Q&A with Koloff - #22

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This is the Truth Network. Nikita Koloff here. Questions and answers. Q&A with Koloff, the devil's nightmare.

My man, the Lody Monster, aka Brad Cain. Lody, welcome to Q&A with Koloff. Hey Nikita, thank you so much for having me on today, man. I'm looking forward to this and I'm glad we got something to get on your show. Well, it's a pleasure having you on the show. And I know we talked on the Man Up show and you've just got such an amazing story.

I'm like, I have to have him on that show as well. And so on Q&A today, I know on that show I asked you a lot of questions. I'm going to give you on this show, it's kind of reversed, give you the opportunity to ask me questions. But before we jump into that, so just be thinking about a couple questions. It can be, you know, it can be life-related, it can be wrestling related, it can be ministry related, you know, whatever you want to throw out there, and hopefully I'll have an answer for you. Fair enough?

All right, that's fair, yes sir. Well, before we do that though, on the Man Up show, we talked about right at kind of the tail end of the show, for all those who may have listened to that, you know, just kind of a brief story of, you know, you as a Christ follower. We've heard a lot about your wrestling career and your success with WCW World Championship Wrestling, the fact that you're even active today in your personal training, wrestling school, you've got a lot going on. But share with our listeners how you went from growing up in church, and I think the word that comes to mind, Lody, is distracted. So you got, by success, you got distracted, and I think you said even as far away from the church and away from a relationship with God, but then something drew you back.

Tell our listeners, share some of that story with our listeners. Yes sir, I'm blessed and thankful to have two wonderful parents who raised me in the church, and I jokingly always say we had an open door church policy. If the church door was open, we were there.

It doesn't matter if it was Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night Bible study, Saturday night potluck dinner, we were always in church. And in hindsight, I look back at some of those times with some of the best in my young life, but as I graduated college and got into professional wrestling and, in my mind, made it, and the money and the fame and the things that came along with being, as we always call ourselves, TV stars, I really did get as far away from my walk with Jesus and my Christian walk as I could have, probably. I had a really hard time with drugs and alcohol, and leaned on them way more than I should have, and got to the point of where I went to a lot of friends' funerals who had overdosed or committed suicide. I was so blinded myself by the abuse I was in the middle of. It wasn't a matter of thinking about how am I going to get sober as a matter of, you know, how can I do more tomorrow? And in hindsight, it's hard to have that conversation now that I'm sober and not be embarrassed by it, because I know now, in hindsight, looking back on my substance abuse problems, how selfish I was, and I remember being an addict and telling people, I'm not hurting anybody but myself.

You know, this is all on me. But Nikita, I stole time from everybody who cared about me, who spent time figuring out how can we get Lodi into rehab. Lodi's going to kill himself.

We've got to save Lodi. My friends that cared about me, you know, they would call each other or spend time, and so instead of spending time further in their lives, I've got them talking about me and my problems, and you don't see that when you're the drug addict. You don't realize all the people around you, and so in hindsight, like I said, I realized I stole so much time from my mom, from my friends who knew, my closest friends who multiple times tried to get me help, and the only way I can ever repay that is just to love them with all I got. But, you know, at the height of my wrestling career, with more money than I know what to do with, you know, coming from a poor upbringing and a very rural farm type background, it was a shock, and I didn't necessarily know how to spend it, but I never felt fulfilled. It was that there was never enough.

I'm buying $500 shirts and thinking I'm cool, and it's just, it's like, who buys a $500 shirt? I mean, it's just ridiculous in hindsight, again. Right, right. After I left TV and toured some overseas, and I just realized I had really let myself, and I had to get sober. I was going to be dead, and I ended up going to a rehab center and an outpatient thing and got clean off the drugs, but then I kind of cross-addicted, which a lot of addicts do, and I just started drinking.

Okay. And justified that, because while overdose on drugs one night could possibly kill me, it would take a lot of alcohol one night to kill me, especially my tolerance level. So I felt a little safer there, but kind of justifying that happened.

Yeah, absolutely justifying it. Yeah, you know, so, but one of my personal training clients invited me to church a couple times, never pushed it on me, and I was thinking, I'm like, I haven't been to church in 10 years. I'm not going back to church. And just a couple times, she just dropped that. She's like, hey, if you ever want to, I'm not being pushed.

She even says, I'm not pushing it on you. I'm not saying we're not going to hang out, but if you want to, you can go to church with me on Sunday. And I took her up on it one Sunday, and I really enjoyed what I heard, and in all honesty, I was probably still hung over from the night before, but went to church and started going to church. And I had a wonderful pastor who spoke to my heart, spoke to me like no pastor had before, felt like he was teaching more so than preaching at me. And I realized some other things going on in my life and just how far away I had gotten from Jesus and how much I needed him in my life and that big gaping hole that I've been trying to fill with drugs and alcohol and money and stuff.

Right. It was never going to be filled until I went back to him. And since then, you know, I'm coming up on August of this year, I will have been totally clean and sober now for 12 years.

