Q&A With Koloff- #169

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When only the best is needed, see Dr. Johnny Gayton at eyesightassociates.com where we discover what it means to be a wholehearted man. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. 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 episode of Q&A with Kolov, questions and answers, and it's always fun for me because you get to ask me the questions. And today I got with me a dear friend, Paul Babb.

Welcome to Q&A with Kolov. It's good to be here, Nikita. Well, it's good to have you, and of course we're no stranger to each other.

I've been down there in South Carolina ministering at the church you pastor. Of course you've been a part of man camp over the years, and so that's been quite a blessing. I think it's been mutual, right? Absolutely. I recommend man camp to all men, that's for sure, whether you think you need to go or not. Whether you need to go or not. So let me just jump in on that, expand on that for a minute. Let's say there's a wife out there listening, or maybe a mom got a son, or a daughter's got a dad. Why should a man consider attending man camp? What would be the benefits?

I would say the benefits, just speaking for me, was I was one of those that I didn't think I needed to go. I thought I had it all together, and I have a wonderful marriage. I love the Lord. My kids love me, there's no issues there, but when I got there I realized there were some issues from childhood that were still affecting my manhood, who I am as a man, who I portray as being a man. And as I dug into the Word that week and got into the process, I realized that deep down inside I was just a wounded little boy in some areas, and the Lord really dealt with me in those areas. So I looked, and I kind of did some thinking there, and realized I thought I had it together, and I really didn't. So I was pleasantly surprised, and so I say that, that whether you think you need it or not, you need to be the man camp.

Because there's some men that they absolutely know how their marriages are a mess, and there's people like me that thought I had it all together, and come to find out I didn't. There were some things that I needed the Lord wanted out of me, and wanted to improve in my life, and that was a transformational week for me. And I can say it's been, I think, two years, and it has been still a transformational process. There's things that I'm still applying to my life, and have taken away from that week that have been just life changers, and marriage changers, and fatherhood changers, and pastor of a church changers. My church members, they got a better pastor back.

My wife got a better husband back, and my children got a better father back that week. Wow. Well, that's quite an endorsement, and I appreciate that, Paul.

And of course, it's not uncommon to hear other stories, other testimonies like that. You're out there listening, and perhaps something Paul just said has intrigued you as a guy out there. I can relate too, Paul. I remember the first camp I went to in March of 2006 went with a dear friend of mine, Ed Bowman, and in Ed's words, he's like, let's go out and help some guys. We're going to go out and help, not realizing we ourselves needed help. And to your point, recognizing in my own life at that camp in 2006 that there were some areas of my life, and at that point for me, I'd already been walking with the Lord for 13 years up to that point, or close to it. Yeah, but didn't realize, man, there were still some, like you're saying, referring to, there were some things in me that needed healing. There were some deep-seated wounds that I needed God to put that healing balm of Gilead on.

And equipping, like some tools in my toolbox that would help me be a better man or a better dad, or now a better grandfather. And so I really appreciate you saying that. And if you're out there, listen, I'll just tell you right now, go to mancamp.info, mancamp.info, and you can get more information.

We do one every spring and every fall, so April and October. And if, you know, if you've put a uniform on or you're wearing a uniform currently, you know, you've been in the military, you're a first responder, or we just want to honor you. We have special scholarships for you.

And, or you're not, you know, you've never put a uniform on, but you need some financial assistance. Well then we have scholarships for you as well. We're not going to let money be a reason why you can't come to man camp and chase after the heart of God. And of course, Paul, you and your wife have, on that note, have been supporters, financial supporters to Kolah for Christ's ministry and to the camps, and certainly grateful for that. And you mentioned pastoring down there. Tell folks, just tell them briefly about your church and the family.

You brought it up, so tell them. Yes, we, my wife and I, we pastor the CSRA worship center, and if you're local to the area, you understand what CSRA stands for, but if you're not, the CSRA stands for the Central Savannah River area. And so we pastor the church here in the big metropolis of Belvedere, South Carolina, and we are a small church, but the Lord has us growing.

We're in a growing spurt here, and we're very thankful for that. And we are just beyond blessed because that is the church that we met and married at, and we had our first three kids there at that church, and we're able to dedicate them to the Lord there in the church. And so the Lord drew us away for a little while. We didn't understand why he was leading us away from the church. Everything was good, and we were led to another church not too far from where we live.

