Q&A With Koloff- #53

This is Chris Hughes with the Christian Perspective Podcast with Chris Hughes, where we encourage our listeners to engage the culture with Jesus Christ. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds, so enjoy it, share it. But most of all, thank you for listening to the Truth Podcast Network.

This is the Truth Network. Nakita Koloff here. Questions and answers. Q&A with Koloff, the devil's nightmare. Well, here we are again, another Q&A with Koloff, questions and answers, where we flip it around.

We're normally, you know, on the Man Up show, I'm typically asking all the questions, and the interviewee is providing all of the answers, and we're having a conversation. But today on Q&A with Koloff, we've flipped the table here. And so with me today is Scott and Ari. Welcome to Q&A with Koloff, Scott. Oh, it's great to be here, Nakita.

Great to have you here. We met just a while back, and I'm fascinated by your background and your story. I mean, you've got a whole sports background, as well as quite a mix, as well as a ministry background, right? Right.

We do a lot of evangelism training. Okay. Okay. But prior to evangelism training, which actually, I'm sitting here looking at you, you're still in pretty good shape. Yeah, because you've worked in the past, for those who maybe don't know, you've worked with the Carolina Hurricane, the Carolina Panthers, you've worked with NASCAR, all kinds of pro athletes, special athletes, and specializing in what? Well, I would say deep tissue sports massage therapy.

Okay. We called it neuromuscular therapist. And you went to school, as I remember, in Canada for that. Yeah, I went to train in Canada for that.

It was a special school. And basically, I would do a lot of... I'd be the guy that would hurt you and fix you. You would hurt me in a good way. Yes. Like, oh, that hurts.

My therapy was never pleasant. But you were like, oh, but you're going to feel so much better a day from now. Right.

Two days from now. Right. I used to do that in the ring.

I would hurt you and go, oh, you'll get over it. You will improve from this Russian sickle, just so you know. There you go. Because I knew you grew up, you had told me you grew up as a wrestling fan. Oh, yeah. And we're going to get into some questions here in just a minute, but I want our listeners just to know a little bit about who's asking the questions, right?

Right. And so you're originally a West Virginia guy, go to school, you went to a Bible college, you go to a massage school in Canada, which is interesting. I think I recall you telling me you had some special Israeli training or something, too, on top of all this. So I'm a Kromaga instructor.

Okay. Israeli self-defense. And me being a preacher, I tell people this way. So I'm training Israeli self-defense so I can actually kill you and raise the dead at the same time. I like that.

I can take you out, but I can also lay hands on you, and like Lazarus, I can raise you back to life once I take you out. Well, that's a very extensive background. I know you're a family man, you got a lovely wife. Yep, Marcy. Marcy, five children. Five kids and two mastiffs. Yeah, seven kids.

You got seven kids. What are your children's names? Oh, they got unique names.

So we've got Alex, we've got Andrew, we've got Daxton, we've got Mazak and Trinity. Okay. Those are interesting.

And is there a quick story behind the unique names? Oh, yeah. Always. Okay. All right. Well, I guess the most unique name is the one that's named Mazak.

Okay. It actually is a Slavic name, which means to rub or to smear or to anoint. Yeah. And Marcy liked that name because no one else had that name. My wife likes picking names that no one else knows. You know what's interesting, Scott, is that every name has a meaning, right?

Absolutely. Now, I'm thinking a lot of people have no clue what their name means, but every name has a meaning. It really does. And even if you go all the way back to the Israel, Hebrew, Jewish roots of... They didn't just name a kid just whatever.

Oh, let's roll the dice and just throw... I mean, they were very strategic about what they named their children, and then how that name and what it meant, and then how it kind of set them up for life in a sense, right? Right. Well, see, my name is Scott, which is my middle name. My first name is Roger. My middle initial is S, just so you know. So we have something in common there.

There you go, we do. So my name is Roger, actually means famous spearmen or spear thrower, someone with those of javelin, and Scott means from Scotland or from afar. Okay. Are you Scottish?

There's Scottish and Irish in me, yes. Okay. High five on that. We have something else in common.

There you go. I thought you were Russian. Well, yeah, I am, especially back in the days when you loved to hate me growing up in West Virginia. I was that dirty Russian guy that everyone wanted to hate. But actually, my mom was born on the English-Scottish border in a little village called Hayden outside of the township called Carlisle.

