Q&A with Koloff - #21

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This is the Truth Network. Nakeda Koloff here. Questions and answers. Q&A with Koloff. The Devil's Nightmare. Welcome back today. Q&A. Questions and answers with Nakeda Koloff.

The Devil's Nightmare. Come on, Jatoita. Hey, in studio today. I just met this man for the very first time, but already I sense what an amazing fan he is to professional wrestling.

John Ward. Thank you for being in studio today, John. Oh, it's my pleasure. This is a real treat for me, sir. It really is. Well, hey, it's always a treat for me.

Like, for real. Like, here's the treat for me. Back in the wrestling days, we had, for the most part, I didn't have a lot of fan interaction. Especially as the bad guy, I had basically zero, by choice, zero fan interaction. When I became a good guy, saw the light, and went to the other side of the tracks, and I had more. But now, for me to be able to have, like, conversations and interviews like this, go to autograph signings, and hear stories from the fans, that just blesses my heart, like, for real.

For real. Well, just following a little bit of your story, what I know, and when I was first told about having the chance to meet you, I'm thinking, this is the guy I remember on TV, who was really rough and gruff, and I'm not sure he's going to like a lot of people. And then, now this transformation of what you've done and what you stand for now, I could not wait for this day. Well, I'm glad it worked out.

And, of course, a mutual friend, Robbie Dilmore, is who connected us together. You were just telling me, before we came on the show, you were just telling me how he was mentioning he was going to go to, like, this mad camp thing with Nikita. What happened? Tell that story. He stopped you in your tracks. Tell the story. They were over for a bite to eat at night, and as he was talking, just right in the middle of sins, he said something about Nikita Koloff, and I said, wait, wait, wait, wait.

Say that again? He said, Nikita Koloff. And I just, I sat up on the edge of my couch, and I did not let him go from a conversation for about 30 minutes. Next thing you know, my family starts sitting in, because they see me getting excited and saying, I know that name, I just want to make sure it's the same person.

It was. And from that point on, he told me about what your journey is and where you are. I was like, what an amazing opportunity, if I could, to meet him.

And next thing you know, he lined all this up. So I am forever grateful to Robbie as well. Robbie is a good man, to say the least. Of course, he helps me out with all these shows on the production end of things, and just become a dear, dear friend as well. And others will hear his story on one of the podcasts, one of the shows of his experience at Mancab. Hey, we have to get you there one day, John. I know, I heard a lot about it, and he was trying to get me, and I was like, oh, if my schedule allowed me, I would love to play on doing that with you.

Sounds great. Maybe in the future, yeah. I did have to stop, if I may, I had to tell Robbie and kind of give him up to speed about what professional wrestling was, you know, where I've been. He wasn't really a fan.

No, sir. I'm like, Robbie, just sit still and let me talk to you for a minute, and get you up to speed on some terms, some of the people, and the names, and the kind of timeline. So I had a real lot of fun doing that. Just listen for a second.

You know who you're talking to? So it was a lot of fun getting him up to speed as well. You had to give him an education on the Russian nightmare. I did, absolutely.

Yeah, come on, the Russian nightmare. That's great. Does that bring back memories? Absolutely, I was hoping I could hear that today. People always ask me, can you do the voice? I'm like, you know, I can for the right price.

That's right. John, here's the reality. It's a little harder on my vocal cords now than it was back when I was 20 and 30 years old, you know?

And so very sparingly, but I will do it, very sparingly. Now, hey, also before we came on the show, I was like, you know, where did you watch it? You grew up in Florida. Grew up in Florida, in Daytona Beach, was there for about 20, 23 years. Rough place to grow up in.

No, just terrible, just terrible. But I'm the only one in my family that was a fan and they knew when it was on, it was my time and just let me be. But watching all the old time wrestling and back when it was just a true joy to watch both you and Ivan and Dusty Rhodes and all the famous names out there was just a real special time in my childhood. Back in the days of what, and some of my listeners might not even realize this because, you know, they know WWE, they know the newest AEW, TNA, Ring of Honor, NWA Power, which Billy Corgan has rebooted back down in Atlanta.

