Made For Radio

This is Stu Epperson from the Truth Talk Podcast, connecting current events, pop culture, and theology, and we're so grateful for you that you've chosen the Truth Podcast Network. It's about to start in just a few seconds.

Enjoy it, and please share it around with all your friends. Thanks for listening, and thanks for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. This is the Truth Network. Once a world champion wrestler, now a champion for Christ, once the Russian nightmare, now the devil's worst nightmare, and your tag team partner, Nikita Kolov. It's time to man up. Welcome back to another episode of the Man Up Show with yours truly, the Russian nightmare.

Oh, hang on, the devil's nightmare, storming the gates of hell, and building the kingdom of God. Hey, it's so fun. I just have fun doing these shows, and you hear a little laughter in the background. That's because I've got my man here, Bill Turner, in studio with me. Bill, welcome to the Man Up Show. Oh, thank you so much for having me.

I'm looking, so looking forward to this. Well, I'm going to tell you right out of the gate, those who listen to this show and just heard your voice are right away going to say, this guy needs his own radio show. Well, what you don't know is he has his own radio show. We'll talk about that, but man, just an honor, truly an honor to have you here. I mean, the honor is all mine, brother. I've been a fan of yours most of my life, and I'm proud to say that I know you even better now. So give a little backstory. So when were you first introduced? When did you first become a wrestling fan? How many years ago? Oh, Lord. Well, when I was probably single digits, you know, six or seven, my mother was a huge wrestling fan.

Her favorite was Dusty Rhodes. The American Dream, Death Row, the power of power, too sweet to be power if you will. 285 pounds of sweet soul.

Come on, you got it, you got it. We would go to the Bell, I'm from Aiken, South Carolina, so we would go to the Bell Auditorium. In Augusta. And then the township auditorium in Columbia.

Columbia, South Carolina. That was weekly for me, and I just grew to love. Weekly. Yeah, I mean, Mondays and Thursdays, that's what we did. And my uncle was a police officer in Columbia, so we kind of, when we'd go to the township, we kind of had backstage passes, so we got to, I realized at an early age that it was entertainment. It wasn't everything that we were projecting or portraying it to be, you figure that out at a young age. And to me, that made it even better, because I could see these guys have real talent.

It's one thing to get in there and just brawl it out, but to keep from hurting someone so they could continue working, but give the illusion that you're beating him to where he can't move. Right, to tell a story, because we were storytellers. That was part of our job, was to be a storyteller. So not only a stuntman and an actor and a psychologist, we were storytellers. So you figured that out at a young age, but still loved it. You still loved it.

Oh, absolutely. That just made it better for me, because I realized, okay, they're not superheroes. I kind of caught some of the storylines, because one person would win in Augusta, and then the next person would win in Columbia. Same guys wrestling. I just saw them get out the same car. Come on.

What is going on here? Which, by the way, and for the record, you were typically not supposed to do. Now, there were times when it just had to happen that a guy's car broke down or just didn't have a ride to the town, and we weren't going to make him miss a show or miss his match. So you throw him in the car with you, and hopefully, none of the fans recognized or saw the fact that you got out of the same car. My mother just told me, that's why he was riding in the back seat.

They didn't like him. They put him on the back seat. That's right. That's right. He could still hate him, even though he wasn't in the front seat.

He could hate him from the back seat. Well, and I remember, actually not too long ago, I drove past the Bell Arena there in Augusta, Georgia. Just recently, I was by the Columbia Township Auditorium, too. I did an autograph signing recently next to the Dorton Arena, where I debuted way back when.

That brought back a host of memories, the Dorton Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina. Dusty was a favorite. Did you have a favorite match that really kind of comes to mind? The one that took me to where I realized times were changing was Dusty Rhodes and Wrestling Number Two. They took on the Road Warriors. Wrestling Two and Dusty Rhodes just came out, and then we got Dart. The music started.

Oh, yeah. I knew then that the times were changing. There's a shift in professional wrestling. What have we got here? They look for real. They were big, brutal.

But they did pay homage to the knee from Wrestling Two and the bionic elbow from Dusty Rhodes. Yes, yes. For a couple minutes, they let them handle them, and then they took over.

I forgot. A couple minutes. Oh, gosh. My mother was like, she just sat down. She was screaming, and then she just sat down. She was there with you? Yeah, she just sat down.

She'd go to the matches with you? Yeah. I mean, she loved it. Oh, that's awesome. It was part of her life.

