10 Loudest Wrestling Pops You Didn't Know About
6. Nikita Koloff Atones To Atomic Pop
Because pro wrestling is an inherently, unabashedly carny business, Magnum's tragedy was incorporated into storyline. The execution was so phenomenal - and the curve for questionable taste so stunningly low - that it never resonated as ghoulish.
Besides which, the fans wanted this to happen and something like it had to happen. The irreplaceable had to be replaced; there is no offseason in wrestling, and the car crash left Crockett Promotions without a top babyface act. Nikita Koloff, feared Russian baddie, turned in quite shocking fashion. He was there to draw heat through his nationality, reductively.
Executed with savvy timing - the tense Cold War years were thawing - Koloff revealed himself to be the partner of Dusty Rhodes to an eruption of a pop. Subverting the visual that accompanied the customary Dusty betrayal to stunning effect, this time, the steel cage acted as the backdrop for a new alliance.
The improbable moment was so powerful that both Dusty and Tony Schiavone cited it as the single loudest pop they had ever experienced, and this was literally Road Warriors territory: a squealing explosion, Koloff was so affected by Magnum's tragedy that it led him to respect his former rival.
Atonement as a storyline driver, that this was somehow earned speaks to its immense brilliance.