Really? Yes, and so English, Scottish, Irish, Swedish. So there's a mixture there. I doubt that there's a drop of Russian blood in me, but hey, it worked for...

It's still working. According to ancestry.com, I'm actually related to John Wayne. Well, the Duke. The Duke, yeah.

You kind of walk like him. I'm kidding. Well, hey, okay, so let me ask you this, because... So your ministry, what's your ministry called? It's called 420 Fire. 420 Fire, where can people find out more about 420 Fire? You go to our website, 420Fire.org, and it's based upon 1 Corinthians 4, verse 20.

Okay, 1 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 20. And I remember you told me you're like 30-something states. Yeah, we're like in... Yeah, 34 states. 34 states in 10 countries? 10 different nations, yes. 10 different nations, which is cool, because this show may go into some of those nations, and some of your parishioners may hear you in their nation on this show, which is kind of cool.

Tell our listeners just real quick, and we're gonna get into your questions, but tell us, what does 420 Fire... What do you spread... Like somebody goes on your website, or what are you doing in all these different states and all these different nations? Right. Well, I use it like this. So 1 Corinthians 4, verse 20 says, the kingdom of God is not in word but in power.

What we do is we train people how to minister not in word but in power. Okay. So sometimes if you've ever gone to the gym and you notice that there's trainers that work there, well, a lot of people don't realize, a lot of times those trainers don't actually work for the gym, they work for another company that goes to the gym. Yeah, the kind of contracted...

The contracted, so they're specialists. Okay, okay. 420 Fire is the specialist of evangelism. So what happens, we go in these cities, we work with churches, and they do once a month training in power evangelism. I wrote a book called Power Evangelism that Dr. Michael Brown wrote the forward to.

Okay. And I talk all about what we do. So we'll go teach people, okay, what do you do? Pray for people. This is how you pray for people. This is how the Lord moves. This is how the Holy Spirit works, stuff like that. And then you lead them to the conclusion of who the Lord is, and you invite them into relationship.

Yeah. So basically it's once a month meetings of equipping, and you train people, we do outreaches together. So in all these places we're in, there are a lot in churches. A lot of our leaders are actually senior pastors, believe it or not. Okay. So, and we do have a couple of churches that are actually full-fledged 420 Fire churches. One is in Denver, Colorado.

Okay. And then we've got one in Phoenix, Arizona, too. And one in Florida.

I'm sorry, we have three. So, so, so just, so for our listeners, just give a quick summary then, if you can. Yeah, absolutely. I'll try my best.

Here we go. Well, what 420 Fire is all about is, is basically to train and equip the body of Christ to be the gospel with legs, to go out and do the works of Jesus instead of talking about Jesus. Fulfill the Great Commission. Fulfill the Great Commission. And we do that through once a month outreaches and also just training people, practicality, the skills, what you need to do to actually build relationship, and also how to pray for people.

And Vince Lombardi would say, you teach, and it sounds like you teach people the basics. Yes. Yeah. So... Basic Christianity 101.

101. And actually, it actually, like in the book of James, you know, faith without actions, like the body without breath, right? Right.

Well, body without breath is dead. Right. So I can have all the faith in the world, but if I don't take any action, so it sounds like, so you teach, train, equip, but then you deploy. Absolutely. Does that summarize it?

It's totally, you know, think about this, man. I think every person's, like their secular job is a shadow of their calling. So look at what I've done. My job was a trainer. I got people trained how to be fit. My job... And how to defend themselves. How to defend themselves, how to fight, right? Right.

And also did neuromuscular support and it was actually to be whole. So that's really what we're doing is we're teaching people how to actually go out into the world and to be salt and light, not salt and vinegar. Man, that's good. It almost sounds like man camp. It almost sounds like... Yeah.

Hey, we're big on... Big on training, teaching people. Exactly. Exactly.

Yeah. And, you know, Lex Luger and I, and I know we've talked a little bit about that, but we'll talk more another time, perhaps. We'll have you on the Man Up show. Oh, that'd be fun. Well, let's do this. Let's do this. Let's flip it around here, okay?

It is Q&A with Koloff and they're like, when are they ever going to get to his questions? So here we go. Let's flip it around. And I don't really have a clue what you're going to ask and that's always fun for me. So first question, fire away. Okay. First question, who gave you the hardest chop?