She just loved the atmosphere from it, because she was the one with the purse, swinging the purse. Oh, my goodness. Put her finger in the face of the wrestlers, and then I would say, mama, please sit down. That dude is a lot bigger than me. One, you're embarrassing me, too. I don't want you to get hurt, mama.

Sit down. That's amazing. I know we could talk an entire hour or more about wrestling stories and that whole genre and, of course, what I did.

I appreciate it, but I appreciate you being a fan, even all these years later. Yeah, because with you, I saw you wrestle Hawk and Animal, and you wrapped that chain around, I think it was Hawk's throat or neck, and you slung him over that top rope. The first thing I did, I looked at his foot. Yes. I was like, to make sure, you weren't... Really trying to choke him out. Yeah. I mean, he just had two toes touching.

I said, oh, my God. Well, so we were just for the audience, we were in what was called a double chain match. Ivan and I, and we had some classic matches against the Road Warriors, man. I mean, we matched up fairly well, though Ivan was a big guy, but he's still slightly smaller.

But we had some, shall I say, memorable matches against the Legion of Doom Road Warriors. But what's interesting, I talk about putting the chain around the neck. What's interesting is, I'm reminded of a match I had with Sting in Chicago, and it was a chain match. And Bill, I wrapped it around his neck, and same thing, threw him over the top rope. Portray the image, I'm choking him out, hanging him. Well, what I didn't know is, and kind of the rule of thumb is, get your couple of your fingers at least in between your neck and the chain, so it doesn't cinch up and you can breathe, okay? Well, it had already cinched, and Sting couldn't do that. And so I'm working that chain, I'm looking at the crowd, and the bad guy, and he's squirming down there.

I'm like, wow, he's doing a great job selling this chain. Well, little did I know, the more I moved, and it cinched even tighter, he said he was about two seconds from passing out. And when I released it and let it go, and he was able to catch his breath, so for all those who think, oh, that wrestling's fake. Well, I want to tell you what, there's a real side to it, whether it's a chain match, a cage match, or any other kind of match. It's not exact science. Guys really do get hurt, from broken necks to broken shoulders to broken knees to you name it.

It is entertainment, as you said, but guys really get hurt. But hey, you're in radio yourself, though. Let our listeners, give them a little quick backdrop on who Bill Turner is, and what are you doing? What do you do in radio? Well, I have a morning show just on Monday mornings. We're on WCC 99.9 FM out of Aiken, South Carolina. We're on the web, CWChrist.com. My show is called Your Morning Manna, and we picked Monday because that was the most un-joyful day, and we bring joy.

We do a lot of little games, and it's just a fun two-hour show, and we try to give people a joy for the week. Yeah, because it's amazing, isn't it? I don't know the stats off the top of my head, how many people come Sunday night are already regretting Monday morning, to your point, or wake up Monday morning and go, oh, I've got to go to work again, kind of thing, right? But nevertheless, money makes the world go round, and we do have to labor, too. And the Bible actually talks about that. I mean, if you don't work, it was clear.

I mean, it was saying, if you don't work, then you don't eat, kind of thing. That's right. And, I mean, just the fact, when we first started, it's been, I think, five years now, I was a newer Christian, and I would get fired up on Sunday, and then Monday, I still had that fire, so I wanted to share that.

I said, we're not talking about any news unless it's good news. We're going to do fun stuff and silly stuff, and we all change our voices, and we have word of the day, which is everybody enjoys, so. Yeah. Well, that's pretty cool. So we have that in common.

So we have wrestling in common. We have the radio in common, and tell us, I've spent time with you and your lovely bride, I've spent time with you and your lovely bride, Dana, but tell us real quick about your family, too. I have two beautiful girls and one son. My son is an aircraft mechanic up in Indiana, well, Cincinnati airport. He followed me to the Air Force, and he did a lot more with his Air Force experience than I did, but he moved his family to Indiana, and they're doing great.

My youngest daughter's a nurse, and my oldest daughter is a school teacher, so. Wow. All this kind of the service, but thank you for serving, by the way. Oh, I appreciate that. And they're all in the business of really serving others. Yeah, they're, I mean, they're good humans, you know? Good people.

They have good hearts, and they truly love, when they say they love you, they love you, so. Yeah. And your bride, Dana, what did she do? Dana, she is actually a co-host on my program, but professionally, she is a hairdresser. She used to do mine when I had hair, so, and she always had me looking good. Well, she still has you looking good. Now she just, she shines the dome, now she gets the buffer out and shines the dome. She makes sure, because when I told her, I said, I think I'm going to shave my head.

