Q&A With Koloff- #121

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Be there. Go to kolov.net to get registered today. Ladies and gentlemen, the following contest is set for one fall. 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. Today, joining me on Q&A with Kolov is Chris Wilson. Chris, welcome to the Q&A with Kolov. Thanks for having me.

Well, great to have you with us, Chris. And of course, if I'm not mistaken, you're calling in from the great state of Alabama, is that correct? Yes, sir.

Yes, sir. And what part of Alabama are you living? I am in the northern part of Alabama. I'm right around Huntsville, Alabama, if anybody knows where that's at.

I bet there might be a few. I certainly know where Huntsville is at. I wrestled there a handful of times.

Now, Chris, let me ask, so you grew up in Alabama? Did you grow up watching wrestling or anything? And not that everybody's a wrestling fan, but... Oh, yes, sir, I did.

I watched... I think pretty much my whole existence on Saturday was watching wrestling. Cartoons and wrestling.

Cartoons and wrestling. Or as I came to learn, Chris, and please don't be offended by this, but, you know, wrasslin', right? Hey, you do that. You're one of them wrasslers, ain't ya? Do you know what I'm talking about, Chris? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I remember the first time, like, somebody asked me, like, for real, like, they're like, hey, and I'm not poking fun at anybody. They're like, hey, ain't you one of them wrasslers?

And I'm like, apparently I am? How do you spell that? You know, but... Yeah. That's R-A-S-S-L-I-N for the record.

That's it. And so do you have any, just real quick, do you have any favorite memories from those days, those wrasslin' days? Oh, well, I never really got to go to any of the matches live, but most of the time it was Saturday nights, Saturday night main event. I know it was WWF and you were WCW. Yeah.

WWF, Friday night main, or Saturday night main event. Yeah, they did that... I don't want to get in trouble, because... Oh, you get in trouble for watching it, like your parents didn't watch you, like, watching wrestling or whatever? Well, they didn't mind me watching it, but it was, like, come on at 11 o'clock my time. Oh... They were playing bad, and I was in there, you know, hollerin' and, you know, hey, you can, you know... You, you, you were, you mean, you mean we drew you into the story and what was happening in the matches? Oh, definitely. So you were hoopin' and hollerin' and your parents were like, hey, yo, like, we're trying to sleep here, right? Right, exactly.

You need to calm down. Oh, that's right. So, so, was that kind of part of the, trying to remember, so was that a big part of, like, the Monday Night Wars too, though?

You know, Nitro and TNT and all that kind of stuff? Well, it was back in the, well, I guess it was more of the late 80s, early 90s. Okay, gotcha. It was kind of before all that era's really started, it was, you know, you know, W, I don't, you know... NWA and then eventually WCW and so the Hulk Hogan, Macho Man, Randy Savage era. Oh, yeah, right? That era. Yes, sir.

Okay. And so you never got to go really to any live matches, but, but, but you were, you're definitely a fan and viewing Saturdays, you were consumed. Couldn't wait for it to come on, huh?

Exactly. I mean, I had a cousin that me and him would always try the finger four leg lock or something on each other's hands. Did that end well?

No, it never did end well. I remember, I remember getting him locked in at one time and I think I almost broke his leg. Yeah, see now, now for like, for like on a serious note, like people don't realize they're like, ah, you know, wrestling is all fake, but what they don't realize is some of those moves, like, like the figure four, you know, the famous Ric Flair, figure four, you know, you apply the pressure, right? And you can do some real damage to somebody's body. There was a hold called the sleeper hold in the mid Atlantic guy's name was Johnny Weaver and he was famous for the sleeper hold. Of course, there's many others who've since had the sleeper hold, but you know, you can legit, like if you put the right pressure on the carotid arteries, like you could legit cut the blood flow out and the oxygen flow and put somebody to sleep.

Now it's dangerous to do, honestly. So anyway, well, all right, so, so Huntsville, Alabama, and you've got family down there, Chris, just tell us real quick about your family. Yeah, I've got, uh, my dad passed away a bit about eight will be eight years ago this August, but, uh, my mom's still alive. I've got, uh, three sisters and a brother.

