This is the Truth Network. Ladies and gentlemen, the following contest is set for one floor. Introduce purse. Lithuania, he weighs 100 and What do you think? The Russian Nightmare.
Nikita Co Welcome to another episode, QA with Cole off the Devil's Nightmare. Welcome back, QA with Koloff, Questions and Answers. And so excited to have with me on the show today, Brian Davis. Welcome to QA with Koloff. I appreciate it, Nikita.
For the first time in my life, I've got a solid testimony, and I'm happy to share it. Oh, come on, man. What a way to open the show. And we're going to get to that. These are always fun for me because it gives me the opportunity to give the person who's calling in or who I call to be able to ask me some questions.
But more important to me is sharing some of your story.
Now, I know we were just talking before we came on air. You're out there in Western North Carolina, correct? That's right. Bryson City is right on the border of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
So I have all this beauty to to look at God's creation here. And and now, did you did you grow up there or just end up there? I grew up here, born and raised. Born and raised? Wow.
Okay. And uh and and then uh I I know and again, I don't want to get ahead of myself. I I know you've done some some travel and and uh but but it's always brought you back there though, huh? That's right. I knew after I'd visited some other countries, there was no other place on earth that I would live ever again.
Wow.
Somebody asked me recently, you know, if there was some other place, you know, where would that be? And I had not been asked that question before, and I thought, hmm, well, that's a because I feel like I could almost kind of adapt to anywhere, but certainly in all my travels, there are some places that I'm more fond of, you know, than others. And then there's. There's some places I would have no interest to ever go back again.
So you mentioned travel.
So what. What are some of the countries you've traveled to?
Well, that is a part of my experience of being in the Army back in 1995. And in fact, um I started out in the 82nd Airborne Division, which I learned the other day was your father's. That is correct. Yeah, so you guys were in the same division. That's correct.
And during peacetime, certainly got to visit United Arab Emirates, Panama, Haiti, Saudi Arabia. um a number of deployments uh leading up to um my time in Baghdad, Iraq, back in the first year of the war, two thousand three, two thousand four. Wow.
Wow.
And that's That's what and I I actually had uh you know, I did uh back in the wrestling days, uh, I guess kind of next door to that, um, in Kuwait, right? That's next if I n got my geography right, I think they're next door to each other somewhat, aren't they? Or In that same area. It is. That's a certainly a hub for anyone going to the Middle East.
To start there and then make your way to the other countries. I gotcha. I gotcha. And well, and and thank you for serving, by the way. Thank you for serving our our military.
But l l let's let's back up just for a moment.
So you're you're up there in Bryson City. You got you know, you got you born and raised up there. You got family up there? I do. I need to brag on my son, of course.
I'm a proud father. A fifteen-year-old son named Aiden. He is the kid who gets straight A's in honors classes. He's athletic. He's kind.
He's got way more common sense than I ever have. And so he just enjoyed. That's awesome.
Now, so wha what what all does he participate in? What all does he get involved in then?
Well currently he is biggins across country and track.
Okay. He likes to run. He does. It's it is a uh certainly something that could benefit him in the long run in his adult life as well.
Well, Aiden, God bless you. You i if Aiden l listens to this interview, uh the only thing I like to run to is maybe the refrigerator at this point. But uh But y you know, back in the day, back in the um In my athletical days, going in high school, every fall camp, they made us run a mile. We knew that. Like the first day, you're going to run a mile and you got to get under so many minutes or whatever.
Man, I never looked forward to that first day. Running was not my forte, shall we say? I did it. but was not a big fan. Of it.
So you got Aiden up there, 15-year-old, and that's that's pretty. Pretty wonderful that you've got the opportunity to just impact him from day to day, right? Oh, absolutely. First person I talked to when I got back from camp was Aiden and shared my story. And I sat him down, I said, this is the most important conversation we have ever had and will ever will have.
So when you're ready to do it, listen, let's sit down and have it. And we did a couple of hours later. Wow.
That's pretty awesome.
Well, and of course the camp that that Brian is referring to is Man Camp. He is now an alumni of Man Camp. Refresh my memory, Brian, because I have so many conversations. You learned about Man Camp From who?
Well, interestingly enough, I believe you had done an event in Silda, North Carolina, and I'm guessing about twenty twenty two. And it was at that event I attended to meet you and I bought your autobiography. But it's also at that event that I've ran into a childhood friend, Aaron Langston, and he invited he's a pastor now and he invited me and Aiden to his church, and we started to attend regularly. And um To back up and give you a little bit of history there, following the Iraq War, my compass was completely spinning in circles. And it was nearly twenty years of anxiety, depression.