Oh man, that's awesome. I was up to drugs before that. So, you know, I tell people that, and they kind of like, you know, I remember when you couldn't go 12 minutes without a drink. How have you gone 12 years?

Wow. But God placed some wonderful people in my life that helped me, and then my pastor has a line that I don't know if in the midst of my highest drug use or alcoholism it would have helped me, but I hear it now and I'm agreeing with him. He said, you know, when you're an addict, you're going to stay an addict until you find something you love more. And I finally realized like, I love Jesus a lot more than I love being drunk.

That's good. That's helped keep me sober in a lot of ways because I know, you know, I don't love alcohol like I love Jesus and alcohol has never done anything more like Jesus has. And so I know you and I have discussed before, but the more I give myself to him, the more blessed I felt with my life. And I've been able to do some really cool things that I know the only reason I was able to do those things is because of Jesus and his love and his blessings on my life. It's nothing I did. You know, I can say, oh, I'm the one that worked out. Who gave me the body? Who gave me the breath? It's all Jesus.

So the best choice of my entire life, you know, that I've ever made obviously was to walk away from, being an addict, to walk away from the substances and just, you know, run back to Jesus. Because like we said, you know, he didn't move. He's always been there. Right. It's like that story, you know, I heard a story one time, you know, the husband and wife were driving in the car. It was back in the days of something I remember when cars had a bench seat in the front, a bench seat.

So just kind of visualize that. Not bucket seats, no console in the middle. A bench seat, right? A bench seat with a metal, you know, dashboard.

Right. So just try to visualize with us here a bench seat, old style car, bench seat. And the man would always open the driver's door and she'd jump in and slide just far enough where he could still turn the steering wheel, right? And so fast forward 25 years later, they're celebrating their, what, silver anniversary, I guess, or maybe it was their golden anniversary, 50 years. Anyway, at some point she asked the man, she goes, hey, how come we don't sit right next to each other anymore? And he kind of pauses and he looks at her and he reflects. He goes, well, he's holding the steering wheel, got to get this picture in your mind. He goes, well, I've never moved.

Right? So in other words, she's the one who slid over further and further and further. And of course, you know, it's kind of like tongue in cheek. And the illustration is God never moves, right? He's always holding the wheel. We're the ones who move away from Him.

He never, because He says He'll never leave us nor forsake us, right? So, well, Lord, that's powerful. I really wanted our listeners to hear that part of your life, that side of the story, how you really were. I mean, and for others listening out there who may right now be struggling with drug addiction, alcoholism, you know, some other, you know, addiction, to know as you listen to Lody's story that you too can be set free. And you heard what he said. He said, you know, I've just fallen more in love with Jesus now than anything else. And so, you know, just know that if you're struggling with something out there, if you're struggling with some sort of an addiction, food addiction, whatever, that you can be set free.

Lody is living proof of that. And, hey, let's do this. And I appreciate you sharing that part of your story.

And there's so much more we could say. But I want to give you the opportunity in just to kind of reverse roles here and let you, you know, maybe ask me a question or two. And we'll lighten up the conversation a little bit here.

And so the floor is yours, Lody. Go ahead and throw a question or two out there. I'll see if I have an answer. We'll start out with a wrestling question because I'm sure some people are listening are wrestling fans. Okay. Who was the most difficult guy you ever had to work with in the wrestling ring? Oh, man.

That's a really, really good question. I mean, for the most part, you know, I really tried to, I really, as much as possible, even if I didn't necessarily get along with the personality of the other guy, which as you and I both know, sometimes that does happen. Personalities do clash whether in a squared circle or under the roof of a family, somebody's house, right?

Personalities clash. But that said, probably for me, who I had to, I feel I had to guard myself, if you want to say, or protect myself the most from was from Van Vader, Big Vader, you know, who had a history of being reckless and injuring guys. And in fact, my very last match in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in 1992 of the month of November was against Big Van Vader where he injured my neck.

And then lo and behold, I didn't know till the next day I had a hernia from picking up his, you know, big old, you know, lard butt, you know, 450, 500 pounds. And there were certain moves he did. I think his finisher was called like a power bomb or something like that.

And I was like, dude, I go, that ain't happening on the Russian nightmare. I mean, you can do that on others, but we'll find another finishing move for you because I value the health of my body. So I would say probably Vader, as far as reckless goes, a couple of the strongest guys, of course, the road warriors, probably go without mentioning, and the barbarian were some of the just raw strength of guys, right? So, and I know you've been in the ring with the barbarian, I think, haven't you? I have, you know, and it's funny, one time, you know, one thing we haven't talked about that I got to throw out there, how many, how often did you work with Lex?

Oh, man, we, we, gosh, I, we had, I mean, dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens, yeah, I lost count. Cause what people don't realize is back then you could just about work pretty much every night or 1986, I worked 454 matches. So I had a lot of matches to get flexed.

So here's my thing. I, when I first started out in the flock, there were a couple of times where some of the other guys would wrestle Lex and somehow, some way I always ended up in the torture rack. I'm not even, it's not my bad, but that, that was always a good finish for the, for the, for the goofball ringside, right? I love that.

