Q&A with Koloff - #16

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Enjoy it and share it. But most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. This is the Truth Network. Nakita Kolof here. Questions and answers. Q&A with Kolof, the devil's nightmare.

Welcome back to another segment of Q&A with Kolof, questions and answers with the devil's nightmare. Hey, today's questions come from Jamie Zomer. Jamie Zomer, you know, I meet a lot of you guys on social media.

The fans are really honestly the greatest. And whether you follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, I just appreciate it. And, you know, just spread the word out there, Nakita Kolof with the number one behind it. If you're not following me on social media, both on Instagram and Twitter, Nakita Kolof with the number one behind it, dial in and follow me.

I try to post something positive every day, try to encourage you and sometimes even challenge you, you know, in your journey, in your walk. And so Jamie was not available. I would have loved to have called Jamie and just had this conversation and answered these questions just straight up. So these are the questions Jamie submitted.

And starting with, where are you from? Jamie, go buy the book. No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding, Jamie. But if you want to know the whole story on Nakita Kolof, Nakita, A Tale of the Ring and Redemption is how you can, that's one way, one way.

You can go on my website, you can go on my website, nakita.net and read about more of my story and or buy the book, go to my store and buy the book and get the whole story. Starting with the earliest days I can remember. And Jamie says, where are you from? Well, I'm not from Russia.

Let me just break somebody's bubble, burst somebody's bubble right there. I'm not from Russia. I hail from the great state of Minnesota, born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the heart of Minneapolis, Minnesota. We were in the early days in what technically you call the Minneapolis Housing Authority, what I affectionately call the projects or the ghettos of Minneapolis, because that's really what it was. We were right on the outskirts of downtown.

In fact, in my mind, I can see downtown Minneapolis right now from where we would play outside of our home. And so Minneapolis, we would eventually, my mom, she raised, I was the youngest of four and she raised us by herself. My dad left when I was three and she eventually was able to move us out of the projects, out to a town called, a suburb called Robbinsdale, which is very infamous in and of itself, Robbinsdale, Minnesota. In fact, seven, technically nine wrestlers, well, eight wrestlers and an announcer came out of Robbinsdale High School. Now, early on, dating all the way back to the 1950s, a man named Vern Ganya, who was an amazing collegiate athlete at the University of Minnesota, went on to form the AWA, Professional Wrestling Territory, back in its day. And eventually out of Robbinsdale came a guy named Mean Gene Okerlund, one of the very infamous announcers in professional wrestling. And then eventually came Mr. Perfect Curt Henning, whose dad, Larry the Axe Henning, wrestled for Vern Ganya.

But Mr. Perfect Curt Henning, Ravishing Rick Rude, John Nord, Nord, he wrestled as Nord the Barbarian, Nord the Berserker. Barry Darso, who wrestled as Crusher Khrushchev and also as one of Demolition up in WWF days.

Tom Zink, who wrestled as the Z-Man, one of the lesser-known Brady Boone, who wrestled. And then of course, the Russian nightmare, Nikita Kolov, came out of Robbinsdale High School as well. It must have been in the water tower. People ask me all the time, how did so many guys come from one high school? All I can figure, it was in the water.

It was in the water tower. But anyway, that's where I'm from, Jamie. And again, if you want more of that story, I guess you'll just need to go buy the book. But he asked too, Jamie asked too, how has God and your family played a role in your life? How is God and your family? Well, looking back at me, family was very important.

I'll just start with that. Family was very important to me. As I mentioned, I was the youngest of four. I had an older sister, two older brothers, and it really looked up to my oldest brother, Steven. He was an athlete himself. He was a state gymnast. He was quite a few years older than me. He was 12 years older than me, actually. But he was a state gymnast, a great athlete. I should say, I always remember him saying to me as a youngster, if you want to be an athlete, you don't drink, you don't smoke, and you need to focus on whatever sport you choose to do.

You need to focus and give it everything you have. And so I took that to heart. I mean, I'm just a kid.

I'm in single digits. And I just took that to heart for my older brother, really looked up to him. And I embraced that.

Hook, line, and sinker, I think, as the saying goes, I embraced that. And I can remember at age 12, once we moved out to the suburbs, I stumbled across this magazine called Iron Man. And it was a bodybuilding magazine. And I was just enamored by the guys in the magazine. I thought, one day I want to look like one of those guys. I remember saying that at age 12, one day I will look like one of those guys. And I was an entrepreneur from an early age.

I got a paper route when we moved out to the suburbs and began delivering newspapers and earning my own way, earning my own income, and kept that paper out for about five years. And then I watched, I saw football on television, the NFL, and I got a dream and a vision for playing in the NFL one day. And these things became my passion. And my family, of course, older siblings, so they grew up and moved on.

And then it was just me and my mom. And so football and weightlifting just became my passion. And then my family became my sports teams, my sports teams. My seventh grade football coach, Bill Burke, became my first male role model in my life and kind of embraced me. And then Jerry McFarland came into my life in ninth grade. He was a health teacher, gymnastics coach, and a professional bodybuilder.

Remember the Iron Man magazine? So I'm like, whoa. And so he took me under his wing. He became my next mentor. And several other football coaches, John Richmond, Irv Nurdahl, Ross Fauci, all these coaches, and all these guys became male mentors for me and became like family to me. So where there was a void because my older siblings left and because my dad was never essentially in my life, that became my family and played a key role in my success in athletics and eventually in professional wrestling.

As some of you know, or many of you know, Ivan Koloff, the story was he was my uncle, Uncle Ivan Koloff. And he became a mentor for nephew Nakita, right? So he became like family. And then eventually I get married and have a family. I have four beautiful children who are precious to me. And I have nine, now nine, nine precious grandchildren.

And so family has been important to me. And then in 1993, enter God into the mix, right? And I didn't grow up following God. I wasn't a Jesus follower. I knew the stories. I'd heard the story, how Jesus, this man lived, you know, was nailed to a cross, died, rose again, and now lives at the right hand of his father and how he had a family, the family of God.

And so through business contacts, I was invited to church in 1993 in the month of October and the 17th day, I found myself in an altar surrendering my life to Jesus. And all of a sudden I was adopted into the family of God. And now all of a sudden I have an eternal family. So I have an immediate family. I have an extended family, but I also have an eternal family, brothers and sisters in Christ. And that for me, honestly, is the most important family because I'm going to spend eternity with them, like forever with them. And my hope is, my prayer is that my immediate family and my extended family make that same decision, and many of them have, in surrendering their own heart and life to Jesus, so that they then become a part of the eternal family.

And so I really cherish and relish the family of God, my eternal family, because they all play such a key role in my life. And so I hope that helps somebody out there today. Jamie, man, great questions from Jamie Zomer. And keep sending those questions in, you know, keep submitting those questions. You guys are coming in with some great ones.

And they can be wrestling related, they can be God related, family related, you know, throw a couple zingers in there on me and I'll do my best to answer those questions. And hopefully you're available for me to call you and be able to have a conversation with you. And so I can get to know you a little bit more as you're getting to know me through all these stories and questions and answers with Kolov. So thanks for tuning in today to Q&A with Kolov. Look forward to talking to you again next time. God bless you. Have a wonderful day.