Was it Chief Wahoo McDaniel or was it Ric Flair? I'm going to throw one more name into that. Okay. Hands of Stone. You know what I'm talking about? Uh-huh. Who?

That was... Hands of Stone, Ronnie Garvin. Yes, Ronnie Garvin.

Come on, Ronnie Garvin. Hands of Stone. Yeah.

Almost a toss up between the three of them, but I would have to, if I had to pick one, Scott, I would say Wahoo for sure. Yeah. Although Flair left plenty of handprints on my chest. Yeah. Plenty of hand...

In fact, I'll tell you a real quick story, because I was chopped by all three. Yeah. I mean, the Hands of Stone, he lived up to his name.

Let me just say that. Oh, wow. I mean, his hand... Did he clench his fist when he did it or did he keep his hand open? Well, hand open typically, but it was like over the head, like bam, on your chest or whatever. Yeah. Wahoo, kind of more of the old Indian chop kind of thing.

Yeah. And then, of course, Flair. Hawaii, wrestling in Hawaii, main event, Ric Flair. And long story short, I was out on the beach too long the day before... Well, the day of. Oh, you were sunk.

The day before and the day of. I looked like a lobster. I mean, I was toast.

I mean, I would... And I'm like, dude, no chops tonight, man. Look at me. I could barely move.

Right? You know? I later found out.

Truth be known, I later found out I had sun poisoned. I was out that... And you had to wrestle. Main event. Oh, my gosh.

Gents Flair. And I never wrestled, I don't think, less than 30 minutes against him ever. I'm like, champ, no chops tonight, man. Like, for real. He's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Ask him what the very first thing that cat did. Ric, I owe you one.

I'm just saying. I don't think I ever gave you a payback for this. He backs me in the corner right after the... Ring the bell, start the match, backs me in the corner. He backs up. Bam.

I mean, he lays somebody... I think that stung more than any chop I had ever received with Wahoo. And man, I tore after him and he scooted out of the ring like, hee, hee, hee, hee, hee. You know?

Yeah. Anyway, so... Was his figure four leg lock... How painful was that? So, the figure four leg lock, I mean, you really... If you don't know what you're doing, if you don't know what you're doing, you can really hurt somebody and injure somebody. Like in many of the moves in wrestling. If you don't know what you're doing, you can hurt somebody.

Ask Stone Cold Steve Austin. If you don't know how to give a pile driver, you can break somebody's neck. Well, he had his neck broken.

Not once, but twice, from what I understand. And from somebody who didn't know what they were doing. The figure four leg lock, it's a real deal. I mean, you can really put the screws to somebody, really put the pressure on somebody. Now, that's not the intended outcome in a wrestling match, because we're trying to give the impression we're trying to maim somebody, but not really, right? So, you do have to know what you're doing.

The figure four leg lock could hurt, and if he wanted to have a little fun with you. Of course, in wrestling, there was always the term payback. So, if you, what we said, potatoed someone or hurt someone accidentally, you knew there was what we called a receipt coming back, or could come back.

The guy could pay you back for that tater, for that potato. Oh, wow. Okay.

So, good question. Wow. Okay.

All right. Well, another question I have for you is the gimmick, all right? The gimmick. The gimmick. So, you started to try to speak Russian.

Okay. I portrayed a Russian guy. You portrayed a Russian guy. Yep, that was my gimmick. Where did you get your, did you practice in the mirror? Like, I must break you. I mean, how many hours did you practice this gimmick by yourself?

That's what I'm curious, because people don't know what the time that you do behind the scenes to develop this gimmick. Yeah, it wasn't so much that I recall in standing and looking in a mirror as much as I got a Russian cassette tape back in the day. For those of you young enough don't know what that is, go Google that, cassette tape. I literally got hands on a Russian cassette tape and a Russian workbook, so I could learn some Russian, like I learned how to sign my name in Russian, Nikita Kolov. That's the only way I used to sign it. I used to sign it with the Russian letters.

No way. Yeah, I didn't sign it in English early on, no matter what I was signing. That's how I signed it. In fact, there was a collector's cup out there at the 7-Elevens or something one year, had the road words on one, I was on one, whatever.

And you'll see my name on there in Russian, for those who, they're still out there. I've seen them. That's so cool. I actually have one.