You're not even in the match and you end up in the torture rack. That is hilarious. Yeah.

It happened down at Disney, you know, a couple of times down there, he was wrestling, maybe Kidman or Perry or, or I don't know, Riggs or somebody. Yeah. And you know, my character was the one everybody loved the most. Everybody loved to hate. So whoever was in the ring, if they did something to Lody, they got a pop because I, they, you know, I just had the character everybody loved to hate.

That's awesome. You know, another heel, but if they bomb, you know, if they glom, load your, knock him off the apron or hit him with a finish. It was always, but I remember how easy Lex got me up for his finish, obviously.

I mean, and I didn't dead when he might jump, but I mean, right. Being in the, in the gym with Lex, one thing that I'll always remember about him was he somehow to me, and I, I comment on this multiple times with him, he always got stronger the longer the workout went. Crazy, isn't it crazy. And he ain't, Hey, he'll tell, he'll tell like, like he does a health segment at our man camps that he and I co-facilitate, right. He does a health segment and he'll say, guys, you're probably not going to believe this, but my physique and the way I looked back then was about 95% of what I ate, 5% of my working out. So think about that.

Think about how crazy that is. And I know you know that look, you, you are in, you, you, you look amazing. You really do.

And I know a lot of it is I've watched you eat or, or, or, or not eat or anyway. Anyway. Hey, let's go to another question.

What's another question. Come on. Okay. We'll get off rested real quick in a short minute, minute and a half.

Give me your biggest takeaway from the Bible. Whoa. You're only going to give me a minute or a minute and a half to talk about that. Um, well, I'm going to make you, I'm going to make you do it quick. I'm going to make you do it quick.

What do you got, Nick? Here's well, so, so, uh, so the word worship prayer, uh, is three, three of the main, three of the main things I focus on being in the word, getting the word, hiding the word in my heart that I might not sin against him. So the word and spending, spending time just soaking in worship, and that's not even necessarily singing songs, although I'll do that, just soaking in worship. And then my quiet time, my, my, like Jesus drew away, you know, whether it's up to the mountain top or, or just to a quiet place and just focusing on intimacy with him, developing a genuine, you talk about you love, you love Jesus more than you love alcohol, more than you love drugs, more than you love anything else. So falling in love with him, uh, and just spending, having conversations with him and make sure it's a dialogue, not just a monologue.

In other words, not just talking to him and praying, but, but also waiting and listening to what he has to say to me. That's good. See, you did a great job of that. That was very concise. Thank you. Thank you. How do you want to end this?

You have another wrestling question. How do you want to, how do you want to end this segment today? Yeah, I was going to say, you know, your, your answer wasn't verbose.

You did a good job. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Your voicemail. Hey, leave me a voicemail, but don't make, I had to go look that up just so you know, look, I have a college education like you, but I still had to go Google the word verbose. I'm like, what the heck's that even mean?

And call your voicemail. Hey, leave me a message, but don't make it verbose. I'm like, what the heck? And I figured it out. So anyway, what, what, what final question for today on Q and A with Kolov?

Come on, go for it. If you could wrestle anybody that came after your career, anytime the nineties, two thousands today, who would it be and why? Oh man, I'm going to even go back to the eighties because you know, the magazines really touted WrestleMania. What if Hogan versus Kolov, right? What if, what if, you know, the menace, the menacing Russian nightmare against the, the, the all American Hulk Hogan, whatever.

So certainly Hogan, certainly Hogan without saying, you know, but there's a couple, I mean, the, the rock, the rock, I think could add a good match against the rock against Triple H. And, you know, it wouldn't have even been fun to, you know, wrestle like Shawn Michaels and the Macho Man, Macho Man, Randy Savage, jump into a slim gym. Oh yeah. Right.

The Macho Man. So those, those are a few names, but there's, there's, there's others, but those are a few names I'll throw out there. So, and why, why? Well, you said why. So that's your, the why would be, I just think it would have been fun, fun for the fans and just fun for me looking back to know I had the opportunity to get in the ring with some of the biggest mega stars in wrestling in the golden era of wrestling.

So that's the why. You did, you did. So, well, listen, man, listen, you are, you are amazing and, and it's just been so fun just getting to, getting to know you over the years and, and kudos. Hey, let's do this. How can people find Lody? How can they learn more about your wrestling school, your personal training in Charlotte, North Carolina? Yeah.

Thank you very much. So if you go to yourflexappeal.com, all one word, your flex appeal, that's the name of our gym. It also has all of our wrestling school stuff on there. Social media, Brad, Lody Kane on Facebook. And then I've got my Twitter and my Instagrams all Lody one Brad, pretty easy to find.

You put in Lody and search it'll, it'll come up. So thank you for pushing that out there. Awesome. Absolutely.

World championship wrestling, Ravens flock, the man of the hour, Lody monster, hashtag Lody monster. Hey, thanks for joining me today on Q and A questions and answers with Koloff. Thank you for having me, Nikita. It was great. God bless you, my friend. This is the truth network.