Mark Robinson- From Poverty to Politics

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Introducing first, from Lithuania, he weighs 123 kilos, The Russian Nightmare, Nikita Kolob. Now, The Devil's Nightmare. Welcome back to another episode of It's Time to Man Up. And what an honor, what a privilege to have in the studio with me today. A man's man and so grateful he was able to carve some of his time out today to come in.

Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina, Mark Robinson. Mark, great to have you in the studio today. Hey, it's good to be here.

Thank you for having me. Well, I was excited, I guess maybe, I don't know, about a year ago, I was at a couple different political functions and come across a couple guys. I think maybe some of your handlers, I can't remember for sure, but... And it was interesting when they connected dots with your background in wrestling and having, I guess, followed me as a fan in your younger days growing up, right? You grew up right in Greensboro, yes? I did, in Greensboro.

Okay, right in Greensboro. Well, for all of our listeners out there that maybe are not familiar with you, give a little backdrop on that, like your family. We were just talking before we came on air about your sons. And tell us a little bit about your family. Well, again, thank you for having me. I was born and raised in Greensboro and I actually have really lived my entire life in Greensboro, except for the time that I spent in the Army and spent a little bit of time in Randolph County, just for a while.

But my entire life, I've lived in Greensboro. I'm number nine of 10 children. My mom had 10 children.

She did. My mom was married twice. My mom had five children with her first husband and she had five children with my dad.

And I'm number four of the second five. And she had five girls and she had five boys. And so, interesting fact about my family growing up, my dad, as a child, I only remember my father as being a retired person. He was old. Quite frankly, he was old. And that's my memories of him. He died in 1979 and I wasn't really too sure about when he was born because I didn't know my father very well, even though he lived in the house with us. But I'll get into that in a minute.

But my father, I recently found out that my father was actually born in 1897. Whoa. Yes. Really? Yeah.

Okay. He was born in 1897. I was born in 1968. He was 71 when I was born. Wow.

And I have a younger sister too, so. Okay. Yeah. He was, I'm just reminded, we have a camp we do in Georgia and the caretaker there, Jerome Stratton, has 14 children. Wow.

42 grandkids and I forget how many great grandkids. And he'd have more if his wife would let him. Right. Right. Just saying. Wow. All right.

So, so 71 when he has you. Yeah. Okay. And so, that's an interesting fact. Another interesting fact is I have two sisters that I've never met.

Okay. Two of my two oldest sisters. One sister, she's passed away, been passed away for a number of years. I never got to meet her.

And then I have another sister named Sharon. Nobody knows where she is. She has a daughter in Texas who was desperately searching for her to find out what has become of her. But we have no idea where she is and I've never met her. So, you don't know whether she's still living or?

No. We don't. We don't know where she is. My other sisters and brothers, I have a sister in Indiana. I had a brother in Florida. My oldest brother was in Florida. He was in the military. He was in the Army. Then he was a bus driver for a number of years in Maryland. And he actually retired from that, or left that position, resigned from that position and moved to Florida and became a pastor. And he was a pastor for decades down in Florida. Touched many lives.

But he passed away a couple years ago. And then I have two brothers in Greensboro, two sisters in Greensboro, and again, another sister. I have a sister in Indiana. Okay. Now, before we came on air.

I have a brother in Wilmington as well. Wow. They're all over.

They're spread all over. So, before we came on air, you mentioned you've got some children of your own. I do.

I do. I have two adult children. I have a son who is 30, about to turn 31. And I have a daughter who is 29, about to turn 30. My daughter is married. And she has two children. A little boy that's four and a half. I could talk about all day long. And a little girl who's one and a half that I could talk about all day long. But yeah, my kids are of course adults. They're great. They're great.

Both of them. Now, Mark, you told me a story when I came up a while back up to Raleigh and actually met you face to face for the first time. So, we had exchanged some text messages and some, I think, different communication pictures and stuff. And I came up there with, and you may remember, my pastor, Jay Stewart. And you didn't know we were coming, or you didn't know I was coming. You knew he was coming. You didn't know I was coming. And we were sitting in your conference room there waiting for you to arrive.

And I'll never forget when you walked in, you looked over, you looked at it, and you kind of froze in your tracks. And you were a bit surprised that the Russian nightmare was sitting in your conference room. I was. I was.