I would use alcohol and anything else I could to fill that void.
Okay. And so finally had went through about a year of depression, twenty four, twenty five. The the twentieth anniversary had hit me particularly hard. And I finally sat down with a therapist and ended up being the last one on my team to get diagnosed with PTSD.
Okay. Right.
Okay. And so. where I'm leading with this is that I that's That autobiography sat on my shelf for a couple of years. And after all the work I put in, I started feeling a little bit better. And I picked up the autobiography and read it, and it was inspirational.
And then the back of that is where I learned about Main Camp. And it's where I said to myself, you know, I'm going to do something for myself. I'm going to get away for a while.
So I chose to attend the fall session this year. Yeah. And and um and I know, you know, some of your Your testimony too, you were sharing how in addition to the oth those other things you were struggling with, even purpose, right? Like how many people out there struggle with what their purpose in life is, and that's even something you struggle with as well, right? Absolutely, for many years.
It was I come to the point where I'd My job wasn't fulfilling me. I didn't feel like I was needed there. I had went back to school didn't try to prove myself and and got a master's degree in school counseling, but that path didn't take me lead me to where I thought it would. And so I was really coming into camp really searching for what my purpose is. And to be honest with you, I'd been attending church since you know, that event in 2022.
But I didn't have a relationship with God, and I wasn't living. Like the way I was supposed to. And so that was part of why I was struggling my purpose. But coming into camp, I was focused on my purpose more from a career standpoint.
Okay. Okay. And and and camp opened your eyes to which i is not uncommon for guys to to come in and and maybe they're You know, as one of your own fellow campers, Charles, from up in Minnesota, right? He came in with a lot of questions and question marks, but including his salvation. And, you know, I know as we were water baptizing him there at camp, you know, as tears were rolling down his cheeks, he recently testified at his church, and he said, you know, I went into man camp questioning my salvation.
I came out of man camp having driven a stake in the ground and only just putting an exclamation on my salvation. No longer will I ever question my salvation again. I know that, I know that, I know.
Now I have a relationship with Jesus. And, you know, and again, guys come to camp for all different reasons, varieties of reasons, but it's not uncommon for guys to come and God to, you know, and as only He can do, reveal to them, you know, it's like Jesus in the Bible, where people rattle off all these things they did for God. And in the Sermon on the Mount in the book of Matthew, and then Jesus concludes by saying, Yeah, but I never knew you. You you did all these things for me, but I never knew you. And hence the importance of knowing, knowing that, know that you know that you know, right, right, down deep, down deep, you know, that your salvation is secure.
And then from there, it's just a matter of then beginning to grow with God, right? And, you know, I love what you, what you sent me, where you said, God tore me down like an engine. This is an interesting analogy here, Brian, just for the record. God tore me down like an engine and rebuilt me from the ground up. Wow.
It's quite a statement. Absolutely. And I was coming into camp with doubts of my own salvation, perhaps. And I didn't remember this until I got home and checked my journal. But the very first prayer I prayed at Camp That first night was.
God, I want you to come into my heart and kick the door down if you have to, because I'm yours anyway. You gave me breath, you can take it away. And I was hungry. I was hungry for a relationship with God because I've seen it with other men in my life. And I wanted what they had.
Come on. And the days that followed, every time God would lay something on my heart. It would be revealed, that same thing that he'd put on my heart would be revealed in the sermon that night. It was amazing. Yeah, you were, yeah, I remember now.
As you were saying, you know, again, I hear a lot of different stories, but yeah, I remember like you're like, I want to experience this. And then, boom, unbeknownst to you, that's what you would experience like that night, right? Like a couple, three times it happened at camp, right? I many times, many times during the week, and just give you a few examples. That first night I was praying for my purpose.
God, what do you want from me in life? What is my purpose? Again, thinking from a career standpoint. And then very clearly, this is the first time this ever happened to me, not with my ears, but with my head and my heart, he very clearly said to me three times. You need to be the man you want your son to grow up to be.
And that first broke me. Right off the bat. Go ahead. Go ahead. Finish your thoughts.
I was going to say, without giving away too much about camp. Right.
Within 30 minutes, we were having a discussion about how kids grow up to be their parent. Right.
