Q&A With Koloff- #110

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That's right. A trip to the Holy Land with the Russian Nightmare. And I'm extending a personal invitation to you. Join me December 27th, 2023 to January 5th, 2024 for a once in a lifetime trip.

Go to NatinaKoloff.com and get registered today for the Holy Land Tour. Ladies and gentlemen, the following contest is set for one flaw. Introducing first, from Lithuania, he weighs 123 kilos, the Russian Nightmare, Nikita Koloff. Welcome to another episode, Q&A with Koloff, the Devil's Nightmare. Well, in studio today, a dear friend who we go back, our friendship goes all the way back to the mid 80s, the 1980s.

That's right. Before some of you were even born. And that is the one and only Doke Turner in studio with me today. Doke, welcome to the Q&A show with Koloff.

Hello, Nikita. I've been looking forward to this ever since I heard the first Q&A show about a month ago that you told me about. Well, I'm excited to have you here. And of course, we're going to get to your questions.

I have no idea what you're going to ask. And I very rarely do by the way. It's not like I say, hey, submit your questions to me so I can review them or plan some canned answers. I just don't. I just find it much more fun to just have people zing their questions at me. And every now and then somebody, I won't say stumps me, but like takes me aback by like, oh, I didn't see that one coming. Anyway, so but before we get there, before we get to your questions, tell our audience, tell our listeners.

Just give us a little synopsis, a Reader's Digest version of who Doke Turner is. But thank you, Nikita. It's I grew up in Charleston, West Virginia. I was blessed.

I could have long story short to work in radio cells. I became a ring announcer for the NWA when you and all the great guys came to town. You and I struck up a conversation, gave you a ride to the airport to the beautiful Charleston, West Virginia airport.

It's every one of you love. I know you love flying into that one, didn't you? Well, there is some air. I mean, an airport's an airport, right? But some were bigger than others.

Some were smaller than others. But certainly Charleston, West Virginia. It brings back some memories. But so so that's where we met. So go ahead.

Continue on. So a few years later, I moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, in the radio world. It opened up my whole world. I worked in radio cells, worked with all the promoters, a lot of adventures. I got into the NASCAR radio world with the network and in 2002 moved to Nashville to write songs and be a part of that music community.

And two thousand seventeen at the end, I moved back to the Carolinas. OK. And I'm very happy now work with something called the Next Best Thing Media Tour and Roadshow, which is for the broadcast industry, for the engineers where they could go around about 50 cities, a traveling roadshow. So I'll sell sponsors and help coordinate and promote those. So, you know, I'm 40 years later of starting in radio cells, getting out of it. I was in the radio business full circle. Yeah, it was with with engineers, sales and engineers.

We don't know how to communicate on the most part. I don't know what that stuff is, but I could. But, you know, but it all God works in mysterious ways. That's it. Well, and and and I want to encourage you out there. You know, again, I mentioned the man up show, but we want to do a full length discussion on on Doke's career and you're working on a book right now to kind of that kind of highlights your your life journey. Right.

It does. It's going to be called a crazy journey because good Lord, I had a crazy journey of working with so many celebrities and artists and sports and everything. And the crazy journey be how those crazy stories happen, taking chances, helping others and so forth. And in the middle will be the testimony about finally finding my true identity was not with my work, but I'm just a beloved child of God.

That's. And once I learned that and the job is just separate, what we do. But, you know, I'm just a beloved child of God and finding that true identity and Akita. It's just so important.

So I want to hook the people into reading these crazy stories. But yeah, that wasn't enough because Doke wasn't happy. He felt like a failure until he learned his true identity from reading another book called You Are Beloved by Bobby Shuler. And you have a great quote there.

What's the what's the quote? The identity. I am not. I say my identity is my mind just went blank, believe it or not. And I've said this a million times, but really my identity is I am not what I do. I am not what I have. I'm not what others say about me. I am a beloved child of God. I will not hurry. I will not worry. And that really helped save my life and get me back on course after feeling like a failure.