So I'm the youngest of five. So, uh, we, uh, we've lived here pretty well. I've lived here pretty much my whole life. I moved off to North Carolina after high school to go to Bible college for a few years and then moved back and job I'm at now. I've been there 26 years, um, enjoy serving in my church. Um, just, uh, enjoy being, being who God's trying to call me to be. And that's, you know, that's how, how my life is right now. And there's a lot of past history there, but, uh, God's got grace enough to cover everything.

Yes, he does. Born and raised in Alabama. And so, so, um, Bible school now that's interesting. So what, what just real quick, what prompted you to go to Bible school? Well, I got saved when I was 15. Um, I, uh, I made a profession of faith when I was like, you know, eight, nine years old and, you know, didn't really understand what I was doing, I guess.

And, um, 15 had a, we had a lock in at a church and, um, um, God, you know, the Holy Spirit convicted me of that day that, you know, I wasn't saved. So, um, about a year, well, I was, I was involved in high school football at that time. And I don't, you know, the, the more I, I guess the closer I got to Jesus, the more I understood, you know, there's nothing wrong with Christians playing sports.

I don't give a, but I did personally, I couldn't handle the atmosphere, I guess you could say, just the talk and the, you know, the, you know, how guys are. So I, I kind of got out of football and I started, uh, actually when I turned 16, my pastor was legally blind. So we were, we were a small church, but we wasn't a real small church, but I started, you know, hearing him places because he was legally blind and stuff. So I got, you know, got involved in the ministry pretty deep and the call of, call to preach. And, uh, after high school, decided to go off to Bible college and I was going to be a, uh, what they call second man type deal, you know, youth pastor or something like that. Sure.

Associate pastor, youth pastor or something of that nature. Right. Right.

Right. And did you ever do that or no? Well, no, I finished two full years and, you know, uh, I got married, you know, a little younger and I probably should have the first time.

And, uh, we ended up not being, financially not being able to finish. So I moved back. So I gotcha. Okay. So, so you never, well, we may have to explore that story more sometime there, Chris, and talk, talk more about that. Cause that's interesting.

You know, when I hear called to ministry and, uh, but 26 years, you know, faithful to your job. Right. And, uh, down there in, in, in Alabama. And of course we met now here's the, here's the coup de gras to this whole story.

We met just not long ago at Robbie Dilmore's bootcamp and, uh, had the opportunity to hang out for a few days together and just continue to run after the heart of God. Right. Which, uh, was an amazing weekend.

Right. I think that, uh, the bootcamp there in, in Mocksville, North Carolina. And, um, you know, there may be some out there that, that want to get, uh, find out more about that bootcamp.

Sometimes they do one in the spring, one in the fall, there'll be another one in the fall of, uh, uh, of 2023. And so anyway, we'll, uh, we'll, we'll, we'll make sure people get, get more information on how they get, uh, uh, how they find out about that, that bootcamp. Cause, and in fact, this one was actually called an advanced bootcamp, which, uh, intrigued me cause I'd already been to one previous as you had. And, uh, so I'm glad our paths were crossed there at the bootcamp. Yes, sir.

It was, it was, it was interesting how it all came about. Actually, uh, Robbie's the one that come up and said, Hey, uh, you met Nikita yet? I was like, you know, Nikita who?

You co-op. I went, I looked at him like he was crazy. Yeah. You're like, yeah, whatever.

Right. And he goes, yeah, I said, no, why would I meet him? And he goes, well, he's sitting right there. Yeah, you were like, you were sitting with, I think your friend, Benny, right?

You guys are sitting together. You're like, yeah, whatever. Like, uh, yeah, they really am. He had to convince you though, right? That it was really me.

Yeah, actually Benny pulled his phone out, looked, looked it up and he goes, he turned his phone and goes, that's him Chris. Oh, that's a great part of the story. Well, and then, and then from there we got to, we got to spend a few days together and run after the heart of God together. And so that's, that's, that's awesome. That's so cool.

Well, you know what? I just appreciate that. Appreciate you carving out some time today to be able to, uh, to be on the show and, uh, we, I will, we'll have to have you back. We'll, we'll talk, we'll talk more, we'll talk more about the bootcamp and our experience there. And, and, uh, of course, Robbie, you know, and, and, uh, you know, has such a vision for men and men's ministry and many men have been impacted. Let me just ask this before we transition to your questions. Uh, we're going to eventually get there, but, um, what, what was, what was the biggest impact, uh, for you personally?

