Q&A with Koloff - #27

This is Rodney from the Masculine Journey Podcast, where we explored manhood within Jesus Christ. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Sit back, enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and choosing the Truth Podcast Network. Lovely, Lance.

Welcome back to Q&A with Koloff. Well, thank you for having me, and hope you're having a great day. I am, and hey, you're old hat at this, because we've already had you on the show one time, and here you're back again, and I know you submitted about a thousand and one questions, Lance, but you know, we just can't address them all at one time, which is why we've got you back, so we're gonna narrow down your questions here in just a moment to maybe the top two, three, maybe four, depending on time, but Lance, tell our listeners where we're connecting. Where are you living? Where are you at? I am in Columbiana, Ohio, which is outside of Youngstown, Ohio.

It's about 20, 25 minutes from Youngstown, Ohio, about an hour, hour and a half from Pittsburgh, and an hour and a half around from Cleveland. Oh, that's very cool, and you know what? You know, I know we connect quite a bit on social media, and Twitter, and I know people follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and all that, and for people who don't know, you write reviews, and I think book reviews, right?

What all do you do, Lance? Well, I do what they call a blog page. I just review books, books, movies, music, whatever I can get my hands on, or a lot of Christian books, some non-Christian, but just things that I like, and I also do some other website, or writing for other websites, but the cool thing I like about it is I, being a Christian, you know, I would read a book or something, and you know, let's say there's a lot of language in it that may not be suitable, so I, you know, put in there what I feel the age limit is, or you know, what the language is, and things like that, and just something I grew up doing, you know, like in starting to write, and I have a degree in English, so passes a time from, you know, nine to five job right now, you know? Yeah, that's awesome. It's something I love to do, so.

Yeah, that's great. Well, English was not my strong suit, so in a sense it's kind of ironic that I've written three books, working on a fourth book, and not my favorite subject back in my educational days, but I guess you could say, even though I wasn't a fan of it, it apparently has helped me later in life, and so where can, it's just real quick, where can people go find your blog? Where can they go find your reviews? Okay, on my blog page is lancewrites.wordpress.com, and they can find me on Twitter at Lovely Lance L. Nice. And we talked before about, you know, my name being Lovely Lance, so. That's it, and if you missed my first interview with Lance, go back and listen to that. You'll get a little bit more of his back story, but last, let's jump into it. Let's jump into a couple questions of yours, and I know, like I said, I know you had a list of them, but let's address a few of them. Sure, sure.

Go for it. Well, one that I always always liked is, in your book, we talked about books, you can get the updated edition of Nikita, by the way. Yes, sir. And the one was, throughout your travels with Ivan, Uncle Ivan, did he ever discuss his time when he beat Bruno Sammartino for the WWWF championship? Man, that's a great, I don't know if I've ever been asked that before, that come, like, at least anytime, anytime, maybe recently, perhaps, but great question, which, by the way, since you mentioned the book, the updated version, hot off the press, so to speak, Nikita, A Tale of the Ring and Redemption, actually selling really, really well, and just go on to Koloff.net, onto that website, Koloff.net, and you'll see the store there, and you'll see a couple books there, and as well as 8x10s and t-shirts, and just a bunch of stuff there that I think will bless you, and so, but back to your question, you know, back in the day when we're traveling up and down the roads, you know, you're not really hashing over, you know, in a sense, what you did in the past or what you accomplished in the past, as much as what matches are upcoming, and what you're going to do, and, you know, maybe the current angle that you're involved in, and what could enhance it, or what could make it better, and so we, to my knowledge, as best I can rack my brain, we never really, and partly because, you know, I just, I wasn't really a fan of wrestling growing up, and didn't even really hardly know about that, I don't even know if I knew that until, like, after I retired, to be honest with you, and so it's now that I'm learning a lot of the history of wrestling, one, from writing Ring of Redemption, we put a lot of wrestling history in it, but also from having conversations with fans like yourself, who enlightened me to some of these things, so, no, I don't really think we ever discussed it, but certainly a memorable moment in his career, no doubt. Oh yeah, I mean, a lot of people may not know how big Bruno was at the time, and like I said, I'm near Pittsburgh, and just the concept of, you know, champions were not every other week, like they are maybe today's product. You mean every other hour, don't you?