And we sat there for eight years and learned, and it was a deep, deep learning session, and we didn't know at the time, but the Lord was preparing us to be pastors ourselves. And so we thank God for that time, and then I think you mentioned my family. My wife and I, we have been married for 25 years, and we have five wonderful children. And our oldest is 25.

He is Jordan, and then we have a 19-year-old daughter, Kylie, and then a soon-to-be 16-year-old daughter, Bella, and a 14-year-old son, Judah, and a 12-year-old son, Jasper. So we are busy, busy people, but we are blessed, blessed people as well. Full quiver there, a full quiver. That's right. Well, and your story, Paul, kind of reminds me, of course, you said eight years, and I've just reminded some of the stories of the Bible, right? I'm sure you're probably thankful it wasn't 40 years on the backside of the desert, right?

It was only, thank you for those eight years of training, Lord, right? That's right. But, or like Joseph was in prison, or I guess enslaved and in prison for like, what, like 13 years or something? 13? Something like that?

Right? So you can look, and then really, Jesus himself, right? I mean, he didn't launch his ministry until he was 30, right?

So in a sense, you technically could say Jesus spent 30 years of training prior to launching his ministry. And so, yeah, pretty amazing. Again, I'm just so grateful and thankful for you and your bride, the church, and all of the support that you guys give to me and to the camp, and sending guys up there, you know, to experience the same thing you experienced and so on. So thank you so much. Yeah, you're very welcome. Grateful.

Glad that we're blessed enough to do it. Well, so it's Q&A with Koloff, and so let's segue and transition and see if you got a couple questions for me that I might be able to answer for you today. Well, I guess my first question is, you know, I follow you on Facebook, and I know you're big friends with the Stinger, and I was a big fan of the Stinger, and who was your favorite person to wrestle? Oh, boy, I tell you what, I was fortunate, Paul, to step in the ring with what I consider to be some of the greats, right? I mean, some of the legends. Now, some of them early on in my career, you know, you'd have to be an avid wrestling fan to, you know, to know some of these names, but names like Rufus R. Freight Train Jones, for example.

You tapped me on that one. Well, so I'm going to the very beginning of my career, right? Guys who were in the twilight of their career, but nevertheless had incredible careers. Guys like Johnny Weaver, for example, Dory Funk Jr., Blackjack Mulligan, and so, you know, an avid wrestling fan is going to recognize some of those names, you know, legendary names, you know, in certain pockets of wrestling communities, right? Of course, Blackjack Mulligan was Barry Wyndham's dad, Barry and Kendall Wyndham, so you might know that name, right? Barry Wyndham, right?

Yeah, absolutely. And Rufus R. Freight Train Jones was actually born and raised in Orangeburg, South Carolina, but had an incredible career in mid-Atlantic wrestling. Johnny Weaver was one of the first who was notorious or recognizable for the infamous sleeper hold back in his day. And so I was fortunate to get in the ring with some of those guys early on in my career to kind of learn from, and that catapulted me into stepping in the ring with the likes of Ricky the Dragon Steamboat, the Road Warriors, Ravishing Rick Rude, Stone Cold Steve Austin, the Nature Boy Ric Flair, the Rock and Roll Express, Ricky and Robert, right? Robert Gibson and Ricky Morton and the Midnight Express with Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane and Jim Cornette as a manager, JJ Dillon, the Four Horsemen, right?

Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, gosh, I mean, Lex Luger, right? The Stinger, as you mentioned. Yeah.

Yeah, I can just go down the list. Actually, I came across, I just posted it. I've got on my website, coloff.net, I've got a store there, and I just put a couple new pictures up available for purchase. A picture when Sting and I were tag teaming, so we weren't going against each other. We were now teamed up, and we were actually in the photo, you could see Jake the Snake Roberts and kind of off to the side, Ravishing Rick Rude.

And so there were so many guys that I'm grateful and thankful and feel fortunate to have been in the ring with. So, 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. Would your company, business, or you personally like to partner with me in supporting Koloff for Christ Ministries, the Man Up Show and Man Up Minutes? Go to coloff.net and click the donate button.