Now I've had some of the best years of my life. That's awesome. Because because many people don't, because you and I know and many people are so wrapped up. Their identity is so wrapped up in what they do. Yeah. Especially guys. I mean, you know, this is, you know, the the other shows, the you know, the man up show. It's time to man up. And so many men's identities are like, in fact, if you if you first meet another guy, like almost one of the first questions.

So what do you do for a living? Right. That's kind of like one of the first questions, right? Like, oh, and that becomes their identity only to find out you can climb.

And I don't care whether it's like if you're a celebrity or an athlete or a business man or woman or or whoever. I mean, a stay at home mom, you know, taking care of your children, your identity can go get so wrapped up in being a mom and raising children. But at the end of the day, at the very core of who we are, it's it's to be a child of God, is to recognize I'm a child of God and my identity is in Christ Jesus, my Lord and Savior. And then, as you said, everything else just becomes really what I like to call an assignment.

Right. And so do you have any kind of a target date for when when you'd like to release this book? And probably later this year, I'll go I'm setting goals right now because you put you're prompting me here. I'll put it away for the last year and a half. I just needed to get away from those stories. And now I know how to write some of the stories better. I know how to write a better description of the Nashville journey with some of the people. So I'm not just name dropping, but I'm trying to point out a lot of things people don't know about them. Yeah. You know, a little bit about their story of people I got to work with. So by the end, so it's about perhaps by the end of 2023. Yes. People may be able to access Doak Turner's life story in his book.

Yes, I have rough versions I'll send to you or anybody. But it's yeah, I'm looking forward to it. I just got to dive back into it with a better perspective.

I think it's going to be faster. So you've been involved in the right racing world, right? NASCAR racing, wrestling world with with the wrestling community, the music industry.

And of course, radio and all that. So you've been it's going to be a fact. I can't wait to I can't wait to read it, bro. Thank you.

I'm looking forward to it. It's like I said, who would have thought I'd get to hang out and get to know people and build relationships. Yeah.

But again, the whole book premise is how it happened. Yeah. And taking chances in your in your life and helping risks, taking risks. And you've taken a lot of risk. I have. And some have worked.

Some haven't. Right. Like a failure. What's it? Yeah. Hey, I understand. Well, well, that will we'll we'll leave it there as far as because I'm sure there's others out there listening who and I myself and perhaps each and every person has felt like a failure at some point in their life. But there is a there is an answer, a solution.

Yeah. Just never give up. And don't be afraid to ask for help. That's the toughest thing, especially for a guy.

Did it. That's good. Never give up.

Don't be afraid to ask for help. That that's a that's a very humbling thing for a guy to do, especially, as you said, because, you know, we can get pretty full of what? Let's see. What's that word? Oh, full of our self pride.

Ourself of ourself. Yes. But and full of pride.

Right. Full of pride ego. I can't tell you how many guys that like have come.

You know, you're familiar with, you know, facilitate Lex Luger. And I facilitate a camp called Man Camp and and guys like, yeah, I'd like to come to that, you know. And but they just can't bring himself to to say. And look, some people fall on financial hardships.

Right. And they need some financial assistance or help, which we provide. We have scholarships. We have guys who've gone to camp before who were so impacted by the camp. They said, I want to pay it forward.

I want to scholarship a guy or I want to partially scholarship a guy or or whatever. And so you're out there listening. Hey, listen, listen, you considered you've probably heard me talk many times about about the camp.

And guys who've attended the the Man Camp with Lex Luger and I. If there's a desire there and you just don't have the financial means. Well, we have a way to make it make it happen for you. Put down that pride and ego ego being edging God out. Yeah. Good. Good. Good analogy there.

Edging God out. That's that's it. I can do it on my own.

I don't need anyone else. I got it figured out now. Oh, things are going good. I got it figured out. Got it all figured out. Yeah.

Not that I ever said that. All right. Well, well, so so you have a website or something where people can can follow you or connect with you or find out more about.