She said, hold on, I need to check to make sure you don't have any, any wrinkles or bumps or something. I love it, I love it. Well, and then she, you kind of were a fan of The Russian Nightmare, and then about, I don't know, at the timeline, I'll just say a year ago or so, we, we are passed cross. We had the opportunity to meet at Crescent Auto dealership, Brian and Jamie Johnson, the owners brought me in for a book signing there, and you showed up at, I love the story, you showed up to, you were on a mission.

We so appreciate our listeners. If you will support this program with a financial gift of any amount, I will send you a personalized copy of my latest book, Nikita, a tale of the ring and redemption. Go to koloff.net. That's koloff.net, koloff.net, and make your contribution today. Nikita Koloff here.

If you're needing to buy a car and have marginal credit and considering using buy here, pay here, that's worse than taking the Russian sickle. Winston-Salem motor cars will put you behind the wheel of a car you can rely on while helping rebuild repair or establish your credit score. Conveniently located on Silas Creek Parkway in Winston-Salem. Be sure to check them out today at wsmc1.com because you are number one. I reached out to Jamie and it was, I mean, I said, you know what, I've got a press pass.

I'm going to use it. So I shot Jamie an email. I said, look, you know, I'm Bill Turner from 99.9. I'd love to come and, you know, meet Nikita and all. She's like, oh yeah, we know, we listen, you know, please come. So it's like, okay, I'm in. But I went there mainly to see, to check you out and make sure, you know, I want to see if you were real, the real deal. And after knowing you, you feel the same way I did.

If you're going to do it for God, do it a hundred percent. And I mean, that's what I was looking for. And when I saw that in you, you know, because Dana called me, she said, are you still there? And I said, yeah, I'm having lunch.

I invited myself to lunch too. So it was just a, it was just a blessed day. I felt very proud to have met you. And I saw that even though you were there for a book signing, you were still sharing Jesus.

And like people could tell, you know, so that's not the Russian nightmare anymore. And I, no matter where I go, whether it's a book signing at an auto dealership or a, you know, a legends event, a Comic-Con or, you know, at a wrestling show. I mean, you know, I do my best to be salt and light to that world.

And if I see opportunities, whether it's to pray for others or, or, you know, share an encouraging word or plant a seed about Jesus in their heart, I'm going to do that. And so, so let's, but let's, let's fast forward a little bit. So we met there and then I know you came to a service that I did. You came to a man up conference, right?

Pastor Paul Babb's church. Were you at the conference? No, I helped you set that up. You helped me set it up. That's right. I was out of town.

Okay. So you helped me set up the conference, but you did come to man camp and, and, and what was, what was that experience? And you, she kind of bypassed the conference because the conference isn't a requirement to come to man camp. You can just, if so, God puts it on your heart to come to camp. You can, what was the man camp experience like for you? Well, when I, when I met you that day, you had mentioned man camp and of course I mentioned it in my wife and I started checking it out to see, because I told you, I said, look, I got a bad leg. And he was like, I don't, don't, that's not going to inhibit you to come to camp. So I said, well, he took that one. Excuse.

Look, there it goes. Okay. And I've never been to a camp. I didn't grow up in church. I didn't go to church camps and Right.

Me either. But yeah. You know, I, I did experience military camp and that wasn't fun, you know, open. I was thinking, I don't want to, I told her, I said, if it's open bay and we got all, we got to stand there in the same restroom. I just, the bugle is going to play at 5 AM. So, but I said, you know what, I'm going, she said, are you going? I said, yes, I'm going. So we set it up. I went ahead and signed up. And I have to tell you, when I pulled in, you know, I saw all the fellows there and I immediately felt, you, you did consider back it out though at the right, but thank, thank you, Dana.

Thank you for encouraging the man to come. Yeah. Cause you know, y'all, well, I signed up real early. Yes. You know, cause it's about this time and the camp wasn't until months away. So I had plenty of time to think about it and I'm more of a spur of the moment type. Right. Right. Maybe the devil started playing a little bit with you anyway. And that's basically what she told me.

She's like, no, you're not listening to that. You're going to go and you're going to, you're going to be all right. Yeah.

Then when I got there, I felt I felt totally awkward. And, and I say that not in a bad way. I just felt I'm used to, you know, people saying, oh, there's bill Turner, you know, there, it was none of that. Yeah. Identity isn't that we're not, in fact, we try to emphasize, we don't really care about what it is you do.