You can give monthly, annually, or one time. God bless you for making a difference around the world. 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. It's hard, Paul. It's hard to just narrow it down to one or two or three guys, because I was in the ring with so many legends. Dusty Rhodes. I was about to say, you left off one of my favorites, Dusty Rhodes, man. He was a character for sure.

The son of the plumber from Austin, Texas, baby you are, right? I mean, Uncle Ivan. I mean, gosh. Oh, wow, yeah.

Yeah, there were just so many, so many. So, but thank you for taking me down memory lane right there. A trip down memory lane. There you go. You're welcome. That was awesome. You're welcome. All right, what else you got for me?

What else you got for me? Well, my next question would be, what was the hardest part about being a professional wrestler? Wow, that's a great question. The travel. The travel. People don't, you know, they realize, obviously, you know, you turn your set on Saturday afternoon or Sunday night or whatever, you know, you watch an hour, maybe two hour show on TBS, right? The super station and, or you come to a live match, right? And you sit for a couple hours and from the opening bell to the main event, you know, and you're, you're entertained for a couple, three hours. And, and, and that's, that's what, as a fan, that's what you see. But what you typically don't see or may not know is, is the grueling schedule behind that.

Like, for example, 1986, I had 454 matches. Now you do the math on that right away. You figure you go, hold on, let's see.

There's only 365 days of the year, dude. Like, how did, how was that? Right.

How is that even possible? Well, so if you factor in like, for example, a typical weekend, like I wrestle in Richmond, Virginia on Friday night, we jump on a plane. After the matches, we fly to Atlanta. We might get to, you know, the hotel room at midnight, 1am. Have to be at the TBS TV station Saturday morning by, I think 7 o'clock, 730, something like that.

We're rolling by 8 o'clock, three hours of TV taping. You know, you might, you might have a match on the two hour show. You might have a match on the one hour show. You might have a match on both shows.

Okay. Or at least segments or something there. And then you, you shuttle off to Columbus, Georgia, and you have a Saturday matinee match. And then you're back in the Omni in Atlanta that night for, for a main event match. And then you hightail it to Asheville, North Carolina for a Sunday matinee. And then you end back up in the hometown of Charlotte for, for a show that Sunday night. That, that could be a typical weekend.

And, and in those early days before we started flying places, we drove everywhere. So on average, we would cover 2,000 to 2,500 miles a week. Now, keep in mind, I'm, I got to get in the gym, right? So, and, and it's usually a two hour workout hour per body part. So I'm going to, so you get, you get in a groove, right? You get in a routine. And so, you know, I get up early, have breakfast, hit the gym about 10 o'clock, you know, two hour workout, get home, have lunch, shower. Maybe I got to meet Ivan and Don or meet Dusty at three in the afternoon or four in the afternoon or five in the afternoon, depending on what town we're driving to. Get to the show by six thirty, you know, seven o'clock for an eight o'clock show. The show lasts till ten, ten thirty, you know, you're back in the car and home by twelve thirty, one am, sometimes three or four in the morning. And, and then you get up the next day and do it all over again.

Wow. There's a little inside baseball, if you will, behind the scenes. Yeah, so you, not only were you physically tired, you're probably mentally wore out as well. Mentally, physically, but again, you kind of get in that groove and it was, and it was interesting because really only scheduled time off was like Crock, Jim Crockett had like eight days right before Christmas. But then we always wrestled twice on Christmas day, a matinee show somewhere and then Christmas night. And, and so unless you actually ask for a day off here and there, you know, in those days it was kind of rare to have a day off. But, so yeah, so by far behind the scenes, the travel was for me in those, especially those early days and then add ins flying and now, you know, now airports and all that other stuff.

So, you know, the traveling didn't get any easier just because we started flying places. Right. So great question. You got one more for me?

I do. And hopefully this is not too hard of a question, but this is a area of my life where I am. I'm at right now and I know that you have daughters, grown daughters, and so what, what piece of advice would you give to fathers of daughters who are entering adulthood? So transitioning from, uh, uh, kind of into those teenagers or into adulthood years? Into adulthood. From the teens, my oldest daughter is 19 and she's in college and she's thinking of future plans and then, and then this daddy's heart can't take it. I just don't, I'm not ready to let her go. And so I just need, I need advice. Ah, that's a great question.

