Q&A With Koloff- #222

You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Welcome to another episode Q&A with Kolov, The Devil's Nightmare.

Welcome back. Q&A with Kolov, questions and answers where you know how it works. You get a personal phone call from the Russian nightmare and you get to ask me a few things.

And it can be anything, you know, under the sun. I don't ever usually know what I'm going to be asked. And today is no different because I have a dear friend actually back with me. Jamie Worden, welcome to Q&A with Kolov. How are you, sir, Nick? I am doing wonderful. Great to have you with us today.

And looking forward to seeing what you've got for me here in just a bit. But before we get there, you're over in Tennessee, the volunteer state, right? Correct. Nashville, Tennessee. Music City.

Music City as it's known. You gave me a bit of a history lesson when we talked. I want to encourage right out of the gate folks to go listen to Jamie's full interview on the Man Up show. Go into the archives or onto the podcast and listen to that show. You'll get a whole history, a whole walk down not only memory lane but just a history of music in Nashville and how all that came about. And even Jamie's involvement in music.

I know you've been around it for a long, long time. And maybe you said from age six you kind of fell in love with music, right? Correct.

Correct. I was watching television when I was a young child and playing in the living room and distinctly remember the day that Elvis died. The news clips were on and that was all that you were hearing about and just started asking my mother who this guy was and why were people upset and what's he all about.

But they were playing his music so I liked his music and a few months later after he passed I'd gotten some of his music for Christmas on 45 records for you all kids who don't know what that is. Google it. I like to say go Google that. You'll see what that is.

They actually might know now but vinyl is popular again. Gotcha. And just started listening to his music and then just kind of went down the rabbit hole and started listening to all kinds of different music from a very early age and have been hooked ever since. Yeah, led you to currently a 37 year career in music, right?

Correct. I am extremely fortunate and blessed to be able to work in and around music and have ever since I was a senior in high school my first job was working at a music store in South Carolina on the weekends and that's where my path started where I was actually doing something in and around music and getting paid for it. Yeah and of course currently you're over employed by Belmont University which is a Christian university there in Nashville and of course they run, own and you help run Ocean Way Studio, a very infamous studio there in Nashville, yes?

Yes sir. Probably in one of the top ranked studios arguably in the world. So we are very fortunate and blessed to be owned by Belmont. And this is actually a commercial studio but part of the studio is also used for academic purposes so Belmont University has classes here five days a week where we're teaching audio engineering and mastering and production stuff and then the other part of the building is still to this day used for commercial sessions where we've had some of the biggest artists in the world come through our doors. Yeah, of all genres too right? I mean yeah. I remember the first time you gave me a tour, I've been there several times but that first time I was just like blown away and they stuck me into the sound booth to hear so they were laying down a full orchestra and just laying down some soundtracks and it's just incredible to watch your guys behind the scenes work all those buttons and boards and computers.

And just fascinating to observe. And so here you are all these years later and we first crossed paths in a sense through a mutual friend by the name of L.G. Wise who was a Christian rapper at the time and that led to us connecting really through an email but eventually that many years ago, almost 25 years ago has led to this long time relationship.

And your family, I know you've got a family there and Ash take a minute and tell us about your family. Well, I have a lovely wonderful wife named Ris, second marriage and God truly brought us together after we had both been through challenges in life and previous marriages and things didn't work out the way we had hoped and dreamed they would. But God brought us together and we have a sign hanging in our bedroom that says God knew what he was doing or God knew we needed each other. That's the way we feel about God bringing us together and I was fortunate enough to have you help officiate some of our ceremony and we're just trying to in all senses of the word live our best life and take advantage of a wonderful second opportunity that we currently have. Well, and you mentioned life for those out there who haven't figured this part out yet is not always just a pathway of rose petals, right? I mean challenges in life, Jesus himself said in this life you're going to have trials, troubles, tribulations.