I was pretty shocked. Having grown up, wrestling was always there when I was growing up. I mean, Greensboro, right? The granddaddy of them all.

Starrcade, right? I can tell you some stories about wrestling that you may not believe. We had some incredible times at the Greensboro Coliseum.

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You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. And we had more great times as a family at home watching it on television. So to actually get to meet these folks and see them in person and get to know them, you know, just to get to know them is incredible. Yeah. And also you were sharing that recently you got to take, there was a WWE Raw show in Greensboro and you got to take your son and your nephew?

Yes. My son and my nephew, my wife's sister's son, they got to go with us. And, you know, I was super excited to go because of the experience. You know, I know a little bit about how wrestling worked back in the day. And back in those times, wrestling was kind of esoteric, so to speak. And it was very popular, but it wasn't pop culture back in those days. It's very pop culture now. And it's just big.

It's just really big, you know. And my son and my nephew, they both grew up watching a different generation of wrestlers than I did. Right. So for them to be able to meet the folks that they grew up watching, to get to see that and see the expression on their faces, it was like them being little kids again. Because you said, you said like your nephew, one of them was like a Randy Orton fan. Oh, yeah. He still has a Randy Orton action figure still in the package, refused to open it.

When he met him last night, he just shook his head and said, man, I thought I would never get to meet that dude. That's awesome. And of course, you said they treated you like royalty. They did. You got the backstage tour and everything.

They did. They took us on a backstage tour. We got to meet all the stars.

And they sat us on the front row. It was just, it was great. It was fantastic. Okay. So, so who were, and I probably know a few of the names, so you say in your era, and it was a different, a different product, a different business back then in terms of what we presented to the fans, right?

It was a lot more organic is the way I phrase it. Oh, yes. For sure. I mean, everything from, from the matches themselves to the interviews to, to people go back and watch the eighties and nineties crowd reaction. Yes.

They're like, I can't believe, you know, how the crowd reacted. Yes. Yeah. Cause there was still kind of a mystery about it, right? It was the whole, what is it called? Kayfabe thing was still there.

Yes. Kayfabe was still in place. It was still there.

And people, you know, people question whether or not it was quote real. They didn't know for sure. But in the midst of it, nobody cared. Right.

Nobody cared. And I can just remember going to the Coliseum and the fans would get so into it. I mean, they would get so into it and it was just, it was great. But now it's a different set. It's a different type of environment altogether. Can't say that it's better or worse. It's just different.

It's just different. That's a good way to summarize it. Cause well, and I could say this, when you say the fans were so into it, of course, you know, some of these stories already, but I can tell you in the early days of my career, there were legitimately people who loved to hate. Oh, yes, yes, yes. I had a half a dozen different times, five times against the nature boy, one time against Magnum TA, that fans literally came over the barricade. I've seen that. Yes.

Tried to come in the ring after me, right? I've seen that. I've seen that. We saw it several times at the Coliseum. You witnessed it yourself.

Oh yeah. I can, I can, I could tell you a story that there's a personal story of mine and we might, we might get into that if you want to get into that. But if you want me to tell it. Were you involved? I was personally involved in it.

You came to the rescue of a, of a good guy. I did not. I actually caused it. You caused it? I was the instigator.

I was around 12, 13 maybe. Whatever. Give us a short version. So here it is. We were at the Coliseum. Rick Flair was wrestling Wall McDaniel for the United States championship. This is that time when the United States belt was that red belt with the, with the map, the old map on it. And it looked like Wall was going to win the match, but Tommy Young was the referee and Rick Flair finagled his way out of the ring, got a table leg, hit Wall McDaniel, knocked him unconscious and pinned him and climbed out of the ring.

The fans went crazy. At this period, I was, I was at wrestling. I was very mischievous. I would get, you could smoke in the Coliseum in that time and people would put their drink cigarettes out in drink cups.

So you'd see these big cups full of cigarette butts and tobacco juice and all kinds of stuff. Well, I said, well, I'm going to get this guy. So I ran down to the thing because I'd thrown several at some of the guys.

And I went down and I got, found me a really good one. He was leaving the ring and I chucked that thing as hard as I could and it hit him. It hit him right on, right on about his left, on his left side.