And, uh, cause it's kind of funny. I think back on my daughters, you know, 18, 19 years old. Um, I'll never forget.

I went to a men's conference not long after I gave my life to the Lord. It was 1995. It was a guy named Steve Farrar. He was from Dallas, Texas.

He wrote a book called point man, how to, how to be point man for your family, how to lead your family. Right. And I'll never forget him. He goes, yeah. He goes, my daughter, when she was six, she thought dad could hang the moon. When she, when she turned 16, she wanted dad to fly to the moon.

Yeah. In other words, dad got a life of my own. And I remember my girls, like, like I used to go to have lunch with them in elementary school when by the time they, they, they, they graduated to middle school. They're like, yeah, dad, uh, you, you don't really have to come and have lunch with me anymore. I'm like, wait, what, wait, what, what, you know? Um, and then of course, you know, then they started moving on, graduating high school and, and uh, of course they know everything and I, I don't know anything.

Um, and I say all that to say, by the time invariably every one of them, by the time they hit, I'd say 23, four or five, kind of in that range, um, they circle back around. I think at that point, realizing, you know, dad knows more than I give them credit for and, and then began to ask for some, some advice. So I, I sell that Paul to say to you and all those others out there, you know, with, with, with daughters, uh, yeah, they, they can pull on your heartstrings. There's no doubt, but the Lord really challenged me at, at, at a certain point to really release them and, and place them in his hands. He challenged me, he said, you know, do you trust me? Do you trust me that I, I can take better care of them than you can on your best day, uh, and, and protect them and watch over them. Uh, and, and so, you know, God was really stretching me, Paul, to, to do that. And, you know, and I'm like gritting my teeth saying, yeah, I trust you God, you know? And he's like, okay, so, so, you know, you, you trust, you know, I created them.

You're a good dad. I'm better. Right. You know? Oh, okay. Yes. Yes, Lord.

You are. I agree with all that. So, yeah. So I got to a point, Paul, where I had to just really fully just say, okay, Lord, they are yours. You give me the privilege of raising them, you know, these first 18 or so years. And now as they step into adulthood, I'm going to really trust, continue to pray and intercede and really trust that, that, uh, you know, that, that they're going to follow, follow the path that we've laid out for them. Continue to pursue you, uh, in, in, in this process.

And, and I'm grateful to say fast forward all these years later that, that, uh, they're all very, they're all four of my girls have, they have their feet on solid ground and I'm very grateful and thankful. And so it is a test for you as a dad. It is a test to be able to, to fully trust the Lord and, and, and release them and let them go. And so that's the, that will be the challenge for you. But once you get to that place, um, you know, and for anyone else out there and listening, listening land, that's the challenge to, to be able to release them and just fully trust the Lord with them. And, and you never stop loving them and they, they never stop having that special place in your heart.

And if anything, it can even by releasing them, it can even draw them closer to you and you closer to them. I hope that helps or answers your question. That does is very encouraging. Thank you.

Well, good. Well, Paul Babb, one more time, like if people were down in that part of the country and wanted to, to maybe visit, they're visiting someone or passing through and where could they find out more about the church? Well, you can go to, uh, the internet and you can go to our website.

Uh, and we just updated it. So I'm hoping I'm giving the right, uh, uh, web, web address that, but it should be CSREworshipcenter.com. If not, you can check us out on Facebook at CSRE worship center. And if you are in the area, we are just across the, the river, the Savannah river from Augusta, Georgia, and we are right in the, um, same area as North Augusta, South Carolina. So Belvedere is a very small town, but if you get into North Augusta, we are right there in Belvedere is right. And you just right smack dab in the middle of Belvedere, actually right on the little corner there of North Augusta. So if you're near Augusta, Georgia, look us up, or if you're coming through Aiken, South Carolina, you are not too far from us as well. And that, and that is CSRA, correct? CSRA worship center. Yeah.

You got a little Southern drawl on us there, Paul. I just want to make sure that people picked up that last letter there. Okay. So, yeah, there you go.

All right. And thank all of you out there. You're so faithful week in and week out and sending me messages and how encouraged you are by these shows. So both the Man Up show and Q and A with Koloff, and I want to encourage you to go out today and live a God filled God blessed 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. Nikita Koloff here.

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