So there are other organ... But back in the day, I mean, it was territories all over the country and around the world. And I don't know if all of our listeners really realized that.

So down in your neck of the woods, so to speak, was what was called Florida Championship Wrestling under the banner of the NWA, the National Wrestling Alliance. And of course, a couple of the names... You already mentioned one, Dusty Rhodes, the power of power. The American Dream himself. That's great. Yes, absolutely. Everybody loves to imitate Dusty. Of course, I traveled with him for a couple of years, you know, it was hard not to imitate him now.

Of course, his son Cody with AEW is doing extremely well and owned by the Jacksonville Jaguars. Oh, really? I didn't know that.

Okay. Did you not know that? No. Yeah, the Khan family that owns the Jaguars.

Pretty deep pockets, by the way. Yeah, they own AEW. No kidding. I did not know that. Yeah. So however, Tony Khan got... Somehow, Cody got linked up with Tony Khan and like, let's do this and created their own wrestling organization.

And that's something. I watched it. I see him pop up every once in a while. So I see a name I remember back from when I used to watch. I'll stop and watch it for a little bit, but that was such a special time in my childhood.

Okay. So who are some other... From Florida Championship Wrestling, who would be some other names that you can recall from your childhood? Well, there was Dusty. Ric Flair was around during that time. And he would come in as the NWA champion, again, to all these other territories to represent the NWA to like the local champion for Florida, for example. Right.

Or Mid-South or the Northeast, Northwest. So anyway, okay. Another one that my brother tried to imitate with me every once in a while was The Masked Assassin.

Okay. Remember him? And Mr. Wrestling too. I remember them as well. Yeah.

Yeah. The one of the tag teams, the Rock and Roll Express, I don't think was NWA, but that's part of some of the networks I used to watch. Well, Rock and Roll came into the Mid-Atlantic, which is, again, part of the NWA.

The NWA had a worldwide organization. What about Black Jack Mulligan? Yes, sir. Absolutely. I had a couple of matches against that dude. And do you remember he used to wear a glove?

Sure. And I just want to tell you right now, the claw that he would put on your forehead, that wouldn't knock you out, but the smell of his glove... And that's something. For real. I'm like, dude, could you not wash that?

I don't guess you can. I don't know how many foreheads that glove was on, but it reeked. Can I just tell you? Black Jack Mulligan. I remember that. Sure. Goodness. I faded from the... I go, I'll just faint.

You just pin me. Anyway, Black Jack Mulligan. And there were a couple others down there too. Black Bart. I don't remember that name. Ron Bass. Ron Bass. A couple of cowboy kind of characters. That was Terry Funk, NWA. Terry Funk and his brother, Dory Funk Jr. Yes, sir. Absolutely. How about... Well, and Eddie Graham, who was kind of the father of Florida Championship Wrestling, once he passed, his son, Mike Graham.

Mike took it over from Eddie. Okay. And so anyway, Florida Championship Wrestling, and then eventually Dusty would make his way to the Mid-Atlantic, where we would have some matches against each other.

And then eventually, we formed the Thupa Powit. Oh, that's great. Anyway, so... I saw Dusty Rose in a airport in Las Vegas.

They were coming in for a big tournament. Okay. And my wife, she knew that was something she would talk to me about, but not get near.

Yeah. I said, there goes Dusty Rose. I said, I gotta go shake his hand. So I'm running down the concourse, because he's on all those moving sidewalks. I walked up high, and I said, Mr. Rose.

He turned around. I said, just letting you know, I'm a big fan. I shook his hand, and that was such a thrill for me. My wife has no clue what that meant to me, but I came back, and I said, this hand will not be washed for a week. Just letting you know.

I love it. Well, I tell you what, for real, it's always a thrill for me. You probably have some questions today for me. After all, this is called Questions and Answers. I'm hoping... This is totally spontaneous, because I've not seen your questions.

A lot of times, they'll submit them to me, and at least get an opportunity to glance over them, if nothing else. So this is 100... This is like... Hey, Jon, this is like old-school wrestling. See, because our interviews, there was no scripts handed to us. Did you know that?