Yeah. So anyway, it was about a six-month period before I actually learned my first English word, because I was just off the boat. I've come a long way. You just stared and looked at it. You had that chain around you all the time. I had the chain, no shirt.

Yes, I would have a very intense look that would try to intimidate not only my opponent, but anyone else who I came in contact with. So it was over a six-month period that in my... It was more like just kind of in my head, Scott, like, if I really was from there, how would this word sound? And that's how, like some people say, when you would talk about Magnum TA, it didn't sound like you said the word Magnum.

Well, I didn't. Intentionally, I said, Maga-TA. I'm going to crush you, Maga-TA. Because I didn't want... One, I wanted people to think, oh, he can't say Magnum because he's just learning English. But also an insult to him by saying Maggot.

Take a page out of Sergeant Slaughter's book, you maggot. Or Flare, right? I mean, I'm really familiar. Am I going to be able to pronunciate Flare? So I say Rick Farr. Rick Farr.

Rick Farr, I going to destroy you. So it's just in my mind. So I go up and down the roads, listen to the cassette tape, and then just think in my mind, if I really was from there, how would this word sound?

How would this phrase sound? How would all... So that's how it evolved.

In fact, let me just tell you this real quick. There were some people who, back in the days of VHS tapes, now again, I know some of you might have to Google that as well. I still have VHS tapes. What is a VHS tape? People would record the shows. They go, Nikita.

And I hear all these stories now at all the autograph signings and stuff that I do, Comic Cons and all those things. And they go, we record the show and play it back and forth and back and forth going, he's trying so hard. What is he trying to say? Because the words were so muffled or so slurred away that I wanted... I've gone back and looked at a couple and went, what was I trying to say there? I didn't even know. But anyway.

Well, who was your favorite commentator? Man, that's a great question. Because there's some really good ones. I mean, AEW now has two legends, Tony Schiavone and... That used to be my nickname, by the way. Yeah?

They used to call me Schiavone. Oh, that's crazy. Why? I don't know.

All your friends did? Yeah. Okay.

Schiavone. Okay. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know why. That's interesting.

They're in West Virginia, man. Nothing makes sense where I... Okay. All right. That's another show for another time. We'll have to come back.

We'll have to have you on another show. So Tony Schiavone, Jim Rossi, of course, JR. But Bob Coddle, man. People loved Bob Coddle, for those who didn't know that name. Of course, the legend of Gordon Solie.

I mean, the legend of wrestling announcing. But there were a lot of good ones. Did Mean Gene ever work with you? No. Well, I did a few appearances for AEWA back in the day. He may have still been with them. I can't remember for sure.

He may have already gone. So no, I never did. But a little unknown fact, Mean Gene Okerlund graduated high school from the same high school.

No way. Yeah. A few years before me. But he was from Robinsdale High School.

So was Vern Ganya. Wow. Along with seven others in my own... Didn't Rick Rude come from your area?

Rick Rude, Kurt Henning, Barry D'Arso, John Nord, Tom Zink, Brady Boone, Nikita Kolov. Minnesota. Yeah. It was the minerals in the water tower. It's got to be, because you guys produced some major wrestlers.

You're a health guy, so you would relate to that. It was all the minerals in the water tower. In Robinsdale, Minnesota. Right.

Moscow, Minnesota. Anyway. All right. All right. So what else? So we got... What else you got? We got time for another question. Yeah. Okay. So as far as... Did you ever wrestle Greg Valentine? I'm sure. Talking about Hands of Stone, now we got The Hammer. Yeah. Greg The Hammer. The Hammer Valentine. My guess is to say yes, because we were around... Because he's a believer now, I understand.

He had made a profession of faith. In fact, we did an outreach one time called Night of Legends, and we had a wrestling show. We did this in Virginia. We recorded for TV. It was TV formatted called Night of Legends. People can actually get this on my website.

Go to kolov.net, and you'll get a wrestling, the Night of Legends, that has a bunch of matches, but then it has Ivan Kolov's testimony, my testimony, Greg The Hammer's testimony, and a number of testimonies. So kind of an evangelism tool for wrestling fans. Right. Right. Night of Legends.

And it's a DVD. All that to say, so I feel yes, I did, but going back, you wrestled so many guys, like I forgot I wrestled Diamond Dallas Page. You did? I did. Yeah. I mean... And I know I've told you this before. I think my biggest memory of you is when you Russian sickled Sam Houston, and he completely backflipped. He did, what you might say, a 360, I think.