Yeah. Doke turner dot com. E-mail Doke Doke at G-M-L D-O-A-K D-O-A-K. So I'm on Facebook. I like to post a lot of positive things on Facebook.

Put spotlight on others like, you know, you love to post on Nikita's latest man up episodes and so forth. Gotcha. And I just try to put positives out because we all need. You're an encourager. I try to be. Yes. All right.

Well, like my mama was. All right. So let's transition and let's go to let's talk about let's get to your questions. And so Q&A with Kolov, question number one dope that you have for me would be what?

And you know, I've had a lot of conversations over the years, but I've never asked you a couple of these. OK. Now, I want you to give advice to that 17 year old that became Nikita Kolov. Go back and talk to that kid. What advice are you going to give him? What advice would I give a 17 year old Nikita or just a 17 year old kid that became 17 year old? That became that became Nikita.

Wow. Well, OK, so you're 17. You're a teenager out there. You're trying to find your way, trying to trying to figure out your identity, trying to figure out who you are and and what life holds for you. And if I go back to my teenage years, you know, you said you're a positive guy, dope.

And you try to put a positive, encouraging word out there. When I look back at my life, I feel pretty fortunate, you know, born and raised. Many know my story, born and raised in what I call the projects of the ghettos of Minneapolis. And there were, you know, two two paths I could have taken. One, I could have went down the path of, you know, being a coming a gang banger, be a part of that whole world or do something more more positive with my life. Having been raised by a single mom with with with with no with no dad in the picture at that.

But really at all. Fortunately, she moved me out to the suburbs of Minneapolis, Minnesota, stumbled, you might say, across a magazine called Iron Man magazine. And at age 12, so I'm going to go back to age 12, got a vision for my life at age 12. And remember, making the statement, looking at all those bodybuilders in that magazine saying this, saying this one day I'm going to look like one of those guys. One day I'm going to look like one of those guys at age 12.

And I couldn't have been a hundred pounds dripping wet with rocks in my pocket. Right. And so I, I bought a plastic 110 pound plastic weight set from Sears and Roebuck.

Some are old enough. If you're not old enough, Google that. That was that was an actual store. And so anyway, so I bought that plastic weight set, began to read the articles, began to lift the weights. Bill Burke came into my life at right around that same time. He was my first male mentor figure. He was the, my first football coach, Bill Burke. A couple of years later, Jerry McFarland came into the picture. He was a health teacher in the junior high school that I went to, but also a professional bodybuilder.

And so God, I feel looking back, God brought Jerry into my life, bought Bill into my life. They became driving forces, leading me on to fulfilling that vision. Fast forward through the teenage years, determined to look like one of those guys in the magazine. And, and I left the part out about one day wanting to play professional football. And so all those years working towards that.

Fast forward to 1984 when I walked into a wrestling office in Charlotte, North Carolina, introduced myself to a guy named Jim Crockett and, and what he saw that day was a guy who was 285 pounds, 8% body fat with a 34 inch waist. So 12 years later from that first vision I had, I had become or, and fulfilled what, what statement I made. One day I want to look like one of those guys. So the advice I'd have for it, whether it's a 17 year old or someone, whatever, how old is, is to get a vision for your life. And then, and then pursue that vision and, and, and just, and just pursue it and don't give up and continue to pursue that vision for your life.

Great advice. I hope, I hope that kind of puts that out there. So, okay. You're always a nice guy or everything I knew about you was upstanding from the time we met.

Some might not say that though, but just for the record. Well, for the most part. Well, the way, the key to us all backstage. The key to you knew.

Yeah, the key to I knew from the eighties. Okay. Okay. You're respectful to everyone. You became a friend. I figured you were always a Christian, even back then, you know, nice guy. So Nikita, before and after Nikita became a Christian, how did your journey change?

You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Nikita Koloff here and I am excited. Did you hear the huge announcement, the big announcement?