Night after night. Right, right. Yeah, I kind of jumped in there because guys have a tendency like, and I explain to people, and for the listeners out there, you know, Metcamp's not secretive, not a secret, but it is sacred. And what I mean by that is, in order to protect the integrity of the camp and what each of these men walk through and go through, because the only story they have permission to tell is their own story. And you're hearing Brian share some of his personal camp experience and his story, right, at camp.
And so, yeah, I do remember you saying that now, how this is what you pray. All of a sudden, you're praying, and boom, hey, let's talk about what it's like, you know, to how many of you, you know, figured out you're like your dad. Or didn't want to be, but you are, and you know, and all that sort of thing.
So, well, that's some pretty amazing experiences there. And, of course, you know, we try to give you tools, right, to take back home and put, you know, implement some action, call to action, right? And absolutely. Yeah, and you have done really your testimony, and I know we just kind of scratched the surface, but I just really wanted to. have you on to share some of of that camp experience.
And maybe, you know, maybe somebody else will be intrigued, whether it's another guy out there listening or a woman out there who has that special man in her life, like, hey, I need to learn more, find out more about this man camp. Um and you know would you say what would you say um You know, and all the things that we did, and all the different ways you were impacted. Uh Would you say was one other highlight uh of of your camp experience?
Well, for me, that's easily to when we pray. We need to really sit and wait. And be patient. an answer from God. 'Cause if I had a prayer life before camp, it was more like an email, right?
I wouldn't Tell him what I wanted to tell him and send it and he'll get back to me later. But at camp I really learned to tune in and wait. And Wilson. I'm just making a note as you're speaking. That's another great analogy.
You have some great analogies, man. I was like, you know, like sending God an email. And that is, in fact, just last night I was watching, I stumbled say stumbled across, but I saw that it was talking about how the difficulty of waiting upon the Lord, right? Like we throw up all our requests sometimes and then don't even wait long enough for an answer, you know. ask lots of questions and God's like, Hey, I'll I'll I I'm ready to answer, but you you're off busy doing something else, right?
It's easy to get busy. Would you say, Brian, it was uh uh kind of uh Carving out that time and setting all of life's distractions aside and being able to just really focus on God was a benefit there at camp. That is the only way you can do it. We you can try it here. back at home, but there's going to be something.
You've got to truly get away and make some time for the Lord. Yeah, so I know you're Um what I call Day of Freedoms, october seventeenth, nineteen ninety three. For me, I now celebrate October 20th, 2025 as my day of freedom. Come on, October 20th, 2025. That was the first day, the first time in my life, I've completely surrendered every area of my life, and not just part of it, not trying to control parts, but everything.
Total surrender. Correct. October 20th. Yeah. You can't really truly appreciate freedom unless you've been in prison.
And I'm I'm loving my freedom. I was imprisoned for my Poesh in my past before I came to camp. And I've felt nothing but contentment and fulfillment ever since. Can't appreciate freedom. Can you remember that?
Say it one more time.
Well, you cannot appreciate freedom unless you've been in prison. You can't truly appreciate freedom unless you've been in prison. And I was imprisoned to both my flesh and my past before I came to camp. But now I am completely fulfilled. and know what my purpose is.
It has nothing to do with work. It's living for Jesus Christ. I'm making notes as you're right. I'm like, man, that's really good there. You can't appreciate.
True freedom until you've experienced a prison or been imprisoned, right? To which that can look different for all kinds, right? I mean, whether it's drugs, alcohol, sex, whatever, right? You can be imprisoned to a lot of things, right? And maybe not, maybe not even literally incarcerated, although that happens too, but just spiritually incarcerated, right?
So. That's powerful, Brian. Wow, what a. What an incredible story. And if you want to learn more about, you're out there listening, you want to learn more about Man Camp and or the book he wrote, you know, My Life Story, Nikita, A Tale of the Ring and Redemption that Brian made reference to, just go to koloff.net.
Kolof.net. You can order an autographed copy right off the website there. And link, click the link to Man Camp. We do one every spring, every April, and one every fall. A vision that God gave Lex Luger and I quite a number of years ago.
And as you're hearing Brian's story today, so many men's lives that have been impacted over the years by these camps. And so check it out. 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. Moving as a way to keep If you are a business owner and would like to advertise your company or product on the Man Up Show and or Q ⁇ A with Koloff, contact me directly, Nakita Koloff at Koloff.net.
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Well, QA with Koloff, let's kind of switch gears here, Brian. And I know there's so much more that you could tell, but let's switch gears and give you the opportunity to ask me a question or two.