It just splashed all over it. And he saw red and he came up in the audience and he grabbed this guy out of the audience. And I mean, he beat the tar out of him. And the guy was right behind me.

So he beats the tar out of this guy and it's over. I run out to try to find my sisters and brothers to tell them what happened or ask them to see what happens. I've run around the corner to the Coliseum and here comes my sister. She's got that belt over her head screaming, I'm the US champ.

I'm the US champ. I said, did you see what happened down there? She said, yeah, Rick Flay was beating the snot out of this guy. And when he did, he threw the belt down and somebody picked it up and was looking at it and I snatched it from him and ran.

Oh my goodness. And that's a true story. And I told that story to Sergeant Slaughter.

Okay. And you know, Sergeant Slaughter actually has that belt because my sister took that belt as she had it instead of taking it and leaving with it. Jim Crockett used to stand in the stands.

I guess he gave the wrestlers a signal when they get out of range. She took it and she gave it back to him. Oh my gosh. That's a true story. You do have a story.

That's amazing. Oh, one, one quick memory of that. Well, there's a lot of great memories of the Greensville Coliseum for me, but one is a cage match Starrcade against the Rock and Roll Express when, when Ivan and I were going to catapult them into, into stardom and I'll never forget. They, they, they win the match. I shove Ricky Morton over the top of the cage.

He falls all the way out to the floor. I would later find out a guy in the wrestling business came to his rescue trying to get him back in the cage because of the dirty Russians. And, and he later told me that story and I'm like, Oh my gosh. Yeah. He was so needless to say the fan, the fans were very engaged back in the, as you just attested to back in those days.

In many ways, back in those days, the wrestling was a lot rougher and on the, on the inside, but on the outside was a lot more innocent. Well, and we could, we could do probably 10 shows and just talking about that, but I want to, I want to, there's another story that I want, I want you to, to share just a short part of this story. When I was with you up in Raleigh, you told me a story, Mark, how you literally somehow the Woolworth incident came up in, in, in Greensboro, Greensboro infamous for Woolworths.

I've been right. Yeah. Yeah.

You told me a story about buying a, I think a hot dog and chips or something. Yeah. Yeah. I used to, you know, I used to, I used to go downtown as, as a child. The downtown area was like our playground.

Right. We, we would go downtown and we played at the, the, the government Plaza there. We'd run around that place and play. There was a Western auto down downtown at one point when we were kids, we didn't have a color television, but they had colored television sets in the Western auto that they sold.

And we would go into that Western auto and sit on the floor on Saturday mornings and watch watch wrestling to see it in code to find out what colors the wrestlers were, what, you know, we, cause we loved it. And but also used to go downtown and go to the Woolworth and when the lunch counter was still there and here's the funny thing about it. When I was a kid, I had no idea what had happened there.

I didn't know about all the turmoil that had happened. The sit-ins I knew nothing about any of that, but I used to go down. I'd go down, my mom would give me a dollar or, you know, and I'd go down there and I'd buy a little hot wheels car. And it is, I would love to see if I could find this lady, this person, but I would go down that counter and I would sit at the counter and it didn't matter whether I had 10 cents or whether I had 20 cents. Didn't matter what I had.

I would sit at the counter and I would set my money on the counter and this lady would sweep it up into her hands and she would give me a hot dog and some potato chips and a drink. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. All feet agree. Clemens carpet is where you need to be with carpet, vinyl, tile, and hardwood from the top brands. Clemens carpet does it right from beginning to install. Voted number one by you in the reader's choice awards, Doug, Chad, Benny, Kiwi, and the team at Clemens carpet. Look forward to seeing and serving you soon. This is Nikita Koloff and I want to thank Clemens carpet for supporting my new show, Man Up, Saturday afternoon at 1230 on the Truth Network.

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You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. I used to sit at that counter and eat that hot, eat my food. My feet wouldn't even touch the floor when I sat on the stool because I was so small. And I sat at that counter. And when I think back on now, I think I had no idea what happened as a kid. I had no idea the cost that people had to pay for me to be able to come in there and sit at that counter.

And that's just always been something that's been very striking to me. And the part of the story, I remember you said too, that it was like, I think like the very first time when you came in and you're like, and she was like, honey, what would you like? You were like, oh. I did, that's right.