Well, maybe it's a minor announcement. Anyway, Facebook, go look up my new fan page, Nikita Koloff fans and like it and follow today. If you would like to support Koloff for Christ ministries for a gift of $25, Nikita will send you his two CDs adoration and declaration for a gift of $50. Nikita will include his book Wrestling with Success and for a gift of $100 or more, Nikita will include a signed copy of his newly updated life story, A Tale of the Ring and Redemption.

Go to www.koloff.net and donate today. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Because you're a nice, easygoing guy. It appeared anyway. Yeah, well, and to some.

So how did life change though? And to some, and some don't. I mean, Don Curnodle, you knew Don. Oh, yeah.

Right? And Don and Ivan who became my first mentors in wrestling, right? My coaches, if you want to say, my trainers who taught me kind of the early ropes of wrestling, no pun intended, well, maybe pun is intended there. But anyway, but Don would always say, so it's interesting. So you make me reflect on conversations I had with Don prior to his passing. Because he would always say, you were a good guy. You were a nice guy back then. You know, you weren't a bad guy. You know, you didn't, whatever, right?

Isn't that what it takes to get to heaven? He's got it, man. He's a nice guy. So some thought, right? And I'm like, I don't know about all that, Don, but okay. So anyway, so the interesting transition there is, yeah, I mean, I don't, I tried to respect people, as you said, tried to treat people right for the most part. And again, I'm going to tell you, there's probably others that might have a different opinion of that, but for this conversation, that was kind of my mindset, my attitude, right? Is treat people the right way, then you can succeed in life and fulfill the vision, the dreams you have for your own life.

And so the difference between the two is, I would tell you this, I'd say it this way. And in fact, I wrote about it in my book called Wrestling with Success, that I was successful, but I was unfulfilled. So even though I might've been, in a lot of people's eyes, a nice guy and all that, I wasn't fully satisfied with my life. I recognized something was still missing in my life. Successful, but unfulfilled. Climbed the ladder of success to become a world champion in wrestling.

Others might be successful by becoming the CEO of a corporation or whatever, only to reach the pinnacle and realize something's still missing. And so it wasn't until after I left wrestling, about 11 months after I left wrestling, and I'd met this Christian couple, and again, I didn't grow up in church, but I knew the story. I would say it this way, I had had knowledge of the man Jesus, who died on a cross, sacrificed his life, laid down his life for all humanity, all mankind, and made a doorway and made it possible for anyone and everyone who would ask him into their life to become a Christ follower and spend eternity in heaven. I knew all that dope, but until I went to a service in October of 1993 and went to an altar and surrendered my life to Christ and had a genuine encounter with him and began this personal relationship with him, it was only had knowledge. And that story moved the 18 inches from my head down to my heart, which is the key. The heart's the key. If you go to the Bible, go read through Scripture, everything continues to go back to the heart, the heart of the matter, you might say. And so at the end of the day, it's not about how much knowledge you have of the Bible, of Jesus, or God, or anything else, it has that story made the 18 inch trip from your head down to your heart, and when it does, in my experience anyway, life dramatically changes. And for me, it set me, everything changed. Doke, prior to that time, even though you said I was a nice guy, my attitude still would have been, it's my world, Doke, you're just living in it, and as long as you are nice to me, I'll be nice to you, and if not, I may ask you to exit my life and don't let the doorway hit you on the rear end on the way out, right? But what flipped was then, I realized, I'm just a microorganism in this entire thing called the planet and our world, our universe.

It's all about God, it's not about me at all, it's all about Him, and now my goal and directive and vision is, what can I do to serve God, to serve the Lord Jesus, and then in turn to serve others like yourself, and make a difference and impact that way. So that's how I would, I guess, address that question. That's stronger than a garlic milkshake, man.

Wow, I don't even want a garlic milkshake, okay. What do you got next for me? Okay, journey has changed. So, tell me about, say your first friend, your first wrestler that you led to Christ, and what was that story, how's that?

Ooh, man, that's a great question. I've been privileged to have some level of impact on a number of the guys, okay. Some of the names I'll throw out that, in one way or another, I'll specifically tell the story about Uncle Ivan, Uncle Ivan Kola. Yes, I love that man. This is my nephew, Nicky. Does that bring back memories? Oh, God, yes. My nephew, Nicky.