I did not. Talk about a great show. Let me just tell you that before we jump into your questions. So again, for the viewers to understand the difference between today's product, which kudos to the athletes and those guys who performed today, but back in the day, every interview... When you saw Dusty, you saw The Russian Nightmare cut an interview, that was 100% spontaneous. Just off the cuff. Just go. Off the cuff. No scripts. None.

Like, zero. So from an interview perspective, and even the matches themselves, again, I'll just say, if I was wrestling Ric Flair, you mentioned Flair, there are plenty of times I wrestle him for an hour. Well, I'm either a genius, if I'm able to memorize an hour match, or somebody else has to figure something else out.

So here's the other part you'd figure out. There might have been what we would call a predetermined outcome that might be two, three minutes to the outcome, but for 56 or seven minutes, we're spontaneously telling a story in the ring with both verbal and non-verbal communication. Unbelievable. Great.

No conversation typically, but before a match, until you actually got in the ring. Can you imagine that? That is something else. I did not know that. That makes it more special to me, going, that's how they lasted that long, but that's just tremendous. And that's why, when you watch old film, you go on YouTube, watch old videos, even fan reaction, which is even much more organic, much more real than the reactions you see today. Absolutely. It is. For that reason.

I love watching the old fans, and I always talk about the elderly ladies that were just really into it, and they're up there screaming, hollering what they're gonna do to you. Oh, boy. There's a couple of stories I can tell you there, but let's jump into your question. Sure. Let's just... Yeah, let's fly into your question. Well, thank you.

I dropped a few down, ran them by my daughter. She said, those are fine. I said, okay. Oh, that's good. I saw where you retired in 1993 from wrestling. Yes.

Can you share with me what made you make that decision? Okay. Great question.

It was... My last match was against a guy... Remember Big Van Vader? Sure. Remember that name? Vader. Yeah, the Vader man.

Well, Vader had a... He had a reputation for being reckless. He was a big guy. He's 450, 500 pounds, somewhere in that neighborhood. So he's a big guy. Goodness. And so he had this reputation. So I always tried to protect... And that's one thing about the ring was there's a lot of trust involved there. You're letting a guy turn you upside down and drive your head into a mat called a pile driver or slamming you on a concrete floor or suplexing you with these different moves. In his case, he had a...

I think it was called a power bomb or something. Okay. And knowing he was reckless, I'm like, dude, just for the record, that won't be happening on The Russian Nightmare. That was one conversation I had prior to the match. I'm like, you can use that on other guys.

It ain't happening on The Nightmare. I value my body. Okay?

Because injuries, even though wrestling is entertainment, the injuries are very, very real. I absolutely believe that and you can see it. Yeah. And I've had my share. All that to say, my very last match was actually right here in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where Truth Radio Network is home to. And it wasn't a career-ending injury, but it gave me reason to pause and reflect on my future. And that night, we're fighting on the floor. He clotheslined me in the back of the head. My left arm went limp for about three or four minutes, just dangling there, and then pinched a nerve. And eventually, I got feeling back as we finished the match. I finished it with one arm and eventually two, and had that looked at the next day. But also, I'm like, I had some pain in my lower abdomen. I'm like, what's up with that? And the doc goes, oh, you got a hernia, right?

450, 500 pounds. So I got a hernia lifting the behemoth up, right? So I had hernia surgery, okay, rehabilitating my neck over Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's. And I had set a goal when I first got in that I'd be out of active in-ring wrestling by the time I was 35. So I was 33, getting ready to turn 34, and I just made my own executive decision and said, I'm done.

I'm done. And walked away under my own terms, no fanfare, no hoopla, just walked away. And then, yeah, and then in 1993, I'm on this path, this quest, if you will, of what does life hold next for Nikita Kolov? So the injury wasn't career ending. It was more a goal I had for myself to walk away from wrestling as a main event wrestler, if you want to say, on top of the business. And I'm one of the few, I think, that retired and actually held true to my... I didn't retire 10 times, in other words.

No, and then come back and retired and come back and... Not naming any names for all the listeners out there. Anyway, so I hope that... Does that answer your... That does. Thank you.

And Vader was a very large person. You can just see... Yes.

