Q&A With Koloff- #61

Hello, this is Matt Slick from the Matt Slick Live Podcast, where I defend the Christian faith and lay out our foundations of the truth of God's Word. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network.

This is the Truth Network. Ladies and gentlemen, the following contest is set for one flaw. Introducing first, from Lithuania, he weighs 123 kilos, the Russian nightmare, Nikita Kolov. Welcome to another episode of Q&A with Kolov, the Devil's Nightmare. Welcome back to another segment of questions and answers with Kolov. Q&A with Kolov, Nikita Kolov here, the Devil's Nightmare, and I have a special treat for Q&A today. My man, the Lodi Monster, aka Brad Kane Lodi, welcome to Q&A with Kolov.

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 gonna 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 life-related, it can be wrestling-related, it can be ministry-related, 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 the tail end of the show, for all those who may have listened to that, just kind of a brief story of you as a Christ follower. We 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 in 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, and 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 Lody into rehab, Lody's going to kill himself, we've got to save Lody. My friends, they 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, and so, 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, 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? It's ridiculous in hindsight, again, to look at, but after I left TV and toured some overseas and I just realized I had really let myself get out, 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 cleaned off the drugs, but then I kind of cross-addicted, which a lot of addicts do, and I just started drinking 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 the same thing that happened, yeah, absolutely justified it, yeah, you know, but one of my personal training clients invited me to church a couple of times, never pushed it on me, and I was thinking, I haven't been to church in 10 years, you know, I'm not going back to church, and just a couple times she just dropped that, she's like, hey, if you ever just want to, I'm not being pushed, she didn't say, she's like, I'm not pushing it on you, I'm not saying we're not gonna 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, 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'd been trying to fill with drugs and alcohol and money and stuff, it was never going to be filled until I went back to him, and since then, you know, coming up on August of this year, I wouldn't be totally clean and sober now for twelve years. Oh man, that's awesome. I would go up to drugs before that, so you know, I tell people that and they kind of like, I remember when you couldn't go twelve minutes without a drink, how have you gone twelve years?

Wow. And 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, I'm like, I love Jesus a lot more than I love being drunk. No, 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's 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.

I can say, whoa, I'm the one that worked out. Who gave me the body? Who gave me the breath? It's all Jesus. If you would like to support Kolah for Christ Ministries, for a gift of $25, Nikita will send you his two CDs, Adoration and Declaration. For a gift of $50, Nikita will include his book, Wrestling with Success.

And for a gift of $100 or more, Nikita will include a signed copy of his newly updated life story, A Tale of the Ring and Redemption. Go to www.kolah.net and donate today. All feet agree, Clements Carpet is where you need to be. With carpet, vinyl, tile, and hardwood from the top brands, Clements Carpet does it right from beginning to install. Voted number one by you in the Reader's Choice Awards. Doug, Chad, Benny, Pee Wee, and the team at Clements Carpet look forward to seeing and serving you soon. This is Nikita Koloff, and I want to thank Clements Carpet for supporting my new show, Man Up, Saturday afternoon at 1230 on the Truth Network.

Choice of my entire life, you know, that I've ever made obviously was to walk away, 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. And it's like that story, you know, I heard a story one time, you know, the husband and wife are driving in the car. It was back in the days of, somebody and 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 and 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, Lodi, 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 Lodi'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. Lodi 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 and 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, Lodi. 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 curious if people are listening to wrestling fans.

Who was the most difficult guy you ever had to work with in the wrestling ring? This podcast is made possible by the grace of God and your faithful prayers, support and generous gifts. May God bless you for your continual contributions.

Go to coloff.net and donate today. Whew, 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 was from Van Vader, Big Vader, 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 until the next day, I had a hernia from picking up his big old lard butt, 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.

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? And I know you've been in the ring with the barbarian, I think, haven't you? I have and it's funny, one thing we haven't talked about that I got throughout there, how were you, how many, how often did you work with Lex? Oh, man, we, we, gosh, we had, I mean, dozens and dozens and yeah, I lost count because 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 Lex. Hi, Nikita Kolov here and I am excited to announce the first annual Morty Starman's Conference, August 25th to the 27th. Our theme, man up, it's time. We have a phenomenal lineup of speakers, including NBA All-Star Al Wood, WWE Superstar Lex Luger, David and Jason Benham, the Benham brothers, Lieutenant General Jerry Boykin, world renowned evangelist Frank Shelton, Chris Reed, Dr. Rick Joyner, of course yours truly. Get registered early. You do not want to miss this event.

Go to mstarevents.com. Here's my thing. 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 end up in the torture rack. I'm not even, it's not my match, but that was always a good finish for the, for the goofball ringside, right? You're not even in the match and you end up in the torture rack.

That is hilarious. It happened down at Disney, you know, a couple of times down there, he was wrestling maybe Kidman or Perry or I don't know, Riggs or somebody. And you know, my character was the one everybody loved to hate. So whoever was in the ring, if they did something to Lody, they got a pop because I just had the character everybody loved to hate. It's awesome. You know, another heel, but if they bomb, you know, if they glom load here, 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, being in the gym with Lex, one thing that I'll always remember about him was he somehow to me, and I comment on this multiple times with him, he always got stronger the longer the workout went. Crazy, isn't it? Crazy. And hey, he'll tell, 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. You are in, you look amazing, you really do. And I know a lot of it is I've watched you eat or not eat, or, anyway, anyway, hey, let's let, we could go to another question. What's another question? Come on. Okay. We'll get off the rest of it 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. I'm going to make you do it quick. I'm going to make you do it quick.

What have you got, Nick? Here's, well, so the word, worship, prayer, 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 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, like Jesus drew away, you know, whether it was up to the mountaintop or just to a quiet place, and just focusing on intimacy with him, developing a genuine, you talk about 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 and just 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 also waiting and listening to what he has to say to me. 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 end this segment today? Yeah, I was going to say, you know, your answer wasn't verbose. You did a good job. I like your voice.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Your voicemail. 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 does that even mean? 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, one final question for today on Q&A with Koloff.

Come on, go for it. If you could wrestle anybody that came after your career, anytime the 90s, 2000s, today, who would it be and why? Oh, man, I'm going to even go back to the 80s because, you know, the magazines really touted WrestleMania. What if Hogan versus Koloff, right? What if, what if, you know, the menace, the menacing Russian nightmare against the all American Hulk Hogan, whatever. So certainly Hogan, certainly Hogan without saying, you know, but there's a couple, I mean, the Rock, I think could have a good match against the Rock against Triple H. And he would have even been fun to wrestle like Shawn Michaels and the Macho Man, Macho Man, Randy Savage jump into a slim gym, dig it? Oh, yeah.

Right? The Macho Man. So those are a few names, but 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 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.

Well, listen, man, listen, you are you are amazing and it's just been so fun just getting to get 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 your flex appeal dot com, all one word, your flex appeal, let's name 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 Instagram's all loaded one Brad. Pretty easy to find.

You put in Lody and search, it'll it'll come up. So awesome 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.

That was great. God bless you, my friend. This show is made possible by the grace of God and your faithful prayers, support and generous gifts. May God bless you for your continual contributions. Go to Koloff dot net and donate today.

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