Q&A With Koloff- #138

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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 Q&A with Kolov, the devil's nightmare. Today, today, on the show today, I've got a, this is one of the greatest Italian names I think I've ever heard. Michael James Fosseani is on the show with me today. Michael, welcome to the Mad Up show. Welcome to Q&A with Kolov. We'll have to edit that out.

Welcome to Q&A with Kolov. Alright, well Nikita, you're still not quite getting my name right there, but it's close enough. Well, I can only imagine it's probably been butchered a handful of times, but go ahead and tell us how it is actually pronounced. It gets butchered all the time, and I tell those, you always get the same question, can you please tell me how to, you know, pronounce your name. My family can't even pronounce our name. I'm talking about my extended family, because my immediate family, we started pronouncing it correctly, which is Fa-chi-ani, my pap. I went to the top, I said, how do you pronounce our name? Our family's not pronouncing it right, just tell me, because when I moved to Iowa in 1979, we're going to start pronouncing it right. So we said Fa-chi-ani, which means with small face in Italian, that's what he told me. So we started pronouncing it right. But I love to hear all the different variations.

All the variations. Okay, I got it. You're well within the ballpark when you pronounce the A.

In the ballpark, well that's good, that's good. I took my best shot at it. So let me ask you this, because I know, so you're not originally from Iowa, but what prompted you to go, give us a little backstory, so where are you from, tell us about your family, and what prompted you to go to the Midwest to Iowa? Sure, I was raised, I say near Pittsburgh, but it was about 65 miles east, the famous little town, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, famous for the 1889 flood that killed 2200 people. I was in the 77 flood where we lost 88, and we got a connection to 11 of those that perished in that flood. But anyway, including my first cousin, but I was going to the University of Pittsburgh as an engineer, because dad, you know, it was engineer or bust, with my dad being an engineer.

For me it was bust. I was pretty good at math and that, but I just didn't have a passion for it. So I went to Iowa to go to chiropractic school, where I was there for about six months, and under the ministry of Tommy Barnett, who you and I both know, he was my pastor for six months, but was probably one of the biggest impacting people in my life, I felt called to the ministry from there, and that was 1979. And it was a few years after that, I asked God in kind of a different way, that he would give me a singing voice, because I hadn't sung since second grade glee club, so at the age of 22 I started exercising my voice a little bit, and this voice began to emerge. And I've done a number of things over the years in ministry, from pastoring to about 22 years in the contemporary Christian radio world. I was a pioneer in Iowa of contemporary Christian music, starting in 1985. So I've done a lot of things, and the key to, I'm still trying to figure it out, what I'm supposed to be doing, but I, right now, I've been traveling in my 13th year singing, you know, for the Lord and encouraging senior audiences around the country, and our veterans, always great to honor them in that. Well, and I love what, of course, we just met recently at a friend's church, Pastor Gary and his wife Sandra, we crossed paths, and if you want to say we tag-teamed on a Sunday morning, you sang, and I was blessed to preach the word, but, and I look at your website, and you know, I love what it said, you know, the powerful encouragement through musical drama, but the quote you have on there, on a love crusade to our nation's seniors and veterans. And, you know, that's amazing, because there's so many out there that have, as I guess I'll use this term, discarded our veterans, or just written them off, or certainly seniors, you know, in some cultures, seniors are extremely important, right?

You go, like I did three wrestling tours to Japan, I can tell you, the seniors are very well respected in Japan. Not so much in America, but in some cases, but, so what put it on your heart to reach out to those audiences then? Well, when I traveled with some professional athletes like yourself, that performed feats and strengths, members of the power team, and I traveled with the actual strength team, and actually was part of the founding of them at our church, held the first crusade.

The guys that bend the bars, break the concrete, blow up the hot water bottles, and do things of that nature, I traveled with them as a road manager, and they started putting me up in the church on a Sunday morning to sing. And I was blown away by the encouragement from, you know, the seniors and retired people, and it encouraged me saying, hey, you need to use your voice again. And I was very startled by that. And after my wife, a few years previous to that, said that someday you're going to travel and sing for a living, that's when I kiddingly tell people, she said, someday, Mike, you're going to travel and sing for a living. I said, check yourself into the fifth floor at the hospital, because that's the psychiatric ward, because there is no way, yeah, there's no way I'm going to ever do that for a living. Here I am, traveling on the way back from a late meeting in Ohio.