Oh, yeah. Uncle Ivan. And people have asked, they say, was he really your uncle?

I'm like, well, in TV land he was. They're like, oh, so you're not really related. I go, well, we're related by the blood of Christ, which is what I'm going to address to your question specifically. So I'll tell the story about Ivan in just a moment.

But others I've had the privilege of having some level of impact on. So both Road Warriors, Animal and Hawk, gave both of them the very first book I wrote that actually I need to bring back into publication called Breaking the Chains. And in New Mexico, at a wrestling event, gave both of them a copy of that book. And that led to Animal and his family going to an altar and giving their life to Christ. In turn, Animal inviting Hawk to a Christian athletes conference for professional collegiate athletes out in Arizona. Larry Karachuk, who I've had on my Man Up show and telling his story. And Hawk coming to an altar and giving his life to Christ.

And then the privilege of mentoring and discipling Hawk for a year and a half, the last year and a half of his life, bringing him on the road with me and letting him share his story, powerful stories. Sting, cornered Sting in a Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina one night. And I like to say this way, threw up Jesus all over him for about a half hour until he's finally like, dude, I got to go wrestle. I got to go get dressed. And I go, we'll continue this conversation. And Stinger tells this story later.

He's like, no, no, we won't. And only later to find out, only later to find out about three years later that he gave his life to Christ. So I like to think me sharing some of my testimony or some of my story and transition and becoming a Christ follower, planted some seeds in the Stingers life and led to a very long, long term to this day, a very close relationship with the Stinger and in turn got to mentor him and some of his kids once he came to Christ.

Lex Luger, of course, Lex and I do this man camp together now, and we've done tons of ministry together and still do autograph signings together, et cetera. And then last but not least, I'll go circle back around to Ivan. And there have been others, but I'll circle back around to Ivan where I was serving an evangelist from South Africa in his revivals, just being kind of his Jonathan. For those who are familiar with the Jonathan David story, I was kind of his Jonathan, you might say. Spent nine years just serving him, volunteering my time and serving him and invited Ivan to a revival in Concord, North Carolina. Didn't know if he would come, but God had put it on my heart to invite him. Didn't know he was there, Doke, until I saw him at the altar, had come forward to give his life to Jesus.

This is 1995. And he had a genuine encounter with Jesus that night that forever changed his life and went on to become an ordained minister, Ivan did, performed weddings and funerals, and then had the privilege, his wife Renee asked me to speak. I was the only speaker at his very small, intimate graveside service for Uncle Ivan. So those are just some of the guys I've had the privilege of having, again, some level of impact in their journey with Jesus. Yeah, no, I just want to know the story, how do you get your friends?

Is that awkward and you do it and it gets rejected and it's, what do I got to do? I'm supposed to save him, supposed to lead him to the Lord. Well, I can't say, you and I know we can't save a flea. All we can do is share our test and God does the saving, but we get opportunities to share. And many people have asked, have you ever witnessed to your wrestling friends, or led, like you're asking, have you ever led your wrestling friends to the foot of the cross or whatever, and some have been more receptive than others. And this, I don't care what your background is, all of us are really called to be a witness and we're known by the blood of the Lamb or the word of our testimony, so all of us are called to be a witness for the kingdom. So, all right, well we have time at least for one more, one more question if you got one more for us. Okay, how do you feel about the way churches are handling the world's events?

Do you think enough churches are standing up for the Christian way or are they afraid to discuss it? Ooh, boy, we could do a whole show on that, Doak. That could be a long discussion.