Just one, one nugget at the, at the, uh, at the bootcamp? Well, uh, they, you know, of course they did their radio show that Saturday and I shared this on the radio show. Uh, the night before Friday night, we did, I think what they call listening prayer.

I believe it's what it's called and I'd never done anything like that before. And it was kind of odd, I guess, you know, I never even heard of it. And I thought, well, how's this work? You know, well, the more God, you know, directed it and you sit and listen to the Holy Spirit.

It was just like, wow, this is kind of, this is neat. You know, and everybody that I've told about it since I've come back, it's just, uh, been enamored by, by, you know, it's, it's, it's weird that you can, you can sit and listen and God will talk to you. I mean, it's not audible. God speaks. Yeah, it's not audible, but it's, you know, the Holy Spirit in your head and your soul is, you know, well, to make that story a little bit shorter. One of the words that came out was yellow brick road, which was, you know, kind of weird that we were going to be talking about Wizard of Oz there. But, um, um, the day that we went through a series of talking to one guy and he, you know, shared a story and it was amazing that how these words all worked into this guy's story.

And it was just, we were able to pray for his friend and then we got quiet again and we were listening. And, uh, I don't know, it was just like, uh, Rodney was one of the guys that, uh, kind of leading, leading everything. Yeah.

Right. He, uh, said, he said Rose and it just hit me when he said that because, um, like I said, my first wife and I, we, uh, uh, we were expecting and, uh, ended up having, she ended up having a miscarriage. And, um, I guess I'd never really dealt with it until, you know, till that Friday night, I guess, because never really grieved it because, you know, I was just, you know, growing up, you're a man. You don't, you know, that kind of, you know, I mean, sad, but you don't, you don't dwell on that kind of stuff. You just kind of bury the pain. Yup.

Right. And, um, so when he said Rose and yellow was stuck in my head when he said Rose and I went, Oh wow. And I stopped and I said, uh, can I say something?

And he goes, yeah, sure. And I explained the story of that. Well, after we had our miscarriage, we, uh, planted a yellow Rosebush at the next to our house.

And, um, it was right beside of a block wall brick wall. So, uh, it was just amazing as those that came together, like it did and, uh, got up and prayed over me and, you know, you know, and I was able to allow God to take that away to an extent that I was able to move on. You got some healing. Right. You're listening to the truth network and truthnetwork.com Nikita Koloff 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 Koloff fans and like it and follow today. If you would like to support Koloff 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.koloff.net and donate today. You're listening to the truth network and truthnetwork.com. Yeah. So the Lord spoke to you through others and what she'll do, you know, he speaks in many different ways, right? I like to say open the Bible, open the mouth of God, close the Bible, close the mouth of God. So those you've never heard God speak, just open your Bible. You see, he'll speak to you all day long. Right.

And so, so just one way you were impacted. And let me just say this and we'll, we'll, we've got to move on here, but for those who are interested out there listening masculinejourney.org o-r-g masculine journey dot o-r-g. If you want to learn more about bootcamp and Robbie Dilmore and all those who are part of it. So, well, well, Chris, let's segue to your questions. It is Q and A with Koloff and so let's get to your first question.

What do you have for me? My first question, I was thinking about this earlier this week and I thought, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm interested because, because you were known as the Russian nightmare, but I found out you're from Minnesota. How did you work that out? Yeah, not a Russian, Russian bone in my body. Well, that I'm aware of. Now, my sister and brother have done that, like the, the, the, the DNA testing and all that kind of stuff. And so because, because my one set of grandparents were more for the Sweden and Swedish part of Europe and the others from, in fact, my mom was born on the England, Scotland England, Scotland border.

And, and therefore a lot of, a lot of Irish and Scottish and English in us. And so don't know that there's a lick of, of Russian in me, but the short version of that is two guys named Sergeant Slaughter and, and Don Crenodle came up with the whole concept, the idea of a quote nephew for legendary wrestler name, Ivan Koloff, the Russian bear. And all that to say, they reached out to another wrestler named Road Warrior Animal, asked if they knew any big guys who wouldn't mind shaving their head and becoming a Russian. He's like, I know the guy right now. And so he called me, I called the promoter, Jim Crockett Jr. in Charlotte, North Carolina, had a five minute phone call, sight unseen, gave me a date in which to walk into the town of Charlotte, into his office.