Of course you have a lot in common, one of which is we both had wives that had passed away with different types of cancer issues and or just struggles, right? You know, struggles in marriage and just because that's just part of the journey but I feel fortunate that I was able to be there for you, you were there for me and a brother that I can lean on and vice versa. I like that quote, God knew we needed each other, that's a pretty good quote so somebody need to hear that today and just as a word of encouragement but yeah, life is filled with challenges, right Jamie? 1,000%, a lot of people think that you have a misconception about Christianity or faith and well now that I'm a Christian or I'm doing this, everything's going to get easier and a lot of times it's quite the contrary, it gets a lot of times more difficult.

And depending on the path or journey that you're on, sometimes you can be pushed to limits that you didn't know were possible and part of the journey is how you react to that and how you get through it. What are you putting your faith in and what are you leaning or pressing into through that process and for me it was definitely my faith but also in addition to God putting me and Chris together, we also at the time when I was going through my struggles, I had a group of friends that circled around me and you were one of those friends and that's things that can never be repaid or whatever but that's the blessing of friendship and hopefully God putting people in your path along the way to help you through some of those tough spots. Well and enhance, I try to encourage people, I know a lot of people have been hurt by church, we call it church hurt but nevertheless we're all fallen, we're all broken, we're all flawed and so you can anticipate if you're going to be around people whether they're in church or not in church that somebody can say something, do something that's going to hurt your feelings or upset you.

But when you're at least a part of a church and a body of like-minded followers and believers in Christ or a small group, a life group, a Bible study, something of that nature or just what I call a battle buddy, just a one-on-one relationship with a friend, iron sharpening iron, that is essential in getting through the struggles of life. And I sometimes, I don't know how you think about it Jimmy but I feel like as a Christ follower I anticipate and expect to get tested. I've said it this way, those tests that I go through are just a test of my character and really a building of my character to see how I handle those things and molding and shaping me into the image of Christ.

I mean if you ever wanted an incredible example of testing just go read the book of Job sometime in the Old Testament and see what that man walked through but yet never surrendered his love for God and in the end God blessed him with a double portion of everything, right? And part of that process is realizing that you're not going to get it right every time. Right. But part of it is your intent and your goal and your vision to try to do your best to get it right and I think that's what God honors. Yeah. Because God knows we're going to screw up.

He does. It's what's in your heart. It goes all the way back to the garden, right? Starting with the garden, right? And so well pretty amazing. Well you've got a pretty fascinating story and Jamie Worden and I encourage all of you again to go into the archives or go over to the Truth Radio podcast platform for the Man Up show and catch some of Jamie's full story over there. So Q&A Jamie no idea what you're going to throw at me today in the form of questions but let's go ahead and fire away with your first question for me.

Sure. One that I'm probably pretty sure you've been asked this before but I think it's probably one you will continue to get asked based on before we knew each other in your previous life as a professional wrestler. You know you from what I've read and through discussions you literally walked away at the top of your game. Do you feel that you literally walked out of the sport or sports entertainment when you were considered by most the top of your game and what was the reasoning for you to do that and do you ever think or wish that you would not have left when you did? Because I know in conversations we've had and you know conversations you had through other wrestlers who stayed around after you left that you know you literally missed millions of dollars in paydays and opportunities and things that would have no doubt come your way.

Is that something that you ever wish that you would have did I make the right decision obviously God has put you on the path where you're at now but sometimes it's impossible not to think about what if I would have done this different what would what would things look like now? You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com Advertise your company or product on The Man Up Show and or Q&A with Koloff. Contact me directly. Nikita Koloff at koloff.net. The Man Up Show is honored to have Dr. Johnny Gaten is one of our longest running supportive sponsors. Dr. Gaten is regarded as one of the world's leading elite eye surgeons. He is motivated by his faith in doing all things heartily as unto the Lord. His desire to do his best has contributed to success in his eye care practice, performing over 70,000 eye surgeries. In addition, he's a world-renowned speaker, writer, and author.

Go to eyeassociates.com for more information. Well in another way sometimes they might ask a question is do you ever regret? Do you ever regret you know for leaving when you left and or do you wish you had stayed around for all the all the big money because my ministry partner Lex Luger and I have discussed that a number of times and calculated what I probably on a very conservative basis walked away from and you know on conservative numbers anywhere from 30 to 50 million. I mean he made tens of millions of dollars. I remember in fact just recently he and I were talking and he said is we were just talking about again you know past relationships and and back when he was married there was I guess a check sitting on the kitchen counter. And his wife at the time said oh another royalty check came in.

