Q&A with Koloff - #17

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But most of all, thank you for listening to the Truth Podcast Network. We've got a special segment today for Q&A with Koloff, because I've got a good friend in studio with me, Justin Porter. Now normally, normally people will submit these questions, you know, through my email, right?

You can do that through koloff.net. Just go email me some questions, and it can be wrestling related, it can be ministry related, it can be life related, right? And I'll do my best to answer them. I can't promise you I'll always have the answer, but I'll do my best to answer them. Well, today's show with Justin comes as a complete surprise to me, because I have no clue what questions he's going to ask me.

But Justin, welcome to Q&A with Koloff. It's good to be here, Nikita. Thanks for having me. Well, it's great to have you. And before we jump into the questions, I mean, our life goes way, way back.

I know we've had you on the Man Up show. That's right. And we've actually talked about some of our story dating back to your first memory of when this posing, intimidating figure of the Russian nightmare you saw in a restaurant, a steak line or something. Eleven years old, scared to death.

That's right. I encountered the Russian nightmare right there at Ryan's. Terrified. And I think you said, you said if I even glanced your way, you'd like turn your head and... I saw the back of this beastly, giant bald head, and then I remember my dad saying, there's Nikita Koloff's son, and then you sort of turned to look the other direction, which I was sort of at the peripheral of, and I was scared to death that you were going to look at me. I had him shaking in his boots. I had lots of people shaking in their boots, actually.

Most of them were my opponents, but some of them were fans, though. That's right. That's right. But, well, that's, which is crazy to think back.

I mean, the intimidation of an 11-year-old. But, and then we'd go on, we'd go on to ultimately or eventually have this friendship, and we cross paths, and not only in the restaurant, we cross paths in church, but then we have, eventually you get involved in ministry, and now we're getting to know each other on a personal level. And building a relationship with each other. Yeah, yeah, it's been so good. And here we are all these years later, and continuing to just build upon that relationship.

Yeah. Well, let me just say for the record, let me just apologize for the record, you know, for being such an intimidating, posing figure at age 11. You shaking in your boots, but I guess I did my job well.

You did a good job. Your presence was terrifying to an 11-year-old little boy, that's for sure. Well, and I've had a number of stories where they say, man, your eyes would just like pierce right through me, you know. You had that look on your face, like I'm at Ryan's, it's Sunday, I'm hungry, I'm in line. Do you remember the lines at Ryan's would be like so long back in the day?

It'd be like cattle going through a, yeah, yes. And you just looked so, so mad. I probably was hungry.

That's right. Well, today, so we're here on Q&A, and I think you've teed up some questions for me, and let's just have some fun, and let's just roll, man. Okay.

Go with it, first question. First question's about a story that another former professional wrestler talked to me about years and years ago, right? Didn't know who they were, and I don't know if I can name them today, but we had a lunch and years back, and they said I was good friends with Nikita Koloff in the wrestling days, and I said, really? He said, yeah.

And I said, well, tell me a little bit about that. He said, well, you know, Nikita was a really tough wrestler in the ring and out of the ring. I was like, I would love to hear about that, right, because I saw Nikita on television, I had the magazines, I had the figures. What was Nikita like out of the ring, right? And so he says, I remember one night, we'd go to Waffle House a lot or somewhere like that.

I think he said Waffle House, and Nikita was always speaking in Russian all the time, all the time, so I do want to ask you about that. But he said there was one time when someone like was on our bumper in our convertible or whatever we were, Corvette, whatever we were driving, and trying to cause some problems at a stoplight, didn't know who was in the car. And all of a sudden, this wrestler who was with you and Nikita Kolov get out of the car and just stand up out of the passenger and driver's seat, look in their direction, and they go speeding off.

I mean, you know, just from that perspective, you know, someone cuts you off, and then all of a sudden, maybe you're acting in a behavior that would cause anger, and then all of a sudden, two professional wrestlers get out of the car and come at you, and you're gone, right? Did anything like that happen? Do you have any memories of that?

Are there anything related to that? Is that a true story? Well, it's probably one of many stories in that what was – well, here's what was crazy is, like, Uncle Ivan Kolov and I, you know, we would travel, and it didn't help that he had R Bear on his license plate, you know, because he was known as the Russian Bear. So he had R, the letter R period, B-E-A-R on it, and I'm like, dude, like, you're like a magnet to these crazy fans out there, because back in the early days, they loved to hate me, right? I mean, I was like the number one most hated guy in wrestling, right? And so not only an intimidating figure, or at least you would think, but I can recall one time him and I were driving – I don't even know what town it was. It might have been Shelby, North Carolina. We were driving somewhere, sometime, and people recognized us in his car.