I'm like a hot dog. And you're like, how much is it? She goes, you don't worry about that. That's right.

You don't worry about that. Right. And, you know, it just showed how much times had changed and how much water had gone under the bridge and how much of God's grace had fallen on Greensboro and other places because there was this older white lady, this little black kid. And she just wanted to bless you. Right. Yeah.

She just wanted to be nice to somebody. Yeah. And for those who don't know, I mean, you know, we're not going to go into the full story and details today, but that Greensboro, that Woolworth was instrumental in some of the very first cities during the sixties. And yeah, Martin Luther King Jr. And oddly enough, I've been connected since I got into this whole thing. I've been connected with a gentleman named Clarence Henderson. He was one of the first to sit at that lunch counter.

He was one of the original first that sat there at the lunch counter. He's a great man and we appreciate his sacrifice. And, you know, I think about that often.

I really do. Yeah. Well, let me ask you this, let me shift gears here a little bit. So you're the Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina.

And of course, a couple, three years ago, there was a video that went viral. I guess you were talking at like a school board. City council. City council. And this video goes viral. And the next thing we know Mark Robinson's Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina. So two part question, was politics growing up as a kid ever something you thought you would get into and or you're very, I'll use the word outspoken, even in your faith and boy, that just seems like two polar opposite ends of the world, in the world of politics.

So first, how do you blend your faith together in that world? And was politics something you thought about as a kid growing up and getting involved in? Oh, no. And growing up, we never talked about politics in our house ever. We never talked about Republican or Democrat. We just never talked about it. Here's what we talked about as children. We talked about what was, and this is the absolute truth.

My brothers and sisters can attest to this. We talked about what was right. We talked about what was wrong.

And we talked about what was fair. And then we talked about what God said about it. And it always, the conversation always went back to what God said about it.

Always. That was always our moral compass. What did God say about the situation? We had our opinions. We had our beliefs.

We thought about what was right and wrong and what was fair and unfair, but what did God say about it? And that is how we literally were raised. And because of that, I believe that is why I've always been a conservative. Because, you know, I tell people all the time, I didn't become a conservative. I was raised as a conservative. I was raised to believe in the principles that I hold dear now. And so, no, I did not become what I call politically aware until I was a young adult and actually came because of a conversation that I had with a friend of mine about a fellow named Rush Limbaugh. And we, you know, I had one opinion of him.

He had another. And I set out to prove him wrong and actually ended up proving to myself that I believed everything that this guy was talking about. And that's when I became what I be called politically aware. Okay.

Okay. Well, you bring up a very interesting point for all of our listeners out there. And that is this, like I have people like, you know, I do a lot of men's camps and conferences and, you know, minister. And in fact, I was blessed to be able to see you at a tent revival in Statesville, North Carolina, and just, man, you brought the Word. You say you were brought up in it. It was evident that night, Mark. It was obvious and such a powerful anointed Word. And that is to the Word of God, what you just illustrated. Hey, we can all have our opinions and what we feel is right and wrong. But at the end of the day, what does the Word of God say? Right. That's right. Even when I go out and preach, I'm like, look, don't just take my word.

Just come and stand up here on a platform holding this microphone at a pulpit. You know, you go, you go make sure that what I'm saying is in the Bible, because at the end of the day, that's what's most important is the Word of God. That's right. That's right. So how do you. So I'm sure. I mean, the firestorms have to, you know, be all around you when you're such a man of deep faith and in the world of politics. How do you navigate that?

How do you navigate that? Well, you know, I have a great team of people around me. I'm a wife, of course. I didn't mention my wife.

I was talking about my family, but I've been married for 30 going on 33 years now. Well, congratulations. What's her name? Her name is Yolanda. All right. And she's been more or less my my compass in life.

Yeah. And so she's the top of the list of team of people that I have around me. And then I have a great group of people around me who guide me politically, you know, because that is very important to have people around you who understand the political winds and understand how to navigate those political waters.

But ultimately, what it comes down to is understanding what you have to do and having the courage to do the right thing and being able to make decisions sometimes that are very tough, but ultimately are going to benefit people in the best way and get the things done that you want to get done. As far as the faith part goes, that's just something that as some people might say, that's a hill I'm willing to down because I tell you what, somebody died on a hill for me. And so that's something that we're unwavering on because I think what we've seen a lot in this nation is people of our faith, of the Christian faith.

