Original subtitles

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

Vince McMahon.

All the big guns come here when they want to get it done, and that's why

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 have been for Crockett what Hulk Hogan was for

There's only one Magnum TA. There will ever be only one Magnum TA.

It was like being a rock star. I was given the keys to the city. The sky is

limit.

But Magnum's meteoric rise to fame and fortune would end in an ending.

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 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

man himself, but for the entire wrestling world.

He was told he would not walk again.

This is Wrestling Mania.

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

the WWF. Vince McMahon is a genius. But down south, a rival wrestling company

stands in defiance of the growing McMahon empire.

They know that Jim Dworkin, the wrestling network, is the best thing

That's why they're here.

As smaller companies across the country fold, Jim Crockett Promotions represents

one of the last lines of defense against the WWF's nationwide takeover. But

where the WWF showcases kid -friendly cartoon personas, Crockett's brand of

wrestling is a world of blood, grit, and glamour. Soon to appear on Lifestyles

of the rich and famous Mr.

Jim Crockett!

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 and 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're 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's 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 going to happen.

We had a great stable 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, kick -ass baby face 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 six, seven 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 this is something I could do.

And I was the most unlikely guy to be doing this because I had no athletic

background.

My name is Terry Allen, better known as Magnum T .A.

I started out wrestling in the ninth 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 was a

senior, I ended 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

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

son -of -a -bitches in the world outside of him.

So Buzz Sawyer sees me be like all buddy -buddies. So look, you know, it's

really hard to get into this business, but I can help you.

I feel like this guy is really going to 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.

Tells 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.

Ten grand.

And my mom and dad are like, phew, ten grand. Ten grand might as well have been

a hundred grand in 1979.

My mom believed in me. And she went to her dad, my granddaddy Smith.

And he gave me the money.

He gave me the money. He said, I believe in you.

And so we give him the money. And, you know, so I'm going to get in. He's going

to get me in the door.

And next thing I know, Buzz has left the Carolinas.

Whoosh.

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

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, whatever.

They generally cost between $10 and $25.

So, Buzz Sawyer wasn't going to sell Magnum TA any kind of wrestling license.

Should we get that money back from Buzz Sawyer?

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

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 knocking on the door. He opens

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 prospective talent

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 ruffled Buzz on television.

They all think, hey, you 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 seven 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 Robert!

I am what's left of Jake the Snake Robert.

He was a little sucker, man. He was just so hungry and wanted it so bad.

Terry's unrelenting drive and raw talent earned him admiration from promoters,

fans, and fellow wrestlers. His hard work pays off when a single phone call

propels his career to new heights.

Betty Graham that owns Florida Championship Wrestling. So he, boom,

phone, gives me a call. He said, I got a spot for you. And so, again, I pack 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

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 Rose, never met him.

I've seen his pictures on the cover of magazines.

Dusty Rosen was one of the greatest wrestlers ever, man. The best showman

without a doubt.

He was our Muhammad Ali.

The booker of a major wrestling promotion is like the major motion

director in Hollywood.

He decides the final say on the actors, who's going to play the part, how

they're going to do it, what their demeanor is, the way that the thing is

So the booker was the director, and Dusty Rhodes saw in Magnum T .A. his

movie star.

Dusty had the potential to see talent and charisma within people that didn't

know how to bring it out.

And he became the most influential

guy on my career of anybody that I ever came in contact with.

Magnum TA, 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

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

about a detective. His name was Magnum P .I. So Andre looks over at me and he

says, Boss, 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 TA and put

that name together.

After just over a year in Florida, Magnum TA returned 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. Really a very personable young man, one with a

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.

So then they say, well, maybe punk rock was kind of a thing. They wanted me to

wear some punk rock clothes.

I'm not comfortable at all in this.

But we go through all these little things.

trying to do.

Nothing is clicking.

So I called 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 Davidson.

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 and a leather jacket.

He had the perfect look for professional wrestling. The perfect size, the

physique, the face, the whole nine yards.

Just 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 burned it up there for a

while.

Not very long.

Magnum T .A. is a rising star and a fan favorite 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.

puts Jim Crockett on the phone with me and says, look, I will promise you if

come here, I will give you the greatest opportunity that anybody could ever ask

for in the business.

I first met Magnum TA 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 to make him look good. He just, he glowed.

Magnum T .A. is coming to Mid -Atlanta for one reason, one reason only, coming

for the U .S. Heavyweight Championship.

Almost immediately, Crockett goes and barters a deal to go on TBS, on the

superintendent. The moment we went on the superstation, everything changed.

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

championship title holder.

Here we were at the baptism of Dusty and Michelle's son, Cody.