Right. Cause most men let's face it. Most men's identity is in their job.

They're J O B that's how they identify themselves. And that's almost like one of the first questions. Oh, what do you do for a living?

Oh, what do you do for work? Right. We don't care about any of that at camp.

In fact, I prefer not one guy brings any of that up at camp, but okay. So that was a, that was a little different. Uh, it kind of took me down a notch, which evidently humbled you a little bit.

Yeah, exactly. That's the, that's the word. Okay. Um, and it kept, uh, getting more humble and more humble as the day, as the day progressed.

So, okay. So, but, so, so just, if you were to summarize the camp, uh, experience, cause that's what we love to call it, not an event and experience, what would you sum now here's, let me just say this for, here's what I know. I know it impacted you because I know, uh, I've heard, you know, from, from others, what they saw, they saw changes in you.

You didn't have to say a word. They saw changes. In fact, our very last camp we had, we had four more guys at that camp because of the changes they saw on you.

So give me like, you know, like a 60 second, if you can, 90 second summary of what the camp did for you. Um, well, easy as freedom. Uh, it took a lot of, I was still toting a lot of my old self and my Christian walk and allow me to relieve some of the burdens that I was carrying, let some things go from my past that, um, I was guilty of. And I never, I never forgave myself much less. I just didn't put it out there.

I was, I was allowed to put it out there and get it off of me. So freedom is the best way to describe it. So you, you were able to let a lot of things go and it brought, and we talked about that, you know, part of our goal with the camp is to, I like to say this, teach, train, equip, empower men, send them back home for all the ladies listening out there. Our goal, Lex Luger co-facilitates and along with an amazing staff that volunteers, but our goal is to send men home, better equipped to be godly men, godly husbands and godly fathers and make a difference, make an impact on their families and coworkers and others that they're around and, and many, many, many testimonies. And we just see the miracles of God, uh, happened through camp and, and, uh, and, and all of that.

And so, so you, you have this, uh, uh, amazing, uh, uh, encounter at camp. You come back home life is, is, is different now. And yes, with, uh, family and friends and my wife, because I went to each of them with what God laid on my heart. I went to each, each person that I cared about, that he told me I needed to go to make sure our relationship was right. And, um, everyone, you know, forgave me. And, um, now has my life been perfect since then?

Congratulations, bill, you're human. Right. But it's allowed me and my wife, especially if we have disagreements, they're just disagreements. They're not arguments.

So it stopped the argument. You've been given tools now on how to, how to nurture that relationship with her, your, your children, other others. And that's part of what, uh, you know, that's part of it.

That's part of what our goal is too. And, you know, if you're out there today listening, uh, you know, man camp dot info is, is you can go to that website or go to colab.net and, and connect to, uh, to the camp. I encourage if you're, um, uh, fiance to go to the camp, if you're a newlywed, go to the camp. If you've been married six years, go to the camp. If you've been married 26 years, go to the camp.

Hey, on that note. So Gary, a retired pastor, um, who is 73 years old married 50 years, came to camp and not only was he impacted and able to let some things go, he's actually been back twice, bill to staff and came back and volunteered. And he's just such a godly man, but it doesn't matter what your age is. You know, if you're 18 years and older, you know, come, come, come on out.

And, um, and you know, so, so the man camps, uh, you know, we facilitate these man camps. Well, what do you envision like for, for, for yourself? Let me ask you this question. If you were to say, here's what I'm doing to impact the kingdom of God, the most, uh, transition to that question, what would you say presently you're doing to impact the kingdom of God, the most, uh, this, I mean, um, I work on radio and with this radio station and, um, actually sharing my experience with man camp, I had an opportunity to share it with three different entities, like churches and all.

And I'd never, I'd never done that. So you've had an opportunity to go to some churches and speak and share. Okay. So I'm really excited about that because that's really out of my comfort zone.

Okay. Um, now, you know, people think, well, you're talking on the radio, talking on the radio is a lot different, a lot different than talking in front of a crowd. And no, and I get that because with me, bill, when I first started speaking in front of front of across speaking in front of crowds, I mean, yeah, you wrestle in front of 20, 30, 40,000 people talk in front of a camera on a microphone to an announcer or something, but it's still different than stepping up onto a platform, standing at a pulpit or something like that. So, so you're getting the opportunity to God has got you out of your comfort zone. So, so the camp got you outside of your village and got you outside of your comfort zone, but that's enabled you to have more confidence to step out even further outside of your comfort zone and do some things you, you, you might not otherwise have done. What would you say, you know, just kind of in our last couple of minutes here, what would you say to those listening out there?