But no, but I want to ask, you asked a question, I want to answer the question in my view, my observation. Now let me, so I'll give a little backdrop here. So I've had the privilege in preaching in over 1,200 churches. I've just stopped counting at 1,200. And 29 different denominations and I've been to 30, I think I figured out now 36 different countries and territories. And so I've had a lot of experience and witnessed a lot of different things. And certainly the culture and the climate in which we live has, we're seeing for those who understand scripture or are paying attention, I believe the prophetic word of what even Jesus said in Matthew chapter 24 is being fulfilled right before our very eyes. The persecution of the church, they hated me, they're going to hate you. As you look at other countries around the world, in Canada. And I had the privilege in 2017 of traveling through 21 cities and four provinces of Canada. Loved it.

It was beautiful. But now there are pastors who've been jailed for preaching out of the Bible and qualifying it as hate speech. And I have witnessed some who are bold in their faith and not ashamed of the gospel and not afraid to preach the truth or address the topics of today. And been persecuted for that and criticized for that. You know, the whole argument of separating church and state and all that, which is not in the Constitution.

Go research it for yourself and find out it's not what the founding fathers, those who talked about that reference that we're referring to. But that's a whole other discussion. But all that to say, I believe there are only a small percentage who are really willing to really address the topics of today, which we should to prepare the body of Christ and know how to respond to the topics of today. And I feel, unfortunately, there are many others who have cow tailed.

I think that's how you say it, right? But anyway, have bowed down to the bales of today and are afraid to address the topics of today. Water down the gospel and are doing an injustice to their flock by not speaking the truth of God's word, not their opinion. But here's what the word of God says about our climate, our culture, and how we are to address it and be bold and courageous and standing up for the gospel truth. And because of that, unfortunately, are not fulfilling the mandate. If the mandate is on their life to be a shepherd of a flock, many, in my observation, are not fulfilling that. But that's the challenge for all of us. But Jesus said in the last days, here's what's going to happen.

Here's what it's going to be like. And so, anyway, so. Or are they afraid to offend those, the flock that contributes every week? Well, again, that we could do a whole show on that. And yeah, right. There's many reasons why I think they're walking in fear of not addressing the actual issues and or topics. But and that can tie into a lack of trust. Hey, if the biggest tither in your church walks away because he or she got offended by you speaking the truth of God's word. And then so be it. And you just have to trust and believe that God's going to help you pay your electric bill next month, even if the biggest tither leaves the church.

So that's a challenge for every shepherd, every leader to really more fully trusting God and not trust in that man or woman who happens to be the biggest tither on the roll. Right. So, man, some great questions and I appreciate you coming into the studio and being on Q&A with Koloff today. It's a pleasure. What a great way to start the year, Nikita, and to see you and meet Robbie and this whole. You're making a difference in the world, Robbie, with what you're doing or what you're doing.

Nikita, thank you, man. You you impact me. You've made a difference in my world over the years. And let's let's keep it going. Let me know how I can be of help to you and what you're doing. We'll keep it rolling.

Of course, Robbie Dilmore, who's always in studio with me and the man behind the plan here who makes all this happen. So appreciate it. Thank you, though. God bless you. Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Q&A with Koloff. This podcast is made possible by the grace of God and your faithful prayers, support and generous gifts. May God bless you for your continual contributions. Go to koloff.net and donate today.

Hi, Nikita Koloff. Be sure to check out The Man Up Show, now available on television, broadcast and podcast. Go to MorningStarTV.com or the Truth Radio Network.

Check out your local listings or better yet, download the Truth Network app today. Hi, Nikita Koloff here, and I am excited to announce the second annual Man Up Men's Conference, a champions summit at Morningstar Ministries in Fort Mill, South Carolina, June 15th through the 17th. We have another amazing lineup of speakers, including football legend Perry Tuttle from the national champion Clemson Tigers, Stu Epperson, founder of Truth Radio, a champion for truth, pastors Chris Reed and Rick Joyner, champions for Jesus, Shawn and Krista Smith, champions for the family, radio show host Robbie Dilmore, and last but not least, comedian Lee McBride. I want to challenge every man to attend and every dad and granddad out there to bring your son or grandson of any age.

We're going to do something special just for you. It is Father's Day weekend, so get registered today. You don't want to miss a champion summit. Why?

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