Just the fact. You mean every other hour, don't you? Well, yeah, every other hour. I mean, some of the, like, I was tongue-in-cheek, right, but some of these belts, you know, they win it one hour and lose it the next hour, you know, but correct me if I'm wrong, didn't Bruno have that title? When Ivan beat him, he was like, he had had that belt for like seven, maybe eight years, right, without being beaten, right? Yeah, yeah, it was a long time. Yeah, he had it for a while, for years.

I'm sure somebody listening will research that, but they're going to find out, it was, I'm almost confident, 99%, at least seven years, he had that belt around his waist without being beaten by anybody, so when Ivan beat him, that was a big deal, so there you go. Absolutely, absolutely. All right, next question. All right, now I kind of, when I ask questions, I kind of go kind of out left field sometimes, you know, so you've been in the ring and I know a lot of people do not like receiving the chops, so who do you think had the hardest chops in pro wrestling that you felt? Whoa. Was it Blair, Wahoo, Ronnie Garvin, Buddy Landell, who? Well, you named some good ones. Rick's chop was more, you know, his approach, and of course if you were, you know, nice and sweaty, he could glance that chop right off your chest, and although it stung, it definitely did not hurt as much as Hands of Stone, Ronnie Garvin, or guess who?

Wahoo, the chief, Wahoo McDaniel, because their chops, I mean, their chops would leave handprints, I mean, they would bruise your chest, especially Ronnie Garvin, and so I would have to, if I were to rank them, I would probably say, I'd probably say Ronnie Garvin at the top, Wahoo McDaniel a close second, Flair, Buddy Landell with the four names you named, so. Oh, wow. Yeah, yeah, they were, it was not a night off when you sustained chops from those guys.

Wow. That's, yeah, I mean, watching Wahoo may be cringe. As well as his opponent, just so you know. So if you cringe as a fan, imagine being an opponent in the ring feeling that, so, yeah. I'd rather take my chances doing a 10-minute match with Larry Zabisco, because, you know, that nine minutes out of that 10, Larry would be on the apron yelling at the fans.

That's right, he's talking and walking. Larry's one of the few guys I know that could have an hour match, and as you just said, you would, 55 minutes of that would be him engaging with the fans. The living legend himself. Larry, kudos to you, man, because he, the bottom line is, he was able to pull it off, and very engaging with the fans.

The only one I know close to that is a guy named George South, who was an undercard, but nevertheless gave his heart and soul to the wrestling industry, and had a very similar ability as someone on the undercard. But anyway, great question. Next question. Well, yeah, I love George South.

Trains many, many, many people. Yes, he did. Well, let's kind of, did you have any interactions with Jimmy Valiant? The Boogie Woogie Man?

Yeah. Talk about the boy from New York City, Jimmy Valiant. You know, I had early on in my career, of course, a lot of those guys are kind of in the twilight of their careers, so to speak, and Jimmy being one of them, really.

Johnny Weaver in the mid-Atlantic, Rufus R Freight Train Jones. I mean, there's a number of guys that come to mind, and so I'm certain, I don't know that I had any single matches. I may have. I mean, when you have as many matches or had as many matches as I had, Lance, it's hard to keep track of all.

Sometimes people will post on social media. Like, they posted one of me and Tracy Smothers, and I'm like, oh, I wrestled Tracy. Oh, okay.

I mean, I just didn't remember that I did. What was the masked Japanese, Liger? Jushin Liger or something like that?

Jushin Thunder Liger? Yeah. Like, I had matches against him. I'm like, oh, I did? But I'm learning all this from you, the fan, right, as to who I wrestled. So I'm sure I had matches against Jimmy. Probably more, maybe, tagged than singles, but I may have had singles. But, and that was always entertaining.

I mean, he'd shake them hands and wiggle those legs, and of course, the people would love it, so. Good stuff. What else you got? Well, let's, since we talked about wrestling, let's talk a little bit about the Bible, if you don't mind. Yeah.