It was pretty special.

The minute I make the emotional decision that I'm going to settle down and I'm

going to get married, immediately my career path says, we want to promote you

a sex symbol.

We want you to be our superstar.

We want you to be the people everybody would tear their hair out and want to

hold of.

He was the rock star.

The cheers for Magnum were the squeals of the women in the audience. It was

hysteria.

It was just absolute insanity. And it was the wild, wild west from the

standpoint, the girls in every port and every place.

It was bad.

It was like Animal House 24 -7.

It was more than any red -blooded male could handle.

They were getting the motel key and panty treatment every night. It was

They had more sex on the way to the ring than I've had in my life.

You always play to the audience, whether it's male or female.

I mean, the women crying, they want to get close to him after the match and get

blood off of him.

Oh, I'll never wash my hands again.

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

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.?

I think it was the other way around.

I think he was intimidated by me.

I am Nikita Koloff, better known to the wrestling fans as the Russian Nightmare.

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 Russia...

Political situation.

Here you have Magnum T .A., American made.

So you had the Russian might against American made.

Magnum T .A., or Mega 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 seven series. It was one of the

greatest feuds in pro wrestling history.

Between the number one challenger, who is Nikita Kolov, and the former

Magnum T .A.

There's got to be a clear -cut winner for four matches. And Nikita Kolov,

there's never going to be a day in my life that I'll have to look up to a

wrestler and call you a superior athlete.

Match number one, I have set myself to be this physical specimen, and so to go

up 1 -0.

So the way we just built the story and how each match was finished, whether it

was a dominating victory on my part, going up 2 -0, and then to go up 3 -0,

and then he catches me by surprise and he wins that first.

3 -1.

And the winner of match number four, Adam T.

A.

He slips by and wins 3 -2.

Oh my gosh, there's hope.

There's hope for America.

Match number six, and he squeaks out another victory, and now it's three to

three, and it's going to come down to that final match, number seven.

The man standing before you right now is the man that's going to take it all

home, bring it home right here, United States of America.

It couldn't have been set up any better.

And Nikita Koloff gets the one, two, three.

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 U .S. title.

That, by the way, set you up as number one 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 going

be the world champion? Who's going to 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 was

the most coveted wrestling title you could go after. That 10 pounds of gold

was an amazing thing.

And he was going to 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

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 going to be the next World's Heavyweight

Champion.

The trajectory was to take the next step.

move away from Nikita so I can 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've got this great new opportunity.

This is gorgeous Jimmy Garvin!

And this angle with Terry and Patty and I was going to be huge.

And I have confidence because I know that I'm the greatest athlete in the

and nobody could beat me.

But, you know, I had that match with him in Greenville, South Carolina that

night. A 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

Lafter.

Last week's show with Magnum T .A.

That's such a great response.

We've asked the U .S. 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 Heavyweight Championship held

Ric Flair.

He was going right to the top. I could not see any road taking him anywhere

except to the top.

We had everything sunk into him.

Terry Allen.

was the future.

As Magnum TA closes in on the heavyweight title, he begins living the

world champion.

At that time, I had more money than I had since.

I'd walked into the Porsche dealership, and they had a brand new 911 Turbo

sitting all on the floor.

And that was the Mac Daddy.

It'd write me up. I'm taking it. It was quick, and it was cool.

I had the need for speed like Top Gun.

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 in 27, by the time I'm 30, out of it,

and then go drive NASCAR.

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 14, 1986, after defeating gorgeous Jimmy Garvin in front of a

crowd in South Carolina, Magnum CA hits the road in his prized Porsche 911.

I'm five minutes from my house.

I'm on a two -lane road that I've driven hundreds of times. It's like the horse

turns the corner and there's the barns right there, and I'm on the track.

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.

two, three inches of water all the way across the road.

When I went around the corner, and that dipped right in the middle of the car

hydroplane. 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.

The car spun violently the other direction, and I broadsided a telephone

So hard to cut it in half.

It happened so fast.

It was violent.

And the blow was like I had been hit by a freight train.

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.

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 and said, no, no, I can't move. So they used the jaws

of life, cut the whole top of the car off, peeled it back like a tin can, and

stabilized me. They couldn't airlift me out because it was raining so hard. Took

me by ambulance.

It changed my life. It changed the people I worked for. It changed my

changed everybody in a nanosecond.

The police called me. They were taking him to the hospital.

On my way to the hospital, 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'd use the words C5 quadriplegic and neck down paralysis.

Me into 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 going to breathe.

They said my lungs were paralyzed.

I mean, they were saying things to me like, well, maybe you might be able to

on an iron lung instead of a ventilator.