That was epic, man. It's burned in your memory. Oh, it is, because I actually...

I bet you it is. Now, I think, if I'm not mistaken, I think he's following the Lord right now. I'm not sure. I haven't run into him. I saw him recently at a school. There's a wrestling school by a wrestler, Lody, who was part of the Ravens flock back in the 90s, Nitro Days, Nitro Monday Night Wars, Lody, who I've had on the Q&A show. I saw Sam pop up recently at his school, helping out some guys. I don't know what that means, but yeah, I'm not sure. What was your favorite venue to wrestle at?

What place or city was like some of your... Baltimore, Maryland. Really? Why? Crockett Cup Tag Team Tournament, Dusty and I, the Thupa Power, if you will, became the Crockett Cup Champion with Nikita Kolov. And the man could be in Dusty Rhodes. I love how he talked.

He became the Thupa Power, if you will. What was he like, Dusty Rhodes, personally? I just had a heart for the man and fell in love with the guy and his family. And of course, Cody's doing amazing things with AEW and Dustin.

And yeah, I just more than enjoyed my time with him. But Baltimore, by far... One, because we won the Crockett Cup Tag Team Tournament there. But secondly, the short version of the story is Crockett had the brain child of Flair and I wrestling two main events in Richmond, Virginia and Baltimore, Maryland on the same night. What? Yeah.

Oh my goodness. And so we wrestled before intermission in Richmond, which the fans were not happy about a World Heavyweight Title match before intermission. Little did they know we had to get on a plane and fly to Baltimore and wrestle and duplicate that in Baltimore that same night. We stepped in the ring. The show there started at 8 o'clock. The show in Richmond started at 7. It still took longer than you meant.

Private planes, limousines, the whole deal, to and fro. But we stepped into the ring. Show started at 8 in Baltimore.

He and I stepped in the ring after wrestling 30, 40 minutes in Richmond. I looked at the clock. It was 12 midnight. People had already been there four hours.

Oh my goodness. We finished the match. I looked at the clock.

12.55 in the morning. Wow. We wrestled 55 minutes in Baltimore. The fans were on their feet the whole time. And I just fell in love with the fans of Baltimore. I'm like, these guys are amazing. And so those two... And I just love the Inner Harbor and Sabatino's in Little Italy. One of my all-time favorite Italian... Shout out to Sabatino's, Little Italy, Baltimore.

One of my favorite all-time places to eat. Oh, wow. Yeah. So there are a lot of other towns. I really honestly enjoyed wrestling. Obviously, Greensboro, Charlotte bring so much history and so many stories in those towns from Starrcade to the Great American Bash to My Turn becoming a good guy to beating Magnum for the best of seven. Yeah.

So there's a lot of history in a lot of towns and that I have fond memories. So who was the biggest practical joker in most of the wrestlers in your day? There were a bunch of them.

There honestly were. Probably the first thing that pops into my mind is Rick Steiner. Oh, yeah. Rick Steiner. Him and his brother Scott Steiner, but Rick. And Rick was what they call a shooter. He was a hooker.

In other words, he had an extensive amateur background. So you really didn't mess with Rick even if he messed with you. You better be prepared because he could tie you up in a pretzel and not let you loose. He would need a guy like...

I would need a guy like you to come in and do deep tissue massage once Steiner got done with me if you messed with him. But yeah, he was... In my mind, he's the first thing that comes to mind.

So anyway, so... That's amazing. Q&A with Koloff, man. Scott and Ari here with me. Pastor Scott and Ari. Tell people real quick one more time, how can they find out about your ministry? You can go to our website, 420fire.org. 420fire.org.

Check out the 420 Fire Church in Kannapolis, North Carolina. Yeah, we're based there. And we're gonna... We gotta have you back sometime, okay? Oh, I'd love that, man. Q&A with Koloff. Thanks for dialing in. God bless you.

Have an amazing day. PSA public service announcement coming soon. It's coming. It's coming. Hey, if you have enjoyed the Man Up radio show and or the Man Up podcast, tune to MorningStarTV.com to catch the new Man Up show on TV. That's right, MorningStarTV.com. Be sure to tune in. This is the Truth Network.