A solid Dark Side of the Ring last night, which really wasn't as much a Dark Side of the Ring.
It followed the story of Magnum TA, a lot of you oldies will remember that this guy was the Hulk Hogan of Jim Crockett Promotions which at the time was competing with the WWF. Terry Allen had it all, the looks, the charisma the Wrestling ability. JCP built their entire federation around him and after some exceptional feuds with Nikita Koloff and Jimmy Garvin was set to take the World Heavy Weight Champion (NWA) off of Rick Flair.
But a tragic car accident changed everything. He lost control of a Porche 911, and hit a telephone poll with enough force to sheer it off. Broke his neck, and it was through that he was going to be a full quadriplegic.
While he managed to regain some use of his arms and legs, he never stepped in the ring again.
While the story talked about the breakup of his marriage. There wasn't a Dark Side so to speak to this story. He went on to do other things, remarry and raise a family.
The effect on JCP was devastating. They had built the whole territory around him, that was gone. Though they tried to carry on, and they had such a solid roster and some good story lines, they got ground under, and were eventually bought by Ted Turner and turned into World Championship wrestling.
The NWO, the wrestling wars might have happened but might not have happened if not for a car accident.
There were some cool aspects to the story.
The concept of Kayfabe was huge back then so they had to sneak wrestlers like Flair into the hospital so the fans wouldn't see it.
We saw Nikita Koloff who was the king of Kayfabe. During his career he never broke it. He would walk around town, speaking Russian and even learned Russian. He didn't break character until after he retired, which he did not long after the accident.
A very cool episode, with a rare happy ending.
But really good.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
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