And, man, they spun a quick 180 U-turn, came up alongside us, and they were shaking their fists, and they were, like, screaming and yelling at us. And to the point where I went ahead and got my first car, which was a 76 banana yellow Fleetwood Cadillac. I mean, it was the biggest car you could get on the road. And, by the way, one of the most comfortable cars. But I had that thing tinted like a limousine, because I was like, okay, I'm going to put a stop to this.

At least in my car, nobody's going to be able to look in the windows and see who's in it, right? But all that said, there were definitely more than one story like you just described that we would have to, you might say, I don't know, defend ourselves or make a point of who you're – hey, this is who you're messing with here. So, yes, there is a lot of truth to that story. That's so great.

Another question kind of related to that topic. As a wrestling fan growing up, seeing wrestlers like yourself, Nikita Kolov, The Russian Nightmare, who I show my kids today. We go on YouTube, right? I told them I'm going and hanging out with Nikita again today. We're going to be talking on the radio, and my kids just go crazy, right?

They just love you. We watch YouTube videos all the time. So, when you see The Russian Nightmare speaking a very heavy Russian accent, how did Nikita Kolov go out in the public to restaurants? Were you speaking part English Russian? Were you talking, ah, yes, I would like a waffle, an egg? You know, are you – That's a pretty good invitation right there, by the way. Or are you – well, I might do one. I think so.

Yes, I like a number one combo. Ah, cheese. That's Justin, by the way.

That's actually not me. That is – so it is a pretty good invitation. Well, so the crazy part of that story is this. So, about the first – because part of the story was, as a nephew to Ivan Kolov, The Russian Bear, was that I spoke no English. I was just like right off the boat, man. I was – they call it a shoot, right? I was a shooting Russian, came right from Moscow, you know?

Right from the Kremlin, right? Wow. So, I spoke no English. So, I'm like, all right, well, that's a little easier anyway.

I don't have to talk to anybody. So, I didn't. I didn't talk to anyone anywhere other than like in the car with maybe Ivan and Don Curnodle, who just so happens – I talked to him actually on the way up here today, Don Curnodle. Wow.

And one of my original partners. Occasionally in the dressing room – in fact, some of the – some of the – Johnny – guy who wrestles is Johnny B. Bad. Mark Marrow is his shoot name. Yep. Johnny B.

Bad. He told me this story just a number of years ago, not that long ago. He goes, man, when we first came to Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, we'd be in the dressing room and you'd be talking with your accent. And he was, for one, he goes, let me just tell you, you weren't the only – Justin, you weren't the only one intimidated. He goes, you scared the crap out of me. He goes, I was so afraid of you. Can I say that on – yeah, I can say it. It's my podcast, right? Anyway, so you scare the heck out of me. How about that? Anyway, and he goes, but then you talk to that accent and I'm like, does he know like we're smart to this business?

Like we know he's not really from Russia. Right. And all that said, I carried – I eventually developed the accent, learned how to speak English, good English tutoring, but I carried that accent with me, get this, for 12 years. Now, for those who want to do the math, I was only in wrestling, active wrestling for nine, but I walked and talked with the accent for 12. Wow. Anywhere in public. Anywhere in public, restaurant, movie theater, airport, it didn't matter. Pulled over by the police officer, standing before a judge, I talked with the accent, like for real. Wow. Just to protect – in fact, I went out and screen tested for Rocky IV with Sylvester Stallone standing by my side and talked with the accent to Sly, to Stallone, right? Oh my goodness. Anywhere and everywhere. So I guess that's why people even to this day still bought – they so bought into the character that when I speak like this – It was real. It was real. All the time.

Yeah, they're like, dude, what happened to your accent? You retired when I retired. Anyway, there you go. That's so great. So great. All in. So I'm going to ask some of these questions.

It'll be fun. Some of them will be serious. My other question was did you have anyone that you would dread matching up against? And I mean like it could be because they were great. It could be because off – maybe off stage there was tension.

Or it could be for whatever reason. Did you have anyone in particular that you just dreaded going into the ring with? Well, I mean yes and no. What I mean by that is I mean there were some I didn't – I don't know so much dreaded as much as maybe just look forward to working with certain guys. Because they had reputations of – some of them of being reckless. And I valued my health and my body. Because people don't realize, you know, even though it's entertainment, you're still putting your life, your body into the hands of another person.