Like, imagine what that would have been like. Yes. Yep. So I had a chance to look at a YouTube video of you and Lex Luger at a recent service. And I think it's so amazing to see both of you in this new life that you have, but the way Lex looks up to you and what you both did with your lives is really something. How did you two connect after wrestling to be followers of Christ? Well, again, just another great question. The interesting thing is the last time I saw him during the wrestling days was at some matches in Charlotte, North Carolina, December of 1995. Wow.

Okay. And that was kind of my last... The last time I was really kind of around any live shows at that point. And I had already given my life to the Lord at that point, about a year and a half earlier, 17 October 1993, 11 months after I left wrestling.

Again, finding or realizing I'm successful but unfulfilled, and through a Christian couple that I had met in business, invited me to their church, went one Sunday, and they met me there, and that was my aha moment when I realized what was missing in my life was a personal relationship with Jesus. I didn't grow up in church, just like I didn't grow up in Russia, just for the record, in case, John, you were still wondering. No, I did find that out, yes, sir.

Okay, okay. Minneapolis. Minneapolis. That's right, just outside of Moscow, Minnesota. That's right, Minneapolis. Just as cold, right?

Just as cold as Siberia. Yeah, absolutely. So I didn't grow up in church, but I knew the story, right? And it was in my head, but it never made the 18th trip down to my heart. Well, on 17 October 1993, it did. And it was like, here's who I was, and my life is completely different now, and the only thing that was different was who I met when meeting him in between, right?

That's what changed my life. So I did see Lex from December 1995 until June of 2006, so about 11 years, plus or minus. And I had heard that he had given his life to the Lord, and it was a jail chaplain after, and that's a whole story in itself, but after Lex's last stint in jail in the Cobb County jail there in Marietta, Georgia, the jail chaplain had befriended him, eventually led him to the foot of the cross on April 23, 2006, and then he was invited to a conference that me and a number of other wrestlers would attend out in Phoenix, Arizona, called Athletes International Ministries.

And he showed up that June of 2006, just a couple months, about six weeks, really, after he had given his life to Jesus. And so we reconnected, and instantly now Spirit bears witness with Spirit, right? There was an instant reconnection, and then I had the privilege of beginning to help along with Pastor Steve, Chaplain Steve, discipling Lex over the years, bringing him on the road with me, sharing his testimony, powerful testimony. I would preach, and we just created, God just created a love and a bond between the two of us to where I had him live with me in 2015 for about 10 months, and actually out of that, birthed a conference, a one-day conference called Man Up, kind of ties in with the Man Up show here, but a Man Up conference, a one-day conference in local churches around the country, and then eventually that led into a full-blown man camp that he co-facilitates with me at the man camp, and him and I empowered to impart what experiences we've had spiritually, mentally, emotionally, physically, into other men who attend, and it's been amazing, absolutely amazing. I call him my 3P, my peak performance partner.

He's 3P. Very good. I just saw the genuine love of you all, and we all look at each other, so I was like, I want to find out. Another question, what advice would you give to anyone in leadership and business that is surrounded by very young leaders that are very hungry to learn about becoming great leaders, but also just good people? Wow.

That's a stellar question, but the short answer to that is go on to coloft.net and buy Wrestling With Success, my book, because that will answer all of that. No, but on a serious note, though, that's part of the reason I wrote that book with a dear friend, Jeffrey Gitimer, who is really one of the top business trainers with the National Speakers Association in the country. He travels all over the world, Jeffrey Gitimer does, and we co-labored on that. I wrote about 75% of it.

He wrote about 25% of it. It's done in a very fun format, but it was very intentional for people in business, those who are aspiring to be leaders or maybe who already are leaders. There's actually contained within that book are some self-evaluations of like, okay, where am I at personally to be able to show an individual if there's certain areas where they maybe need to focus on or improve those skills to become a better leader, or how to even lead others better in Wrestling With Success.