Well, I've got time to, let's address a couple Bible questions, and hopefully I have an answer, because just so you know, I am no theologian. But let's try, let's go for it. But you are the devil's worst nightmare. Well, you got a point. Okay.

Bam, point taken. Which makes me an accessory to a crime against the devil, so that's cool. Come on. All right.

What you got? We'll shake gears and, go ahead. Throughout, throughout COVID, you've been doing, you've also done some of your preaching experiences and that. Yeah. And the question I have is, what are you seeing as a Christian, through the churches, what do you think we as Christians should possibly start looking out for, or start focusing on once we are now, you know, churches are starting to start up again? Post-COVID? Do you see a need?

Post-COVID? Yeah, it's been an interesting journey, the last 15, 16, 17 months, right? And very eye-opening, I think, for a lot of people, in many ways. I mean, from, certainly from, from the churches being what, in my view, forced to close.

That's just my own personal view. And, and then in the process of reopening, re-engaging, right, they had to kind of shift gears and figure out how they could still reach people, and even though their doors were closed, and so, so the majority of them went online, right, and started reaching people online, and actually got bigger numbers of people online than they did, you know, actually show up at, at church itself. And, and I have been out there, quite, quite a bit of the last, you know, year plus, even in the midst of COVID. I was out and about and traveling, you know, doing, doing man camps and conferences and, and those who, I will say it this way, those pastors who stood at the helm and, and steered the ship versus others who I feel went down into the hull and grabbed their life jacket. And I know what the Lord said to me personally, and right out, right out of the gate, he said, faith over fear. Do not succumb to fear over this thing. And, and so I didn't from, from day one. You know, I just had faith that God was going to protect me in my travels.

And now I was home for, I'd say about four, four and a half months, which is where I wrote all the new chapters for Nikita, A Tale of the Ring and Redemption. And, and, and this podcast and the radio show, the Man Up radio show was birthed during that time. Stu Epperson, Truth Radio Network, Robbie Dilmore, just the man of the hour, the tower of power, Too Sweet to Be Sour himself. He, you know, these guys came alongside me and have been amazing in helping me, helping me get this show, not only off the ground, but out to 30, 35, going on 40 countries. And, and so I'm, what I'm seeing, what I'm witnessing is, is a litmus test of sorts in that, in a sense, it's like, okay, we've got this thing. Now, how is everybody going to respond to this thing? And by every account to every pastor so far to date that I've talked to, they've been somewhat, some have said shocked, some have said, some have said surprised at, at who they thought were like core people, like never going anywhere, like, like will, will forever be engaged and locked in and have just went MIA. Like just, just, you know, just vanished off the map, have never come back to church, don't know what happened to them, where they went. Now the Lord has brought others to kind of in their place, so to speak.

So I think it was in a sense, God's like, okay, this has happened. Now let me see who, who like, like is for real, like who's, you know, maybe just on the fringes, you know, maybe just checking the box that they attend church and, or, and, or who's really locked in solid, like, like Peter said. You know, when, when Jesus spoke to the disciples and said, and, and many of them, you read the Bible and it says, many of his, quote, disciples turned, walked away, never to return. Go read it in the Gospels. It's right there.

Because they're like, this is just too hard. We, we, we, you know, this is a hard thing you're asking of us. And it literally says, and it says, disciples turned, and it says, many, walked away and said, never to come back again, never to return. He, he swings around. I could just visualize him swinging around to Peter and the other, the others and going, are you going to lead me too?

And Peter pipes up and goes, man, we're all in. We got nowhere else to go. You know, we left our fishing business.

We did whatever. Now, you know, and, and, but that was their attitude at that time, that, man, we're not going anywhere. And of course for those who know the account, you know, even though they ran off on the, on the night of his arrest, we eventually know they came back to write 1 Peter, 2 Peter. They came back to write John and the book of Revelation. They came back to write James. And, you know, so they came back to write a lot of the New Testament. And, and were, were, were actually the majority of them martyred, 11 out of, I think 11 out of 12, martyred for, for their, their following Jesus.

I mean, I think it was Peter, right? If I'm not mistaken, crucified upside down. He said, I'm not worthy enough to be crucified right side up like Jesus. Crucify me upside down.