Yes. A great example of that would be Stone Cold Steve Austin who had his neck broke from a pile driver from the guy who didn't know how to perform a pile driver. He didn't know how to execute a pile driver.

So there's a lot of trust involved there. And so with certain guys, yes, I will mention one name. He has passed on, Big Van Vader, who had a reputation of being reckless, who actually was my last official match right here in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and injured my neck.

And because he was a behemoth, he was about 450, 500 pounds, I got a hernia picking him up for a body slam that night as well. And so there were certain guys that I didn't look forward to going in the ring for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it was just a personality clash. Because everyone thinks, oh, you guys are all buddies. Well, really? I mean, are you friends with everybody you work with?

Probably not. So anyway, there you go. In those days, what did Nikita Kolov love the most? What was your main focus? What did you enjoy the most?

What was Nikita Kolov all about in those days? Giving people their money's worth. That's an easy answer. I just had this conversation on somebody else's podcast recently that from bell time to bell time, I enjoyed the most. In that I could go in and be creative. We had basically what I call creative control. In other words, we spontaneously improved while we were in the ring from the opening bell leading into the outcome of the match. And so we were in, if you want to say, complete control of what we did in the ring. So I could listen to the fans and determine what I wanted to do in the ring by fan reaction. And yeah, that was so much fun. The politics before and after the match, I had no desire, no interest in.

But man, to be able to entertain the fan and hopefully they walk out going, my goal was, that was a great match with Nikita Kolov and whoever he was wrestling. Yeah. So you're known around the world then and now, world heavyweight champion. You're on television all the time.

You represent the masculinity of men. What did Nikita Kolov at that time fear the most? Oh, wow. That's a great question. That's really a great question.

Wow. I guess if I had to, I mean, if I truthfully answered that question, for the longest period of time, Justin, I felt like I was 10 foot tall and bulletproof. And so I don't know that I could honestly say that I was really afraid of anything at that point where I probably should have been, but more or less wasn't just because I thought I was invincible. Sure, sure.

But you mentioned maybe a dangerous place to be. I appreciate you answering that honestly and I love your story. And so, yeah, that's good.

So good. Now, let me say this. Let me just interject this. I have a different perspective now, having given my life to the Lord and understanding that I'm to have a healthy fear of God. Let me just throw this in here for our listeners, that I'm to have a, and that fear isn't one like, oh, God's going to strike me dead. It's just that I have a very, I believe, a healthy reverence of who the creator of the universe is, the God of the universe. And so out of respect and reverence for the creator of the universe, it's that type of fear that I have now. Yeah, that's good.

Thank you so much for sharing so honestly to a tough question. Very, very good. I love it.

Every day you post something on Instagram that I screenshot. It makes me want to go to the gym. It makes me want to pray.

It makes me want to be a better dad. How do you post real encouraging words every day that are motivating, that make everyone that follows you want to be better? Not just in a social media stance, but these are things that you live by.

I know you personally. These are overflows of your life. How do you develop such a consistent flow of not just encouragement, but daily health? Yeah, it's a focus of mine.

Again, just a phenomenal question because I feel part of my life mission now is not just to spread the gospel and the good news, which is first and foremost being salt and light to the world and hopefully being Jesus with skin on with everybody I encounter face to face or in a phone call or conversation or even through an email or something of that nature. But taking advantage of those platforms like Facebook, like Instagram, like Twitter to hopefully and interestingly enough there are a number of people that will come back or will direct message me or even just post for the world to see, man, I needed to hear this today. And I very, believe it or not, those are very well, I'd say it this way, thought out little blurbs I put there. It's not just something I just want to randomly throw out there. Like some weeks it'll be like a whole theme.

I'll look and go, let me put a theme to this this week. And then I really think through and prayerfully consider what I'm going to, the little write up I do for whatever it is I post in hopes that, to your point, in hopes that it touches somebody's heart or it just encourages them that day in exactly what they needed to see or to hear. And then discipline would be the key word. I've been a very disciplined person almost really pretty much my entire life. And I want to make a point of each day putting that out there for somebody to see to hopefully make a difference. I didn't know you did that, but I appreciate that you do that.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you for posting such encouraging messages that hit so many different areas of life, which brings me to my next question. How do you, so family life, business, ministry, fitness, relationship with God, and even more, but just these areas of life that so many people that are listening or walking through trying to juggle. How do you balance family life, business, ministry, fitness, relationship with God?

