Nikita Kolloff.....Koloff was a mega heel, maybe only behind Ric Flair and Randy Savage in all of US wrestling in 1986, the NWA had gone out of its way to promote the "Russian Nightmare" as the man who would help Ivan Kolloff, the former Olympic Medalist and the man who cleanly beat Bruno Sammartino to end his historic 7 year run as WWE Champ, win the top titles in wrestling and take them back to Russia. He had suffered a minor set back when Ric Flair turned face and managed to beat him (barely, taking a bloody and horrific beating in the process) to maintain The World Title but over the following year Nikita terrorized fan faves like The Rock & Roll Express and nearly ended Magnum TA's career, and in fact defeated TA in a Best Of Seven Series to win the vacated US Title, which Kolloff was preparing to take back to Russia.
With that in mind, and that feud having just ended, Nikita was one really over hated dude, seeing him appear out of nowhere to help Dusty Rhodes, who had been a constant nemesis for two years, fend off an attack by The Four Horsemen was about as shocking a face turn as has ever been seen in televised wrestling. Andre turning heel in 1987 and Hogan turning heel in 1996 were all time legendary bad guy turns, seeing the Russian Nightmare fresh of stealing the US Title and promising to re brand it the USSR Title, come to the aide of a guy called The American Dream was totally unforeseen.
Behind the scenes Magnum's losing of the US Title to Koloff was supposed to cause storyline heat with heel World Champ Flair, igniting a feud between them in fall of 86 that likely would land at Starrcade 86 supershow in Nov. TA had one run early in his career vs Flair a year earlier and connected well with fans, but he wasn't deemed ready to be World Champ material. Now in the fall of 86 there was serious consideration about giving him a title run, though it would have been long term or just a token run was never hammered out. It wasn't definitive that he would go over Flair at SC 86 but it definitely in the discussion and it was almost a foregone conclusion the two would have a full scale war over the title and headline the SC 86 show.
Magnum unfortunately for him was nearly killed in an automobile accident in October, he was hospitalized for months and was left partially crippled, eventually he was able to walk with some assistance but had only limited use of one of his arms and clearly could never wrestle, or even take a bump ever again. Behind the scenes this put the NWA in a tail spin, Magnum was hugely over as a fan fave, second only to Dusty on the roster and Dusty was probably second only to Hulk Hogan nationwide in terms of popularity as a fan fave. Dusty was also at the end of his career and was not a viable option to unseat Flair, He also wasn't a viable option even to oppose hm at this point as they had headlined the two previous Starrcades and had long runs against each other in both 1985 and earlier in 86 when Dusty did get a token title win, ending an epic winning streak for Flair that had become a staple storyline that summer. The NWA needed something quick with SC a month away.
A show previously advertised to have Magnum teaming with Dusty was on the near horizon, Dusty would come out himself unwilling to forfeit the match but supposedly unable to find a partner and attempt to wrestle The Andersons himself, of course it wouldn't go well, and Kolloff would appear out of nowhere, at first looking like he would aide The Horsemen in just destroying Rhodes, who of course was depicted in storylines as Magnum's best friend (and Magnum was Kolloff's biggest rival), yet at the last second just as The Horsemen appear all to willing to let Nikita finish off The American Dream Kolloff unleashes an all out assault on The Horsemen, stunning the live crowd, and as he embraces Rhodes in the ring the Horsemen gather shocked outside and Ric Flair (who emerges from the locker room, he wasn't wrestling in this match) is apoplectic as Nikita makes the "championship belt" sign (same one Aaron Rogers uses as his TD Dance) and points at Flair.
It was explained later that Kolloff had developed a great sense of respect for Magnum's toughness and competitveness, making him feel compassion when he was injured, compassion that was mocked and disallowed by Ivan and their crew of Russian heels. This made Koloff realize the error of his ways and he agreed to help Dusty in honor of Magnum as well as to disavow his Uncle Ivan whom he had come to see as evil. It was a great story, instantly sympathetic, and made the resident heel monster a legit threat to the World Title.
Still seeing Nikita of all people be the one who came to Dusty's aide, that was a shock that quite honestly in 40 years has never been eclipsed for me except Hogan's 96 turn. It was surreal, to this day thinking about the storyline trajectory and the foundations laid down over the previous year plus, it was a brilliant stroke of writing. Best shocking face turn all time.