I did that. He took a look at me and, and, you know, dollar signs maybe were running through, I don't know, but all that to say, he introduced me to Don and Ivan and I became the Nikita Koloff, I was born in the hallways of Charlotte that day in June of 1984. And the next night I debuted on, on television in front of a sold out crowd having never been in a wrestling ring before.

And, and, and, nor had I had any training. And for the next couple, three months, Ivan, Don and I would get to the towns early and they'd bump and thump and teach me the mechanics before a match. I'd have a very short match.

They'd have a world tag team title defense and I'd sit in their corner. And then on the way home every night, we'd talk about the psychology of wrestling. And I just put it all together, Chris. And, and lo and behold, fortunately, I guess I had enough talent and skills and ability to be able to pull it off. And over a period of months just developed this whole Russian character to date. And fast forward to today's present time, believe it or not, even with the internet, there's still people that I'll occasionally meet who still think I'm from Russia until they meet me. Like, it's crazy, but they do.

They're like, dude, where's your accent? I'm like, ah, good English tutoring. And so anyway, that's the shorter version of that story. And if somebody wants more, they'll just have to go get my book, Nikita, A Tale of the Ring and Redemption and get the full story.

But that's the shorter version of it. Question number two, what do you got? Well, that's what I guess part of the book would be part of your testimony, I guess. You know, I'm always curious on, you know, it's not, you know, a matter of, I know God can save people anywhere. So, but I was just curious a little bit about your story about, you know, coming to Christ.

And, you know, I know I never did get to ask you that weekend, so it kind of bothered me that I didn't ask you because I thought, well, that would be interesting to know. Well, here we go. Yeah.

Here's your opportunity. So here you go, right? So, yeah, no, and that's another great question, you know, because I didn't, I didn't grow up in Russia. You all figured that out by now, right?

Minnesota, right? So I didn't grow up in Russia. I didn't grow up in church. It's not to say I never went, but it was just something our family did.

I mean, my mom never had a license, lived to be 93, never drove a car. And so we took the bus transit everywhere or had friends that maybe gave. She had a good friend, Dee, that drove her everywhere for everything.

And, but if we're going to go anywhere beyond walking distance, we were taking the Minneapolis transit wherever we might go. And so all that to say, you know, I may have went on Christmas. I kind of vaguely remember going on Christmas and Easter. You know, we were CEOs, I guess, you know, Christmas, Easter only.

You know, that's the acronym for that. And all that to say, you know, that's not to again, not say I never went to church and not to say I didn't believe in God. I wasn't an atheist or anything. You know, I just didn't know him in a personal way.

I had had knowledge of the God of the universe. In fact, I even went to like some FCA in high school because I thought I'd build up some brownie points with the captain who is the head of the FCA. You know, so I went for all the wrong reasons, right? You know, I went to a Bible college, but it wasn't to learn about Jesus. I went because they were the number one junior college football team in the country at the time. And so I went for football reasons, not for, but you had to sit through a Bible class. So it's not, and I tried my best to sleep through every one of those.

But still pass, which I did. So all that to say, I had had knowledge of him, fast forward 11 months after I made a decision to walk away from wrestling under my own terms. I had met a Christian couple in business, met a Christian couple, and through that relationship invited me to their church. And the first day I'd ever attended, walked in, and at the end of that service, 17 October 1993, found myself at an altar surrendering my life to Christ. Life would never be the same since. I had a genuine encounter, and I'd say this, Chris, the story had moved the 18 inches from my head down to my heart.

And confessed and repented at the altar that day and asked Jesus to come into my heart, and life has just never been the same since. And so that's the rest of that story. Well, that's neat.

Yeah, great question. People that I meet, I like to hear people's testimonies, and there's a lot of times that a lot of people have big testimonies and then people have small testimonies. But that's one thing that I've learned in life, is that it doesn't matter the testimony, God can save, it doesn't matter what your life is like.

Nope, that's right. Everybody's got a story, everybody has a story. And my hope is, and those listening out there, if you don't know Christ, if you don't have, and I say know him, if you don't know him in a personal way, have a relationship with him. Today's a good day.

Open your heart, surrender your heart, invite him in to be your Lord and your Savior. Well, we got time for one more, you got one more question? We have time for one more if you have one more question, Chris. Let me think. If not, it's okay. It just slipped my head.