I'm here in Illinois right now, I'll get to Iowa later for a date with my wife. But in my 13th year, I've traveled 877,000 ground miles. I count those miles as a testament to God's encouragement that comes through his people. And so when the seniors and retired people encouraged me, Nikita, I felt like I have to start encouraging them back. And so that's what I do with my music, and it's a thrill to do it.

I travel about 75,000 miles a year doing that. And it's a great honor, and it's a great privilege. And I'll tell you a quick story here. What I learned is, shows you how stupid I really was.

In June of 2011, when I started traveling Nikita, it was like my third meeting. Had my CD table set up, and I had the idea that seniors and retired people, hey, they've got to be perfectly secure in themselves, happy, financially secure. They've got their kids and their families with them, they don't have a care in the world. They don't really need that much encouragement. A lady came up to me, her name was Betty, at my CD table, and she said, I wanted you to know that I appreciate your encouragement, I need your prayers, because my husband had a stroke 15 years previously.

He still lives with me, but I live in an alone existence, because he's not able to communicate properly with her. And I learned right there, Nikita, right there, I realized that God showed me, they need encouragement. They're going through so much health starting to fail, family breakups, some of the kids don't visit as much as you would like them to, they don't feel appreciated, and they're seeing their friends die around them, and they need that encouragement, they need that reassurance that God is still with them, and still cares about them, and they still have value, and they're still very useful to the kingdom of God.

Yeah, amen. Well, and Bible makes reference to that, right, about silver hair, the wisdom, silver hair being a representation of the wisdom that age can typically bring us, right? And then be able to share that wisdom with others, and so, well, that's amazing. And I know you're faith-based, right, so if there's a church, or a pastor, someone connected to a church, or a veteran, or a senior, they're like, wow, we'd love to give Michael to our church.

I know there's a website, and you're faith-based, right? So it's like, hey, it's not like you're saying, I need X amount of dollars in order to come. And so God, it sounds like, has provided and taken care of you and your family all these years. Yes, I mean, we work with people's budgets, whether it's a love offering or an honorarium basis. I just don't have the heart, Nikita, to say, you know what, unless you can pay me a certain amount, I'm not coming. Now, that's just in my heart. I realize other groups need to establish budgets and everything and fees, but for me, I just love giving back, and I know your ministry's like that, and I appreciate that about you, too. We'll get it figured out. We won't break the bank, but we'll bring a lot of encouragement that I can guarantee you.

Well, and you are an incredible blessing. How can churches, how can people find out more about you and or even get your music? I know YouTube and social media and all that, but what's your main website? Sure, they can go right to my website.

It'll have my cell phone number in there under the contact info, and that would be my initials, mjfmusicoutreach.com, mjfmusicoutreach.com. I would love to hear from them. I mean, I have a circuit that I travel, but I just added a couple churches this week that I'm going to go to. It's not like I need to go to a new church, but I love to. I love to. I mean, the Lord blesses me with plenty of bookings, but I would love to build some and forge some relationships with some churches that would like to bring some of that extra encouragement.

Wow, that's pretty amazing. I know I was blessed by your ministry and blessed by your music the weekend that we were together. And so just wanted to get your story out there to folks. Hey, let me ask something before we segue into your questions for me. I do have one other question for you before you ask me your questions.

Are you ready? Okay. If I heard you right, if I heard you right about the town you grew up in, you said it's infamous for the major flood. And then did I hear you right when you said you were part of the 77th flood in that town? The 1977 flood. The 1977 flood.

Yes. Yeah, it seems sometimes like there were 77 floods, but you know what? The first one was 1889, there was another flood in 1936, and the president at the time, was it FDR? He came to Johnstown and declared it flood free.

Well, in 1977 when I was there, I was 19, we had almost 14 inches of rainfall down into the mountains, came down into the valley and washed us all out, you know, that fateful night of July 19th and into the 20th of July, 1977. Okay. Okay.