And he's like oh okay yeah that's cool. Well you know those royalty checks I think came once a quarter okay to put it in perspective. And it was 350 grand. $350,000 for the quarter royalty. Now that had nothing to do with his wrestling and ring you know income or that was just a royalty check at that at that particular time. Yeah likely from merch sales from t-shirts or maybe it may be an action figure.

Video games, action figures, etc, etc. And so I was like wow 350 grand for one quarter so if I do the math on that and it's the same every quarter let's see that's 1.5 million dollars just in royalties okay roughly. So all that said you know we calculate anywhere from 30 to 50 million easily that I walked away from.

And you know I don't regret walking away when I did because that was just part of my goal, part of my objective when I made that executive decision to hang it up. Little knowing that 11 months later I would find myself at an altar surrendering my life to Christ and then that decision taking me on a whole different path, a whole different trajectory to where and I'm reminded Jamie of a scripture in the Bible that says what shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and yet lose his soul. And so in exchange for gaining 30 or 40 or 50 million dollars the number of lives that I've been able to impact the people that I've been able to influence and or literally lead to the foot of the cross and grab the old rugged cross is invaluable. There's no way to put a price tag on that right. Yeah what's one soul worth I mean is it worth a hundred dollars is it worth a million dollars you know there's no way you can put a price tag on that. So all that to say another scripture comes to mind instead of storing up treasures on earth that moth and rust can destroy and thieves break in and steal which I actually had that experience one time someone walked in and stole something of value out of my apartment.

In Charlotte North Carolina I'm more focused on storing up treasure in heaven that moth and rust cannot break in and thieves cannot steal and so I don't know what kind of reward I'm going to have in heaven and nor am I that's not my sole focus that's not why I'm even bringing that up Jamie. But no no no regrets for leaving when I did and and it's easy to do the what if right what if I had stayed you know people said you know who didn't you wrestle that you would have liked to wrestled I mean so there's there's a whole list of those guys right. So anyway I'll just kind of stop there and give you the chance to ask another question but that hopefully kind of addressed addressed your question. Well I think that's a good answer and you know in reality it's you know like you said what's more important you know and let's you know even throw the hypothetical in there so what would have happened if you stayed you know your ministry path or career. May have never happened. It may have never happened or look completely different than it did right now so yeah that's that's the other side of that coin. The other side is I'm per I feel pretty confident it probably would not have happened because had I not left and met this Christian couple through my gym and through some other businesses I began to get involved in.

Now that I was done with wrestling I never would have met Dick and Charlotte Elston and they wouldn't have invited me to their church and that day I went to their church and went down front and surrendered my life. You know none of that yeah there's there's a lot of different directions you know I perhaps could have gone but I don't know that becoming a you know a minister evangelist and missionary and that Kolah for Christ ministries would even exist even today. You know we'll never know we're just kind of hypothetically or speculating but anyway so but yeah good good points good points so got another question you want to throw at me. Yeah I think one and this may have come up in something that you've been asked before but I don't know that you and I have necessarily had this conversation but you know you and I are both in extremely unique positions where we get to meet a lot of different people from all walks of life. You know some famous some not so famous you know whatever and I know you know and I get asked this all the time you know it's like well who did you meet and who's the nicest or who is you know you know whatever so I get asked that through the studio all the time. But you know my question to you would be you know through your path through your career whether it's evangelism ministry or even wrestling you know who is someone that you've met in your life that you kind of when you're doing it you're kind of scratching your head going am I really sitting here talking to this person does this really happening or or maybe even the second part of that why am I fortunate or blessed enough to even be able to have an interaction with this person. That's good so two examples that pop in my head and in some of whom the majority of people wouldn't even know so you know so as far you know as far as like even name dropping is not even the important part of it but to address your question you know I've sat in on some different roundtables right with you know some pretty prominent or high profile.