I did have one. Oh, that's what I was wanting to ask you about. You and Lex Luger, they all are doing what they call man up. Man camp. Man camp. Okay.

Yeah. I read a little bit online, can you, I mean, I know that, you know, people, your listeners probably know more about it than I do anyway, but I would love to know, I mean, it's something that intrigued me. And I'm, you know, it's just, what all do y'all exactly teach during the camp, I guess is the best way. I know it's biblical. Well, it's a great question, but, you know, we can't dive old to that. You know, it's sacred.

It's not a secret, but it is sacred. Every guy, that's a, you're a typical guy, Chris. You know, tell me, give me an itinerary. Like, what do you do?

Like, from hour to hour, from day to day or, you know. And my short response is, if God's calling you to camp, come with an open heart and let God do some heart surgery, you know, because he knows exactly what you need at the man camp. And so, you know, I'm going to say, I'm going to, that's one answer. And I'm going to pull somebody else in to quickly give you another response who's actually experienced man camp.

Go for it, sir. So, Chris, this is Robbie. Hey, Robbie.

Surprise, Robbie's here. And, you know, I got to say, man, I love the whole story of listening prayer. You know, it's always such a challenge.

Are we going to do this? Because you're just out there when you do that. But it was really, really encouraging for me to hear that. But let me just tell you, as an alumni of man camp, that it is, A, a completely different experience than boot camp.

However, it's, in its own way, very broad. In other words, it's mind, spirit, and body. It's not just, you know, where we kind of went after your heart is very much what boot camp is about. And advanced boot camp is very much going after your heart for Christ. They do that at man camp. But one of the cool things about man camp, from my standpoint, is the length of man camp. In other words, you got five days, is it, Nikita, that you're going after the heart of God.

And they give you plenty. If you like covenant of silence, this is what, man, let me tell you. Man camp gives you a chance to chase after God like no other camp that I've ever attended. And so, and it sounds like that's very much what you love to do, is I've had a chance to talk to myself. And I think that would be really awesome for you, to take that time and chase after the heart of God for a week.

It really is something. And Robbie, correct me if I'm wrong, but, and it's different, Chris is different, he said mind, body, spirit, right? So, or body, spirit, and soul, we call it, right?

So the complete man. And for you, Robbie, God helped you on a, physically, on a better health path physically, right? Oh, there was all kinds of stuff that God gave me along those lines.

Yeah, no doubt I'm at least 60 pounds lighter, but more importantly than that, my blood sugar's under control, my blood pressure's under control. I feel great, I have energy, able to, you know, be a better husband and all sorts of things as a result of lots of stuff. But again, it was chasing after the heart of God that gave me that stuff that he's really interested in your whole, in everything about you.

Yep. So, you know, for some it might be, hey, get your physical life together. For others it might be, hey, get your mind, you know, your heart and your mind in the right place. Others, hey, let's fine tune your spiritual journey, you know? So it's, in other words, I'm going to summarize by saying it's different for every single guy. So to say, hey, here's what we do at Man Camp.

No, it's different for every single guy. And God knows exactly what you need. So, all right. Well, you know what, it was great to have Chris, you on the phone today and on the call today. Chris Wilson, Huntsville, Alabama. And perhaps we'll see you in October, Chris, if not before.

Hopefully. All right. Great talking with you. Well, thanks for tuning in to another episode of Q&A with Koloff.

Until next time, have a marvelous day. 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 koloff.net and donate today.

Hi, Nikita Koloff. Be sure to check out The Man Up Show, now available on television, broadcast, and podcast. Go to MorningStarTV.com or the Truth Radio Network. Check out your local listings or better yet, download the Truth Network app today. If you are enjoying Q&A with Koloff, would you help us spread the word?

Tell your family, tell your friends, tell your neighbors to download, subscribe, and leave a comment. Hi, Nikita Koloff, and I am excited to announce that I will be hosting my first ever Holy Land Tour. That's right, a trip to the Holy Land with the Russian nightmare. And I'm extending a personal invitation to you. Join me December 27th, 2023 to January 5th, 2024 for a once in a lifetime trip. Go to NikitaKoloff.com and get registered today for the Holy Land Tour. Nikita Koloff here.

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