Okay. I have up to four time allows here, but let's start with this one. Um and I Interview with Tony Schibani, NWA nineteen eighty seven. You said, and I quote, I'll find out something about Leg Sluger. I don't think too many people know.
He wants to be one of the four horsemen. You know what I found out, Tony? He's not one of the four horsemen. He's one of the four horsemen behind. That's who Lex Luger is.
And so Nikita, do you stand by that statement? Is Lex Luger behind? Wow, man, you've done some research. You've done some homework. Oh my gosh.
Tony Schiavati, if Tony, if you ever listen to this interview, he was and is one of the best announcers there's ever been. But do I stand behind that statement?
Well, How let's see how I can answer that.
Well for for the record Lex is on record of saying when he heard I was leaving wrestling, he said, I don't know if I called you a moron or an idiot or both. I'm like, well, thank you, Lex. I appreciate that.
Now, he has since apologized to me for that. I may have to go and apologize to him for saying that, but I would say, go ahead. You may just reinforce it. I mean, just back it up and go ahead and say it to him again. I know you two are close.
I would say at the time, yeah, I would stand by that statement at the time.
Now, we're the best of friends. We're brothers in Christ. And so I don't know that I would call him the horses behind now. I would say at this juncture, he doesn't resemble that in any way, shape, or form. Just because of now his love for Jesus.
So he. He's redeemed himself, Brian. He's redeemed himself. That was awesome. That was awesome.
What else you got for me? Throw another one at me. I've got a couple. What is your current favorite worship song? Ooh, wow.
My current favorite worship song. That's like, Brian, that's like asking me what was my all-time favorite match. Man, that's so hard to nail it down to one match or Or even one song. I'm just trying to think here because, again, I don't, folks, I don't get any of these questions ahead of time.
So there's no planning here. I've just got to, you know, just got to roll with the flow here. Because just let me first say this: worship in general, just in general. I'm a worshiper at heart. God created me to be a worshiper.
I almost envisioned, I'm not saying I'm King David, but King David was a warrior. And he was a worshipper. And in a sense, that's kind of how I would envision myself: a warrior for God's kingdom in the front lines of battle, but also a worshiper of God. There's times I'll put an hour's worth of worship on and just sit and soak in. In his worship.
I'm trying to think of some specific names and titles. One of my favorite artists is, I guess, she was Kim Walker. I think it's Kim Walker Smith, I think now. Don't hold me to that.
Well, I can certainly share mine. It's very clearly, they remind me of my time account and my transformation. It's Josh Baldwin, Made for More. Zach Williams, Jesus Loves. And and and Josh Baldwin, you know, I I Before he ever got a name for himself back in the 90s.
I I used to go and serve revivals at his dad's church in Albemarle, North Carolina. Oh, that's cool. And I spent many, many a night. Josh was just a little tyke, man. It was way back before.
You know, who he ever really made a name for himself in Christian music. But yeah, unfortunately, I can't give you, I'm just drawing a blank on specific. And I've never, but I've never been good with titles. And like even back in my BC day before Christ, there were songs I enjoyed and could even sing some of the lyrics. But if somebody said, what's the title of that?
I go, don't know. And I couldn't tell you who the artist is either.
So for the record. That's understandable. All right.
Well, I think we got time for one more if you've got another. When was the last time you grew your hair out, and is there any chance of Demollet making a comeback? Uh Ah, somebody posted yesterday. The fans, the wrestling fans are the greatest, right? They posted a picture.
I'm going to say this. I'll say this first. of Road Warrior Animal and I in in uh tuxedos.
Okay. And I every now and then, I guess I don't know if the timelines or however that works, the algorithms or whatever they call it, but people will pop that poster, that photo up of him and I in tuxedos and you know in wedding garb. And man, You want to talk about having. This is before Mohawks and a shaved head, okay? Because we had our hair so.
Perfect and feathered back, and believe it or not, you know, back to the days of, and I'm dating myself here.
Some aren't even going to know what I'm talking about, but spraying sun in so you get kind of that little blonde, streaky look back in the day. That was the cheap way of you didn't go to a you know, a hairstylist and spend hundreds of dollars of getting your hair streaked. We just sprayed sun in in our hair, right? Um, and uh, I don't know, my daughters, my girls are not fans of me having hair, you know. For one, they pretty much all grew up with me not having hair.