Okay. Because I was going to say, it's kind of like people who live in what's called like tornado alley and stuff, right? I'm like, so why do you live there? And I'm like, I'm thinking in my mind, because if you had like had that, not to make light of it, but if a place has had that many floods, I'm like, okay, do we really want to still live here? Or it's like living in Florida with all the hurricanes, right?

Like, oh boy, you must really love Florida, you know? But anyway, so, all right, all right, enough, enough, enough. Let's segue to your, and I have no clue what you're going to ask, but go ahead and fire away with your first question. Well, thank you, because this is going to be a lot more interesting to me.

I feel like I don't like talking about myself, I'm boring. I like to hear other people's stories and my ministry really focuses now on cheering on people's stories. And so I was anxious to, you know, hear from you, and I love, you know, here's the thing about you, Nikita, and really anyone out there that knows Christ, that shares Christ, that, you know, across a coffee table or at work, wherever, as you listen right now, you know, we're all in the show business. I got to thinking about you, how you were in the show business, but you're still in the show business because you show the love of Jesus Christ in your preaching. And I think we need to be about the Father's business that way.

But first one is, how did you learn to smile like that? You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com 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 Because you are able to, you can come up and say something hard in the pulpit that maybe we don't feel like we want to hear right now, but then you cop your neck and you smile and you deliver it with all of God's love. Do you practice that in the mirror? So the short answer, I do not practice it in the mirror. I hadn't really tell you right now, drawn my attention to that, hadn't really realized I've done that. But now that I think about it, Michael, like the number of people that have come to me and have said, wow, you know, your message, like I'm glad I wore my steel toe shoes today. But the way you delivered the message, I didn't feel condemnation.

I did feel the love of Christ, even though you were stomping all over my toes, you know. And so I guess I just have to say thank you, Lord, for giving me the ability and or you might say capability of being able to deliver a message. And I say, I try to say it all the time or encourage others all the time by saying, you know, you can speak truth. Anybody can speak truth, right? But the real caveat to that is speaking truth in love.

And if I'm the blowhorn guy standing on the street corner saying you're going to go to hell if you don't give your life to Jesus, well, that's truth. But my experience is the majority of people don't really receive that well. They don't receive that message.

They certainly don't receive it with love. And it's truth. He's speaking truth, right? And so I guess I've just learned over the years and whatever and God does give me some messages that I get it.

They're like, for those of you listening, I'm not going to tickle your ears. I'm not that pastor, that preacher that's going to do that. I'm going to speak truth to the best of my ability.

I'm going to do it with love and hopefully with a smile on my face. Well, there you go. Well, you know, I really appreciate how you do that and everything. But just for the record, I don't believe your answer.

I still say you have practiced in the mirror. Okay. All right, well, we'll leave that right. Because what? Because what? Because it's so good.

It's so good. Well, to God be the glory. I'll just spiritualize it.

To God be the glory. Well, there you go. When I traveled with the guys of the strength team and power team, you know, they had instructions. You need to, you know, if you break the concrete, you need to keep that pose frozen for at least two seconds or you could be fined. And so when you cocked your head and you smiled, you had it there for two seconds.

And I thought, no, for sure, he has practiced that. You can't tell me any difference. I'll have to pay more attention to that in the future. So all right. Okay, well, you do that. All right, what else you got for me?

What else you got for me? Well, hey, I didn't find it yet. I was going to research it some more. But give me at least the short version here on this podcast of how you found Christ. What was it?

What was it that made you recognize the need and encounter Jesus? I was successful but unfulfilled. That's the shortest answer. But to elaborate slightly on that, you know, I have this meteoric wrestling career. And again, you know, for people that don't know the full story, that want more of the story, go to my website, coloft.net. Go get Nikita, A Tale of the Ring and Redemption. Go order that book.

