
• Former WWE Wrestler Reveals TNA’s Biggest Problem
During a recent interview with Chris Van Vliet, former WWE & TNA wrestler Matt Morgan talked about his time in TNA Wrestling, TNA’s biggest problem, helping The Young Bucks get signed to TNA & more.
Below are the highlights:
On TNA not putting the World Title on him:
“TNA gave me the opportunity to be a main event talent. I think I headlined 6 or 7 PPVs with them and a lot of Championship matches for the Heavyweight Championship and they really should have capitalized on it a couple of times and they didn’t. That’s on them, not me. But again, you’re telling a story and it’s your job and you can’t be such a mark for yourself.
It’s hard for wrestlers not to do that because we eat, sleep and drink it and we put everything we have into it. We sacrifice time away from our families for this and you dream these huge dreams, these dreams of grandeur that you’re going to be the Champion one day. And if you don’t have that, you really shouldn’t be doing this and that’s the truth.”
On TNA’s biggest problem:
“That was one of TNA’s biggest problems, they did not know how to get the young guys to that finish line even if it was right in front of them. Even if all signs pointed in that direction. ‘No bro, we’re going to throw a swerve’ no, that’s not the time to throw a swerve.
Sometimes predictability in wrestling is good. It makes people emotionally invest in that character more. Kofi Kingston is a great example, it’s that payoff of you could see where they were going with it at WrestleMania but we still wanted to see it happen.”
On helping The Young Bucks get signed to TNA:
“I helped them get into TNA. I did a lot of work, not that it was hard, but it was hard to get Terry Taylor and all of them to watch my phone because at the time that was all we had, to watch the Young Bucks. I was watching all of these clips that my fans were sending me on my Twitter. This was many, many years ago. I was like holy bleep, these are the next Hardy Boyz but they could be even better. I remember thinking that.
I was showing it to Terry Taylor, I tried to show it to Vince Russo, he was too cool and couldn’t watch it, but Terry Taylor watched it and I found out Alex Shelley was friends with them and Alex Shelley was big on pushing that too. Finally got them signed. I apologize guys on how it went for you after you got signed, they didn’t know how to use you. Generation Me? Good Lord. They had a built in gimmick, just let them do it!”