So, you know, maybe they're still trying to figure out what can I do to impact the kingdom of God? What suggestion would you give to them? Uh, let it, let everybody know you're willing to do, you know, cause a lot of people need help, you know, uh, this, uh, my radio program needs help. We need someone to run the board consistently. So one of us doesn't have to not, you know, pay attention to what we're saying, you know, right.

Right. I mean, something as simple as that, what can I do to help your ministry or what can I do to get into this type of ministry? What can I do to help at church?

You got to let people know you're willing to help and they'll, they'll put you to work. Well, and that's a, that's a great thought. In fact, you know, the, you said the board, so everyone has different gifts and talents, right? So you may not sit behind a microphone and put a headset on, but you might be able to work a soundboard or something like that.

I love editing. Yeah. Whether it's, yeah. Editing, whether it's in a, in fact, I had a conversation with a friend of mine, bill Murdoch and, and who have another friend, Helmy, who, who has a, a, a knee, uh, had a financial need for surgery, but was, didn't have the money.

Well, I mentioned it to my friend bill and he's like, hang on. We, you know, he checked with the nonprofit beyond borders and found out that they had a surplus of they're going to be able to, uh, exercise, I think Galatians six, two, right. Bear the burdens of one another, I think, I think, and, and they're going to be able to invest in. So the amount of money Helmy needed in order to pay, pay the doctor, get on the calendar schedule and get the next surgery he needs.

Cause he is in dire pain. So just another way that you can help, it might be financially, it might be with your gifts and your talents and your skills, whether it's in church or not in church. Right.

So, well that that's good advice. So just look at the, so what I hear you say is look at the gifts and talents you have and see how you can give that back to mankind. Right. Absolutely. Cause my gift is like marketing. I love, I love creating and, you know, sharing, you know, my vision and put it on paper for stuff, you know, like your, your little flyer.

I took that and put my little spin on it, but I couldn't help doing it, which I appreciate by the way. And what he's referring to is, is, uh, a man up conference. So back in, in Aiken, South Carolina at Bill's home church now, a man up conference, uh, and, and, uh, preaching in his church.

And, and so he was able to, to arrange that and set all that up so I could come to Aiken, South Carolina and, and further impact, uh, the, the, not only the body of Christ, but those who need Christ. Right. But also, well, I can't thank you enough for one, just I'm glad God crossed our paths and, and now we're able to team up and work to now we're able to build a tag team together.

You don't have to see Ivan and I beating up the road warriors. Now you and I can beat up the devil and, and all of his little minions and demons. Right. So that's right. That's right. That's right.

Yeah. Well, Hey, I look forward to, uh, whatever God has in store in the future. And, and, and I want to thank you for all, all of you listeners for being so faithful to, to dial into or listen, you know, tune into the podcast or tooth radio network and, and, uh, just catch the man up man up shows the Q and a with Cole off. That's another segment that we do. And just want to encourage you. I mean, if you have an interest in being on the Q and a with Cole off, man, just shoot me and shoot me an email.

Go to, go to the website, cole off.net, shoot me an email and, uh, just tune in for another, another episode. Uh, we're just going to always bring you some great interviews like we have with bill today. And I can't thank you enough. And I want to say this final note. If you don't have a personal relationship with Jesus, it would throw me and bill and I, let me say it that way and not through bill and I would went through less anymore than to know and find out that you surrendered your life to Jesus.

And part of it came perhaps through this show. Thank you for dialing in God bless you. We'll be with you another time. Men, I would like to challenge each of you to consider spending five days with Lex Luger and I at man camp pursuing the heart of God.

Ladies, you're listening. We'll send your men home better equipped to be men of God, Godly husbands and Godly fathers that appeals to you. Give them your blessing and encourage them to sign up today at man camp.info pastors. If you would like to bring Koloff for Christ ministries and man up conference to your community, go to colaf.org and email me.

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Saturday afternoon at 1230 on the Truth Network. Now, the Russian nightmare here for Crescent Automotive. If buying a car is a nightmare for you, my friends Brian and Jamie Johnson at Crescent Automotive make it simple to find your pre-owned dream car with no hassle, affordable windshield pricing. No matter where you live, they will get your American dream car to you baby. Drivecrescent.com is all you need to know.

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