We are always the ones that are being told that we need to stand down, back down, relent, give up our compromise, our positions. No other religions are being told that. You're listening to the truth network and truthnetwork.com. Nikita Kolof here. And I am excited. Did you hear the huge announcement, the big announcement? Well, maybe it's a minor announcement.

Anyway, Facebook, go look up my new fan page, Nikita Kolof Fans, and like it and follow today. You're listening to the truth network and truthnetwork.com. No other religion and nobody's standing up and telling any other religion that you need to give up the tenets of your faith to fit into modern society. It's always the Christian that is being told that. And I think Christians need to be bold and they need to tell people that this nation would not be established and would not be as successful as it is and would not be as blessed as it is if it was not for the men and women who had the wisdom of God and followed the wisdom of God to build this nation. And so we need to stand up and declare that we're not going to back up off of our values for anyone.

Man, well, that's a great word. In fact, we parallel there in that I'm constantly telling people, be bold, as you just said, which you are. You are so bold.

That's what I appreciate about you. Be bold, speak the truth, God's truth, tell people in love. And then I like to add, sprinkle it with some grace. Sprinkle it with some grace so that they can really see the love of Jesus that's in our hearts. And it's evident. You ooze Jesus in what you do.

Let me ask you this. We only got just a couple minutes left here, but man, the time has gone so fast, but I appreciate what you just said. A lot of people see the governor's right out front there, and they kind of see, but just give a 60-second glimpse of the role of a lieutenant governor, because a lot of people see the governor, but lieutenant governor. Oh, lieutenant governor. I'm the president of the Senate. I preside over the Senate. I sit on the state school board. I sit on the board of community colleges, the energy policy council.

I have a number of other duties that I have to take on as well. But one of the best things about this position is that we kind of get to decide our own agenda while we're in office. And we decided when I first stepped in the office that the thing that we will focus on the most was education, because we feel like education is the key to the future for our state and our nation. And so that's where we have put most of our effort in this position, is trying to make sure that students in North Carolina are being taught what they need to succeed.

And that's our focus right now. Well, and I know that, or I feel confident to say that people are encouraging you. I heard your answer in Statesville about whether or not to run for governor, and you're like, we'll let the Lord direct that path, right? And still stand there on that point?

I do. And it looks like he is pushing us in that direction. And, you know, it's an obvious direction for us to go in, the seat is going to be open. And we feel like on the opposite side out from us, the top candidate on the opposite side of the aisle will not be good for North Carolina. And so we feel like more than likely we're going to move in that direction. Well, for all of you out there and listening land, I want to encourage you to pray for our Lieutenant Governor, Mark Robinson, and just covered with his angel, with God's angels.

And I would encourage you and or challenge you to take to heart what Mark just said about standing up, rising up as Christ followers, being bold in your faith and not backing down. Right, Mark? That's right.

That's right. So I can't thank you enough for you coming in the studio today and sharing just some of your life's story, man, and being a wrestling fail. You said you could probably have a hundred stories, I'm sure. I could. I could.

If I bought my sister, I'd have a thousand. Yep. Well, 30 seconds. Put a challenge out there to men, men and women, Christ followers.

Put a 30-second challenge out there. The challenge is now is the time for us to stand up. We see all the craziness that's going on. I mean, all you got to do is turn your television on and you see absolute chaos, not just here, not just around the world, but right here at home, things that are going on in our schools, things that are going on in our, in our business world, things that are going on in our, in our politics. Now's the time for people of goodwill and good faith and good wisdom to stand up and make their voices heard so that we can make a better world for our children.

Well, you heard it right here. And, and I just want to say too, you could probably sense with Mark's story, just his, his, how passionate he is, one about the Lord. And then secondly, in addition to that, just his position in, in government and, and whatever your position is out in the marketplace, government as a teacher, whatever you roll, you may find yourself in a stay-at-home mom.

Every role is important. And so I just encourage you today, just center your heart, center your gaze on Jesus and, and, and tune in next time for another great show on the Man Up Show in Nikita Kolov. God bless you. 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 kolov.net and donate today. If you would like to support Kolov 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.kolov.net and donate today. This is the Truth Network.