I will look into that. That's exactly, those things, you think as a leader in the role I'm in right now, I've been through it, I've been through it for so many years, I think I got all this down, but every day should be a learning moment, so I want to be able to inspire others. Bingo, John, there's always something to learn. I've said, you'll see it on my social media, you'll see, I am a lifetime learner, whether it's developing a deeper, passionate, more intimate relationship with Jesus, or out in the marketplace wanting to improve my skills to be able to sow into or invest in others in all aspects of their life, I'm always looking to learn. I've read, just in the last week, I've read two books, I'm halfway through the third book, and that's just who I've got. Leaders are readers.

Leaders are readers. There you go. I like that.

Very good. So my family and I have recently returned going to our home church we've been members of for over 20 years. We've gone through several periods of transition, interim pastors, and now called a young man back that we knew growing up in the church, and I'm the spiritual leader of my family. And I would like to know some things or scriptures that you recommend that I could refer to to remind me of my role and the importance of it in my family.

That's, I don't know if we have enough time on the show for that one, but no. I'll tell you what's been foundational for me. I'll just say, listen, if I just say four keys to my own personal growth as a leader, and I like to say, you know, serving others, whether it's serving my own family or serving others, just in general, right, is to focus on four areas. One, the Word, the Word of God. You can never get enough of the Word of God. I know we were just talking about different books, you know, the one I wrote and all that, but more than anything, the Bible, first and foremost. You know, scripture comes to mind is I think Psalm, I think 139, 13, I think, you know, I will hide God's Word in my heart so that I might not sin against Him, you know. So here's the key to overcoming sin in our life, hiding God's Word in our heart. I'm going to hide God's Word in my heart so I might not sin against Him, you know.

And so that's one that comes to mind. Obviously Proverbs, one of the things I encouraged Lex to do early on in his walk was read a chapter of Proverbs every day. So whatever day of the month it is, read that chapter. I mean, if it's the 26th of August, read chapter 26. I actually did that for eight years. A chapter a day, every day, consistently.

And I might've missed a day or two here or there. You know, I don't get legalistic on this, but a chapter of Proverbs, because it's the greatest book on wisdom ever written by the wisest man next to Jesus and God Himself on the planet. And so the book of Proverbs, you know, obviously 3, 5, and 6, Proverbs 3, 5, you know, trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding, all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your path. One of the scripture real quick that's really become like a life scripture is Colossians 1, 10.

And Colossians 1, 10 has four parts to it. I want to live a life today that's worthy of Jesus, pleasing Him in every way, bearing fruit for every good work and growing in the knowledge of God. So if you break that down real quick and just meditate on that one every day, okay, today, Lord, I want to do my best to live a life that's worthy of you. I don't want to mar your name or muddy your name.

I want to leave a mark at the end of the day, not a stain, right? And I want to do my best to fully please you in every way today, Lord, mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually. And then I want to bear fruit, but not just any kind of, I want to bear good fruit. Right.

Yes, sir. To bring you glory. And last but not least, Lord, help me today to grow in the knowledge of God. And so those would be just a handful of the scriptures and or thoughts regarding that question. Most people have two or three, they always keep close to them. They can recite them, they know them, they live them.

And I have a couple of life share people that are going through some hard times, but I want to get sure that those are great. And also, we realize every day too, as leaders in the world, and especially in business place, that you're being watched and you're being listened to, and all your behavior, your tongue, everything is going to be heard and going to be seen. I want to make sure that what's coming out of me and what people see I do is a reflection of Christ.

Even if they are not making you aware of that, people are watching to see if you're... Let's just say the real deal, or you're just... With their lips, they praise me, but their hearts are far from me, right? Exactly. Okay.

All right. Here's the last one I had. When co-workers or friends or family are experiencing difficult situations or hard times, I think you may have shared them, but what are some of your favorite verses you share with others that are facing some very difficult times in life?

Could be loss of a family member, employment, those kind of things. I just like to be able to encourage people. Yeah, one scripture that comes to mind is I think 2 Corinthians 1, which says, the God of all comfort comforts us so that in our time of need... That one, 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verses 3 through 5.

Yep, that's it. He comforts us in our time of need. Say, hey, we're on the same page here, John. Yeah, he comforts us so that what? So that we can comfort others. A lot of times the things we go through really are... Really more... There's more intent and purpose behind it, even though we sometimes don't want to go through it, there's more purpose and intent, and it's not even really... Sometimes I found it not even for my benefit, it's for the benefit of others.