The guys in intensive care, they've got him all hooked up. They keep him

sedated.

You just feared for the worst.

You know, it was...

You know, is he truly going to make it? You know, what was going through his

mind? They're shooting me up with morphine every time I blink because they

communicate with me. If I try to communicate anything, they think I'm

So I'm in such bad shape, they're just zapping me with the moon and stars.

My brother came in, he just said, he'll never, ever

get in the ring again.

According to the police report, Alan was going south here on Sardis Road, away

from town, when his car went off the road on the far side back there, about

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 fifth cervical vertebrae. And it exploded. It

sent those bone fragments back and created compression on the spinal cord.

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 the 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 ,000 to 10 ,000 phone calls about Magnum

.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.

A lot of people held him close to their heart.

Arianne 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

gotten through this time without all that love and positive energy that I

flowing around me.

Back in the day, like, we didn't go to the hospital because K -Fabe, you know,

was the heel. He was the baby face.

Didn't go to the hospital, and we just didn't do it.

In the 1980s, wrestlers and promoters still go to great lengths to maintain

illusion that wrestling is real, a practice known as keeping kayfabe.

So Flair and the Horseman or any of the Heels couldn't go to the hospital and

see Magnum. So what they did was one of our people who 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

the night so that nobody would see them so they could go and see Magnum.

Flair came in my room with the 10 pounds of gold, laid it on my chest, said, I'm

giving you this one. I'm waiting for you to 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 check per week to Magnum and Jim Crockett as the

promoter would match the total of everything that was collected by the

wrestlers. Whether it was $25 a week or $50 a week out of everybody's check, but

there were 30 guys.

And then he'd match it.

What's your rule in his recovery?

I was there every day. I went to the hospital every day. And I helped feed

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

room, people were able to start relaying things to me that was going on in the

outside world that I was pretty oblivious to. I love Magna more than I

everyone else.

Sad something might have happened to a man so talented and in good shape.

I don't want to end this career or nothing.

Immediately, I felt horrible.

Not for me, but for my friends, for Dusty, for Jimmy, because I knew

they had built around me. Their whole future and plans and everything is built

around me. There was no plan B.

Magnum TA 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 them 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 TA and Dusty Rhodes made their own rules.

We love fast cars and fast times, and that's the way we lived on the end of

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've got to find a new star.

At that point, there was no major wrestling name that was just floating

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 and 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 number one 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.

With the new plan in place, the challenge becomes telling the story to

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, the magazines, are the only way to do this.

Reporting from Magnum's bedside, Bill Apter helps to engineer Nikita's

transformation into a baby -faced hero.

Bill Apter was the only, from the magazine side, that I had built a bond

and I trusted.

The story that was worked on was so heartwarming, because Nikita Koloff...

we had a picture of this on one of the wrestling magazines. There was a tear

coming down Nikita's eyes for the cover, and he said, I cry for Magnum TA.

And for the fans, for the very first time, oh my gosh, Nikita really does

heart.

There was literally millions of people 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 going to handle it? What's he going to 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

the biggest events of the year.

Baltimore Arena, Terry Allen, a .k .a. Magnum T .A., is going to 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!

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 is 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, because 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 going to

walk again to, my gosh, you walk 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 fit

into the industry.

I was an intelligent guy.

I was still well -spoken.

So I worked as a color commentator for a while.

I'll be working with you, Magnum. I really look forward to that. And to all

fans in Chicago, I look forward to seeing you again. It's going to be

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

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 implode. 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 going to 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

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's the limit.

Do you ever wonder what happened about your wrestling career? I do. I totally

would have been satisfied being recognized as the world's heavyweight

having my run, having my time in the sun, and passing it off to the next 20

-year -old that thought he could do it better.

He never had the accident, movie, commercial, lifestyle, the world

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 that quick.

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,

you imagine how successful we could be at something else if we worked as hard

it as we are at this?

And he was right.

I've 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

world title.

He is an individual.

that will not give up.

Here's a man that is classified as a quadriplegic. He's not going to let it

him down.

Terry decides to leave the wrestling world behind and sets his sights on a

career far from the squared circle.

Along the way, he also finds another chance at love.

My name is Courtney Blanchett Allen, and I am Terry Allen's wife.

First met Terry Allen, possibly 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

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,

home and a 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 have been, what the wrestling fans could have 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

family and fans that still care about him.

Is it

tough for him day to day?

Oh, no, it's got to 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

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 that most people only dream of.

and never get the seed come to fruition.

The other what if is, you know, what if I hadn't woke up at all? And I'm so

thankful that I did.