How do you balance all of these different areas? Well, balance is the key word. And sometimes people get so focused on one area of their life or another or, you know, that certain areas will suffer. It's like one of the things, so Lex Luger and I, you know, facilitate, co-facilitate this camp called Man Camp.

And it's a five-day catalyst, and we want men to come in and hopefully equip them to go back home to be able to balance all of those things. Their family life, if they're out in the marketplace, you know, they're exercising, you know, body, soul, and spirit. I mean, so it's a consorted effort on my part, and the word intentional comes to mind. I'm very intentional from day to day to make sure in each of these areas that I'm giving some focused time and attention to each and every one of these areas every single day. I'm a firm believer that your public life and your private life should look one and the same when it comes to integrity and ethics and that all of it, whether it's leisure, vacation, you know, holiday time, family time, work time, you know, that life should ebb and flow. It should all ebb and flow together.

We should not live what I call compartmentalized lives, but it should all be one and the same. That's so good. That's such a good word in response.

Thank you. Greatest advice to dads. Greatest advice to dads, the word time, T-I-M-E. You know, don't throw money at them. Don't, you know, don't, you know, don't try to entertain them per se as much as just spend time with them. I raised four girls, so that in itself was a challenge.

I mean, I said I didn't swim in the Indian Ocean or the Pacific Ocean or the Atlantic Ocean, but I did swim in the estrogen ocean in raising four girls. But what I would do on a very consistent basis is I'd have what I call daddy-daughter dates, and so I'd rotate them. Like every week it was a different daughter. I'm like, hey, this week's your time with dad. And obviously as they got older, that kind of changed, but it's spending quality time with them.

And maybe that was even only two hours, but for those two hours, all attention and focus was on them. That's so good. I love it. As a dad, thank you.

I love that. What's the greatest perspective? I'll ask it this way. What's the greatest perspective to keep in hard moments when you may feel like you can't move forward or giving up, just that every person in the world feels? What is your key to a great perspective in those moments?

I mean, I'm just reminded of James 1.12, bless is the man who perseveres under trial, that no matter what you're walking through, no matter what you're going through, again, it's just making a decision of keeping your eyes focused on the cross and just saying, determining in your mind and in your heart of hearts that no matter how difficult it gets, I'm just going to press through this, and I believe I'm going to be better on the other side once I come through it. Wow. Wow. So good. Can I end it with a fun question? Yes. Let's do that.

Okay. Did you ever get into a fight, get into a tizzy, get into maybe an argument or a slap fest or really, I mean, maybe there was a real fight offstage, and this is in your wrestling days, did this ever happen with another wrestler backstage or in the parking lot? You hear stories about Ric Flair. You hear stories about Randy Savage. You hear things happening. Did that ever happen with Nikita Kolov?

All right. So, yeah, names shall remain anonymous, but yes, at a certain season of my wrestling career, there was a particular person who would just get under my skin, and he had a history of not knowing when to shut up, when to... Just look, just shut up. Just stop talking. And we were, I'm not even going to say the time we were in, because somebody may know, they'll go, I know exactly who he's talking about. Anyway, we were in the dressing room.

Ric Flair's in there, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Midnight Express, who else was in there? There were a bunch of guys in the dressing room, and this guy would just not shut up. And this was going on for like days at a time, right?

And days... And of course, I'm still the Russian nightmare at this point. I'm still the bad guy, right? Whether it was in the view of the fans or even some of the guys I worked with. So anyway, we're in the dressing room, and in this particular night, he just wouldn't... And I go, look, just shut up.

Don't say another word. Well, he did. And I did what Arn Anderson calls the Steve Reeves Power Walk. Now, some people may not even know who Steve Reeves is, but just visualize, it was a power walk across the dressing room. He never saw me coming, and I open hand slapped him on the back of the head, and glasses went flying, he went tumbling, and the place went quiet.

The dressing room went quiet. And I'm walking back to sit down in my chair, and the guy goes, if I had a gun, I'd shoot you. See, he still didn't know to shut up. Wow, he's still talking. He said, if I had a gun, I'd shoot you.

And man, I zipped around, I go, you better make that first shot count. And that was it. For the record, later on, we kissed and made up, so to speak, and all of that. But yes, that's the story. A room full of professional wrestlers, quiet. That's amazing.

Quiet. That in itself is remarkable, isn't it? Except for one.

Except for one. Well, hey, man, thanks for being on Q&A with Koloff. Man, great questions that you posted. Thank you. Thanks for having me. And thanks for having me. I love you, my friend. Love you and your family. Love you, too. Appreciate you. God bless you, Justin. All right. God bless. Thank you.