And then, when I did grow hair, they were not fans of it. In fact, my two youngest daughters, Kendra and Colby. And there's a whole story there of why I grew my hair out the last time. It was really God-ordained. And I'll share this because it's a testimony.
And uh he said it was a New Year's Eve. And I was sitting in having s uh you know, I was in a prayer room, spent about eight hours in a prayer room that day, just seeking God and seeking direction and seeking his voice and, you know, w what he was wanting me to to do specifically the following year, kind of, you know, kind of that deal. And he said, Grow your hair out, start tomorrow. I'm like Okay. But it's kinda like Abraham moving out you know, moving out to get get leave leave your home and out and and without knowing where he was going, right?
Well, he said, grow my hair without knowing why. Because people start asking me, why are you growing your hair?
Well, because God said. Will he tell you why? Uh not yet. Wait on that. And he said, Brian, he said, and I'll tell you when you can cut it.
Don't trim it. Don't cut it. I'll let you know when you can cut it or get rid of it.
Okay. So I'm like, okay. And at first, of course, you know, it kind of looked like the chia pet, you know, when it first started growing. And then, as it grew more and more, you know, it grew into a mullet. Like you said, a mullet.
And. And people are like, are you doing like a Nazarene vow or something, like a Samson deal? Or what are you doing here? I go, God has not yet said.
Well, All right, fast forward seventeen months later.
Okay, so I've been growing my hair for for 17 months. And God said You can cut your hair if you want to cut your hair.
So I can't tell you Kendra and Colby were thrilled to get the Clippers out, and they had fun at first. They had little streaks and all kinds of stuff, right? And they shaved it all off. And the question would be, did God ever say why? And the answer is yes.
And what he showed me, Brian, you know, to the world I'm known as the Russian nightmare Nikita Kolov, right? And some guys, unfortunately, in my business get very attached to their identity, their wrestling identity. Right.
And what he was doing was he was wanting to see how attached to my wrestling identity I was. He said I'm sample couldn't. Yeah. Yeah, and he said he said, I I want to know if you're comfortable and if you're okay with people not recognizing you. And by the way, you know, even the Fu Manchu, you know, so I shaved off the Fu Manchu.
So I just had this full head of hair. And there were a few people that would still recognize me, I guess, because of my eyes, right? The intensity of my eyes. Oh, definitely. Yeah.
You say that like you have experienced that, Brian. Oh, I remember the morning I said, God's not done with me yet, and you were looking straight at me before you come bear hugging me.
Some have said they're like, dude, you just like, you, you were staring right through me at camp, you know, like, wow. Like, wow. Intimidating, intimidating. But all that to say, to to wrap wrap up the answer and and wrap up the show here in a minute, is is he said, I wanted to know if you were comfortable in and not being You know, not being recognized. Like, were you okay with that?
And I guess I passed the test because, you know, he gave me permission to cut it before it got down to my waist. But But uh and so that was just you know what one of one of the tests that God has brought me through and and so that so I don't get because how many times especially men can we get so attached to our our job or our identity? You know, that's that's who we who we are who we become right what's what's kind of one of the first questions you meet somebody a new person so what do you do for a living right What you know, what do you do for work?
So, anyway, um So, yeah, I don't know that the hair will all that to say, I don't know that the hair will ever come back. May maybe one day, but at this point, we'll keep the bald look going.
So. But Brian Davis, thank you for being on QA with Koloff today, man. Amazing job. I appreciate you so much, and love you and your ministry.
Well, and I appreciate you. Love you as well, Brian. And man, just great to read your testimony and see what God's doing and going to continue to do in your life and in Aiden's life in his future. And so, what's the name of the church you're going to up there? The peak?
The peak in what city? Technically, it's in Whittier, North Carolina, near Cherokee. In Whittier, the peak and pastor. Who's the pastor? Erin Langston.
Aaron Langston. Folks, if you're ever up that way, go check out the Peak Church. Maybe watch it online, and I know you'll be blessed. And Brian, thank you for sharing just some of your man camp experience today. Anytime, Lakita.
All right, until next time. My challenge to you is to just go out and have a God-filled and live a God-blessed day. Until 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 kolof.net and donate. Today. I 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.
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Well, look no further. Bless him with a trip to the Holy Land with yours truly, Nieta Koloff, the Russian nightmare. I'll be hosting this once-in-a-lifetime trip, December 27, 2023 to January 5th, 2024. Your pastor will never be the same. Go to koloff.net to get registered today.
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