You'll get a signed personally signed autographed copy from me if you order that online. And that covers everything from as far back as I can remember to the salt mines of Siberia in southern Minnesota to present day, actually, to present day. But and so, you know, because I wasn't looking for a wrestling career, a door of opportunity opened up. I took a risk. I loaded everything I had to my name in my car, drove to a city I'd never been called Charlotte, North Carolina from just a five minute phone call from a promoter, a wrestling promoter named Jim Crockett. And and I had all the money I had to my name, which wasn't much, but it was enough to get to Charlotte. And then I have the they I guess Crockett, you might say, falls in love with my character and falls in love with me. And it's meteoric. Right. And, you know, within 13 months, I'm the world tag champion, world six man champion. I'm wrestling a guy named Rick Flair for the World Heavyweight Championship. And then you fast forward.

And at age 33, very unusual for that business and that industry show business. I like what you said. I show people I'm in the business of showing people to the foot of the cross now. But but all that said, I walk away under my own terms, no fanfare, no, no, no exit, you know, no, no party on my exit. Just I just make a decision.

I'm going to walk away. And then 11 months later, it's during that 11 months that I'm like, you know, something's still missing. I mean, there's an element to my life. I've reached the pinnacle of professional wrestling, become eight time world champion with different titles and belts and the roar of the crowd and the accolades that come with fame.

But something's still missing. And and 17 October 1993, I'd met a Christian couple through through other business ventures. They invited me to their church. I show up one Sunday morning. I say, hey, I'm going to be in church on Sunday. And that was my divine encounter with Almighty God, the creator of the universe and his son Jesus at the altar that day.

17 October 1993. Life's never been the same since it was a genuine encounter. And I've been building upon that friendship and that relationship ever since then. Well, I appreciate that. I so appreciate your heart. And I've listened to some of your podcasts and I love how you come across in a loving but powerful way in a way that's not dogmatic because it's hard for me and you when you have to interact with so many people with so many different backgrounds from so many different denominations. Yes. And you do it. You do it so well. And I'm really thankful for that. I got one more question.

Well, hold that thought just for a second. I want to take something on what you just said, because I think it's important for everyone out there to listen that they didn't catch what you just said about crossing over to so many different denominations. Right. And because to date, and I don't know about you, it sounds like you track a lot of your travels and what you do as well.

But to date, I've been I've had the privilege of ministering in 29 different denominations, 29 different. Wow. And in a sense, my message is the same, Michael, and I'm sure you as well in this sense. I don't care what the banner says outside. I don't care what your billboard says. You know, I don't care what the name of your church is. I really don't.

I'm honored to be here. I really don't. But that's not what's important to me. You know, what it says on your on your polo shirt, right?

What's more, or your business card. What's more important to me is, is the love of Jesus. You know, have you given your life to Christ?

Is the love of Jesus in your heart? And and if if the short answer is yes, then can we just because so then we should be apparently then on the same team. So can we put aside some of the little different denominational doctrinal differences made by man and just lock arms and go out and just tell the story and win people to the foot of the cross?

Can we just do that? And and so I've always embraced that and tried to send that message out to when when I deem it appropriate. So anyway, so you mentioned that it's I don't know if I've ever said that, but I just want to put that out there for those listening. So appreciate it. Well, and I absolutely I think it's good for your listeners to know because we do need to realize that, you know, God's kingdom and his family is very large and very vast and each of us really, we really live in a small world. All of us, if we really realize that God's kingdom is great, it's vast, and he uses the different denominations in those ways, and they may not believe exactly like we do, but it's the important thing, you know, that encounter with the risen Jesus Christ. And I really, really appreciated that about you. Yeah, the the gift of salvation.

I mean, at the very foundation, it's the gift of salvation and and and I get it. You don't like raising hands. You don't believe you should. Okay, whatever. Okay.

Can we get past the raising of hands and just go love on people and win them to Jesus. So anyway, what I appreciate your heart on that as well. And so all right, you got one more question for me. Well, one that might be light hearted, but maybe not because when you said that you wanted to be have a career in football, were you possibly thinking professional you were at Minnesota State at Morehead is that college? Yeah, I refuse to call it that, by the way, because because it was Morehead State University when I was there. So that whole Minnesota State, blah, blah, blah. And I've petitioned my school to change it back, by the way. But yeah. Yes, Morehead State University. Yes, that is where I attended.