Speakers ministers you know that in those circles people would you know you might say look look up to or wow you really you know you got to meet him well that's pretty cool you know kind of thing and so there are there are some of those instances where I've had that opportunity on. That side of it on the other side of it the first one that pops in my head probably the one of the one of the biggest names that people will know so I will name drop on this because it's part of my story is got my name is Sylvester Stallone. Rocky we love it. Rocky and I was just telling a friend the other day I was preaching at his church the other day and we went out to lunch after and he said his son-in-law brought him a pair of boxing gloves with Dolph Lundgren's autograph on it right. And I'm like oh pretty cool Rocky IV and I go yeah I go you know it's just as easily could have been my name and he was kind of like looking at me like what like now him and I know each other like 25-30 years right he's like what dude what are you talking about. I go have I never told you the story about like the like the role came down to Dolph Lundgren and myself and he's like get out get out of here like what and I go dude Stallone I they flew me out to Hollywood and I was on set in the in the studio in the warehouse with Dolph Lundgren with Sylvester Stallone Bridget Nielsen. And I was the first one I got the short straw had to screen test first did to delivered my lines twice by myself and then Stallone says let's do it shoulder to shoulder side by side and he goes halfway through turn and stare at me and and finish your lines and so we did all that.

And I knew when they yelled cut and he asked how it was and the director said well it was good till you turned towards each other then we lost you in his shadow. Now keep in mind he's a buck 60 dripping wet with rocks in his pocket people don't realize he looks bigger than life on the silver screen right. But he's not a big guy.

He's not that tall either right. No 5'6 5'6 I'm 6'2 285 pounds so like I you know and I essentially dwarfed him they said on the camera on the screen right. And called me a couple weeks later and said hey you're just you're too big I mean you're delivering the lines hands down was the best but you're just you're just too big even for Hollywood you're too big. And but all that to say he was so personable so friendly we had a great interaction and conversation while I was there and and so yeah so yeah it was pretty cool to meet Stallone and be able to have that that interaction with with him. So yeah that's a probably one of the bigger names that I've been able to cross paths with. And have you ever had any interaction with him since then? I've not however a good friend of mine he was doing some interview maybe the last couple year or two or three. And my buddy sends me this clip of his interview and I guess it was posted on TikTok or something and he said dude he doesn't mention you by name but I know he's talking about you. I guess they'd asked him about somehow they'd asked about Rocky IV and the screen time and he and what he said was he goes he was this dude bigger than life walked in. He goes he was like a cyborg man my buddy was like roaring live he goes dude I know he was talking about you that because he was describing the screen testing you know. And this dude bigger than life that looked like a cyborg walked in and just dwarfed me or whatever he goes that was you I know he didn't mention you by name but I know he was talking about you. And then little did I know Jamie the wrestling fans are the greatest I didn't know this till later somebody asked me if I ever got royalties off the Rocky IV and I'm like what are you talking about right? And they go dude they go they used your name I go I go what they go yeah like for his man his quote manager in the movie you know. And I went and researched I'm like sure not why how are you kidding me and well first of all they used Ivan right for the Ivan Drago right.

And then they used Koloff for his manager's name Koloff. I had no idea. I did not either and a fan a wrestling fan pointed it out to me a couple years ago and I go well for the record never got a nickel off of Rocky IV not a nickel. Thank you Sly I appreciate that anyway. But so no hey that was a great question because I don't know I've ever really been asked at least asked it that way before so but I appreciate you Jamie Warden you've been a long time dear friend a big supporter of what I do and I'm grateful for you and thank you for your friendship. Absolutely the feeling is mutual well I feel like we are you know we both got to meet a lot of different people and for whatever reason our paths were intertwined and you know that's one of those relationships that stuck so I'm forever grateful and appreciative. Likewise and Q&A with Koloff and again go over to the Man Up show and hear our full interview talking all about Jamie's 37 year career in music there in Music City the music capital of the world I think Music City USA Nashville Tennessee and go out today and my challenge to you is have a God filled and live a God blessed day today.

Till next time. 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. If you are enjoying Q&A with Koloff would you help us spread the word tell your family tell your friends tell your neighbors to download subscribe and leave a comment. Are you looking for the perfect gift for your pastor? Well look no further bless him with a trip to the Holy Land with yours truly Nikita Koloff the Russian nightmare. I'll be hosting this once in a lifetime trip December 27, 2023 to January 5, 2024.

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