Can you imagine? Crucified upside down. I think one of them was cut in half, one of his disciples. I mean, I know this sounds a bit, but, but this is reality. Go check it out of those, those disciples who said, we are all in on this thing, who were filled with the Holy Ghost at Pentecost.

And then to their death, they followed Jesus. And, and so I think that's kind of, I think that's kind of where we're headed. Who's really in? Like who's really all in?

And so this, this whole COVID thing, I feel like, Lance, was kind of a litmus test to, to see who's really all in. Wow. Never thought of it that way. Yeah. Very good. Yeah.

So great question. Well, thank you. So one last question and then we can wrap up if you want, but we talked about how you started the podcast and what do you think is the most challenging thing and the most rewarding thing that you've learned about doing podcasting? Ooh.

Ooh. Challenging. Let me start with challenging.

Cause, cause that's, I think a shorter, easier answer. I haven't, I mean, I haven't felt that it was super challenged by it. I mean, now obviously I've never been in radio before. I've been in front of cameras and been on microphones and all that. So, well, I guess I will say this, I guess. So if there was anything challenging, it was, it was learning how to, you know, how to, how to do a radio show. And I already mentioned my man, Robbie Dilmore, who's been instrumental, who has years of experience with this, who has been mentoring and coaching me and helping me on that end to really learn how to, how to, uh, bring a radio show across to the listener and then ultimately upload that on all the podcast platforms.

Right. And so, so, so there's been a learning curve there of learning to do that. Uh, the most rewarding thing, uh, on that note is, is as I mentioned, the show currently is in, you know, 30 plus it's been downloaded into 30 plus countries.

Uh, I'm not satisfied with that. My goal is I want to see it downloaded into a hundred countries. Um, it's currently on a handful of radio stations on the East coast, a very aggressive goal of, of seeing the show syndicated and, and, um, and, and going and getting on two or 300, um, uh, stations across America. Um, and, and so that's been rewarding. And then to get all the feedback from, from people who email me or message me on social media on how the show is really blessed them, all the different interviews, whether it's the man up show or it's the Q and a show, just by how they're being blessed by the, the, the variety of interviews that I'm, that I'm able to have and the different stories, you know, like, not unlike yourself. Um, and I will say this, one of the little side note challenges, you know, is, is you're, we're, we're always looking for funding, you know, for sponsors, advertisers for the show. Um, and so, you know, that can be challenging sometimes, right. For people to step up and you're like, yeah, yeah, I want to do that. And then they don't.

And you're like, ah, man, it's too bad. So anyway, so just keep that in your prayers, more sponsors, more advertisers, so we can syndicate this show and get it across America. Lance. Absolutely. And I, as a fan, I think that it's, uh, I think it's awesome how it's not just all wrestling based, you know, there's, you know, Christian like us who are wrestling fans, but maybe not like some of the others that are out there, you know, and. We won't name any names.

Right. We, we, we, we, the names shall remain anonymous, but no, I'm really encouraged by that. And I really appreciate that, you know, my heart, my goal is, uh, to have a variety, you know, from, from entrepreneurs to celebrities, to, to fans, to, you know, to, to pastors.

And it's just a variety of people. So people can hear stories from all walks of life. And hopefully the, the ultimate goal at the end of the day is that these interviews are inspirational, perhaps even motivational and uplifting to the listeners. So I appreciate that. Last, I appreciate you coming back on Q and A with full off.

Thank you for having me. And also thank you for the updating the book and putting all those other, uh, fan stories in there. I was shocked that, uh, my story got in there talking about how the wrestling magazines helped me read and write, but there are some great stories in there and that, you know, people haven't gotten that, uh, updated book.

They need to get that. Man, I, I, I overlooked that a lot. I appreciate you mentioning that.

So there are a lot of fan stories that we included in the final chapter because I wanted people to submit their stories and be able to, to see their name in print and just bless them for blessing me by submitting that story and that others could see how their life was impacted. So, Hey, you have a great rest of your week and, and thanks for being on the Q and A with Kolov. God bless you, Lance. Thank you. Lovely Lance, lovely. Thank you. Thank you. This is the Truth Network.