And yeah, from a from a young age from an early age. So you so your question is, I'm thinking, did I regret not pursuing that? What what's the question? Were you broken hearted over? Was it an injury and you weren't able to fulfill that dream? How did that go down? Okay, that's a great question.

It really is a great question. I don't know that I've been asked that before. Um, so so look, there's the quick backstory on that is so from the age of I guess 12 ish when I kind of fell in love with with professional football and and then joined joined a foot my first football league. It was called like a light club football league. Bill Burke, my first male mentor, my first football coach, embraced me and took me under his wing. And and I just began began to, you know, just pursue that as and determined at that young age that that was going to be my career that was going to be my future professional football. And I kind of funny Michael, looking back, I kind of laid out the whole plan for my life. Like I'm like, go to college, I'm going to play 10 years in my mind, I'm like 10 years of professional football, have a storied career there, retire, you know, at the top of my game, right? Because I'll only be in my early 30s, I'll go right into coaching, and more, more than likely coach at the college level, or maybe even the pro level one day, and have this storied coaching career, and then sail off into the sunset and live happily ever after.

Right? So, so that, that was my my plan. And then this door of opportunity opens up for wrestling. I was actually training for a pro football trial for the USFL, the original USFL, United States Football League. And ironically, little, little did I know or to that that I would eventually meet two guys that were a part of that football team that I never did go try out for because the door of opportunity opened up for wrestling, that I would eventually meet by the name of Lex Luger, who's now a ministry partner of mine, and Ron Simmons, who had a legendary career, a stud, a standout at Florida State University, they were both on that Tampa Bay Bandit football team that year, had I gone to try out, I would have probably went head to head against Ron Simmons on the gridiron, and, and been on the same side of the football, and maybe right next to Lex Luger.

How crazy is that? But all that to say, never regretted, never looked back. And, and, you know, you can, you can, any of us can always do the what if, right? What if, so here's a quick what if, what if I had pursued that path and in my mind, I feel in my heart of hearts, I would have made 18. I told when I was being scouted my senior year at Morehead State University, I told that scout, I look back and I'm thinking how many, how many times does this guy hear this? He came out that winter actually, it was the winter time, right after Christmas break, I was not for the record in the best of shape. It was Christmas, come on, New Year's, right?

I'd had a few too many pumpkin pies. And I said, buddy, I'll never forget this Michael, I said, when you come back next fall, not only will I be bigger, I will be faster. I go, you can do all these little jump charts and bench press and all this stuff, mental test. I go, well, there's one thing you can't test, buddy.

That's the size of a man's heart. I literally said that to him. I go, you come back next fall. So anyway, and so anyway, all that to say, all that to say, yeah, I've no, no regrets because I realize now had I been under a helmet and behind a face mask, there's no way I would have had, I would have attained the world wide notoriety that professional wrestling gave me. And therefore don't know that, you know, I would have even had been following Christ and or certainly had the platform God's given me through wrestling now. So anyway, there you go. Well, you're using that platform powerfully, my brother. So thankful for that. And I'm thankful the Lord brought our paths together and, and, uh, Hey, Michael James Fosseani. Did I do a little better?

You're still close, but not quite there, bro. MJFmusicoutreach.com. Hey, please go check out.

You go, go order his music, go check him out on YouTube, bring him to your church, bring him to your community. I assure you, you will not be disappointed. He will be a blessing to your community. And thank you so much for being on Q and A with Kolov today. Thank you, Nikita, for your graciousness here.

I really appreciate it. God bless. God bless your audience. Safe travels to you up and down the highways and byways of our world. And, and, uh, thank you for tuning in to another episode of Q and A with Kolov. Until next time, have a God-filled God bless 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 kolov.net and donate today.

Hi, Nikita Kolov. 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 and A with Kolov, would you help us spread the word? Tell your family, tell your friends, tell your neighbors to download, subscribe, and leave a comment. Are you looking for the perfect gift for your pastor?

Well, look no further. Bless him with a trip to the Holy Land with yours truly, Nikita Kolov, the Russian nightmare. I'll be hosting this once-in-a-lifetime trip December 27, 2023 to January 5, 2024.

Your pastor will never be the same. Go to kolov.net to get registered today. Nikita Kolov here.

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