So as he comforts me through my own personal challenges, I can then one day, somebody crosses my path that might be going through something similar that I can then comfort them because I've been through it so I can share empathy with them, not just sympathy, right? Correct. Yes, sir. All right, so hold on here. We got a few minutes left here.

I'm going to extend this just a few minutes. You've asked a lot of great questions, but you're a wrestling fan, John. If you've asked that... You've asked no wrestling questions. Come on now. I asked...

I thought I asked the ones that I really want to do, but what was... Actually, what I did have, what was your highest title you attained and who was it against? Okay, I'll give you a couple of highlights. So without going into the whole... So that's a different book. Actually, for our listeners out there, I just updated my last book, Nikita, A Tale of the Ring and Redemption, with several new chapters and more pictures.

In my time last year, I was able to sit down and do that, and I just got them, so they're kind of hot off the press. And so some of the highlights would be 13 months, let's just say from the time I broke into wrestling, well, that's a whole story in itself. Some have heard it, but many have not. Within 13 months, I'm wrestling a guy named Ric Flair, the nature boy for the World Heavyweight Title. Now, I didn't win it that night, but already I had become the World Tag Champion, the World Six-Man Champion, now wrestling Flair for the World Heavyweight Title, just 13 months into the business.

So that's a highlight to the career. The best of seven against Magnum TA, remember that name, Magnum TA? That's probably the most mentioned is the US title, the best of seven against Magnum TA. There's so many guys before me, Wahoo McDaniel, and Roddy Piper, and so many others that wore that belt prior to me.

So it's quite a list of who's who. So it was an honor to have the United States Heavyweight Championship. Eventually merged it with the National Heavyweight Title in a match against Wahoo McDaniel, and I was fortunate to walk away with both belts.

World TV Title against Terry Taylor unified that with the UWF, walked away with both belts. Come on. Is this bringing back memories for you?

My mind is completely scrambled right now. Oh my goodness. And one other that I'll mention was the very...

It had nothing to do with titles, but the very first ever War Games is most memorable to my career, not to mention the turn in teaming up with Dusty. So a few highlights of my career. All right. One last question.

I'll make sure my memory has served me correctly. Did you have a chain that you used to wear around your neck? I did. And do you still have it?

I do. I have the original one, yes. There's others that have been passed on, but I have the original one that Ivan gave me, and I don't know how long Ivan had that one, but... And it's in the attic somewhere, and people continue to try to buy things from me, but I don't know that I'll sell that. That'll probably be passed down to children, grandchildren, whatever. But yeah, that original one you see in picture with the old dark brown strap is still within my possession, and probably always will be. How much of that way if you happen to have to guess?

I don't know. It was a real deal. It was a real chain, and those chain matches, just by the way, were brutal in and of themselves, whether it was against Sting, or the Road Warriors, or others, because no matter how much you try to control the links and throw a punch, those little links would hit the enamel of your teeth.

I had cosmetic surgery after the fact to fix a bunch of chips in my teeth, and you wrap it around through their mouth. So anyway, I still have that. So man, time has flown by here, John. This has been a highlight of my life, Nikit. I can't tell you how much I appreciate this. Well, I can't tell you and everyone that tunes in to the Man Up show and also Q&A with questions and answers with Kolov, what a thrill it is for me in all sincerity to talk to fans like yourself. I say it all the time, you guys are the most, I feel, the most loyal on the planet. I mean, all these years later, you and I are having a conversation, and I'm almost 30 years removed from the ring, but we're still having... Absolutely. And guys will look at me and go, man, I feel like I'm 12 again. It goes without saying, but it does. This is a pre-teen and early teen memory for me, just going, there he is.

There's the Russian bear right there. Well, thanks for coming in the studio. Thanks for being a longtime fan and blessings to you and your family. My pleasure. Great questions. Thank you.

Thank you so much for your time. John Ward here on Q&A with Kolov. Tune in again next time for another interview. God bless you. This is the Truth Network.