Q&A With Koloff- #170

When your eyesight is at stake, it pays to travel to one of the world's leading eye surgeons. Dr. Johnny Gayton is an author, speaker, Christian leader, and a renowned surgical eye expert, whether it's cataracts, PRK, Lasix, or implanted lenses.

When only the best is needed, see Dr. Johnny Gayton at eyesightassociates.com. This is the Truth Network. Ladies and gentlemen, the following contest is set for one flaw. Introducing first, from Lithuania, he weighs 123 kilos, the Russian nightmare, Nikita Kolob. Welcome to another episode of Q&A with Kolob, the Devil's Nightmare. Welcome back to Q&A with Kolob Questions and Answers, where you get to ask me most of the questions. I might throw a few out there, because we've got to find out who you are when you call in, or actually when the Russian nightmare calls you.

But sometimes we're blessed to have somebody in studio. And with me today, Doke Turner, welcome back to Q&A with Kolob. Hello, Nikita. It's great to see you again, my friend. Great to have you with us. Doke, have you in studio.

And that's always just a double portion, an added blessing and a double portion. Hey, I want to have you back on because you're a relatively new author, book author. I've got in front of me here, A Crazy Journey, Finding My True Identity by Doke Turner. But before we get to that, boy, and there's a lot we could talk about and a lot we could cover.

But for our listeners out there who maybe aren't familiar with Doke Turner, we go all the way back to the mid 80s, where we met. You grew up in a little town in West Virginia. What little town did you grow up in? St. Albans, West Virginia, just outside of Charleston. St. Albans. I've actually seen those signs.

Yes. Driving up and down I-77 corridor up there. I have seen the St. Albans sign. I don't think I ever wrestled there, but I did wrestle in the Charleston Civic Center. And so you, we met there. You were ring announcer. I was ring announcer in 85 and 86. I wore the tux in the ring. Set yourself apart there with the tuxedo.

That's right. And you know what's funny is years later when I moved to Charlotte, getting away from the head. But anyway, I ran into Ric Flair at the airport and I introduced Ric, hey, I was ring announcer in Charleston, you know, in the mid 80s. Like you wore the tux, didn't you? I remember. Oh, come on.

Yeah. See, you set yourself apart by wearing the tuxedo. And I know there's a whole lot more to that story, but how you and Sandy Scott, who is one of the, he worked in the main office in Jim Crockett Promotions in Charlotte. But he, like many guys, he oversaw a handful of towns, Charleston being one of them, a former wrestler himself, George and Sandy Scott. The Scott, the Flying Scotts. There you go.

The Flying Scotts. And of course you made, you befriended him. And talk for a minute about the importance of just helping somebody out because you're such a people person. And if there's one thing I've learned about you over all these years is you don't mind whether it's opening your door, you know, at your home and giving me a bed to lay my head and rest.

Talk about that for a minute. Why are you, why are you wired that way? I believe I'm wired that way because my mother was. She was always trying to help people, give them a smile. My mom, her name's Betty Golf, she passed away in 2020. Now were you raised by a single mom?

Yes, for the first 12 years. Okay. Then she married Jerry. Okay. He was my stepdad. Okay. And we were very blessed and they had my siblings.

So first 12 years of your life, raised by a single mom. About my mom, my grandmother, aunt, uncle. Okay. Yes. And you know, family like that.

Yes. But my mom was a positive woman and I smile when I talk about her because she always tried to give someone a smile. My mom was the kind of person, she enjoyed buying people's meals. Okay.

Just a quick story. She saw a policeman at a McDonald's and she went up to him and said, sir, I will give you this money. She had a $20 bill. I said, I want you to go buy you a nice lunch. He said, ma'am, I can't accept it. She said, well, I'm going to lay this on your dashboard and I'm walking away.

You go get yourself a nice meal. And she told me that at her funeral in August of 2020, several people told those stories. And so if you could be nice to somebody, you'd do it. So it was kind of instilled in you at a young age, at a very young age with what she modeled. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Be nice to people.

When my friends were in junior high, you know, through school, they loved to hang out at our house because they loved my mom and, you know, the family. And so if you can help be nice to somebody, do it. Yeah. And so I've modeled that. I've been blessed with that. And like you say, with Sandy Scott, he was, you know, the promoter for Crockett. When he'd come to town, I'd pick him up at the airport, give him a ride, you know, be nice to somebody. And that helped build a relationship that lasted all the way through until I talked to him about a week before he died because I was able to build that friendship. I called his wife, Sandra, and she remembered me. And I got to talk to Sandy to thank him at the end. So your story reminds me of an expression that I use fairly often in his pay it forward. And so really, in a sense, your story is just that, where you have learned to pay it forward, to be nice to other people. And it comes back around, right?

It comes back around. And, you know, you have a very, very really fascinating, you call like in the back of your book, I'm looking here, it's a travel along Doke Turner's adventure. I like that, of working and meeting some of the biggest names in entertainment, music, sports, pro wrestling, NASCAR, as well as other book authors and entrepreneurs in business. A 40 year journey with 100 plus stories contained within your book. Because, I mean, you're back with everything from radio sales to ring announcing to you spent how many years in Nashville surrounded by the music industry? How many years?

15 years. And I would host events at my house. I hosted 120 events at my house bringing songwriters.

Usually 100 a month would show up. I had a couple once a year events that brought 650 people together to meet, network, play songs. And some great things happened because of that.

Again, if you have the opportunity, you do it. You know, you get ideas. Thankfully, I had a church across the street. I had a big parking lot.

You don't think God has a hand in this? There's a big church. Everybody could park there. Like, okay, you got to use what you got. And I was blessed to have a landlord that was a songwriter in California to let me do that.

Steven McClintock. Who would open their house to some guy renting it so you can have a bunch of people come in every month? Yeah.

God provides, right? And of course, you have found a need and you have filled it. Okay, so 100 plus stories in here. Just give us a snippet of somebody gets a copy of your book, A Crazy Journey, Finding Your True Identity. Pick out one snippet of a story in here. Preferably a name that somebody might recognize. Okay, someone.

And not MC Hammer. You already told that story on the Man Up show. Right, okay.

Well, what I tried to do is I would learn from successful people. Okay. Over, you know, over the years. Okay.

So what can I learn from those people? Well, I've been blessed to be around Garth Brooks. Okay. And with Garth, when you meet him, you are the only person in that room. He stares you in the eyes. He listens to every word.

Yeah. First time I met him was after an event in Nashville. There was about 15 of us in a room. He came down through. He was actually trying to go outside and leave. And some people started talking to him. So he stood around and talked.

Somebody said, hey, can we line up and get pictures? He's like, absolutely. You meet him. He looks at you. If you're woman, he tips his hat to you. He hears every word. Respectful.

Yes. And all I said was, Garth, thank you for all the great things you've done that I've heard that's not in the media, but you've helped a lot of people. And then his humbleness said, Doug, don't you believe those stories, but he smiled. I knew he's done a lot. Okay, fast forward 10 minutes.

He's respectful and he's humble. Yes. It sounds like. Okay, so everyone gets their pictures, all of that. And I'm looking.

You know what? I have a nice wide ticket. I said, you know, this is 10, 15 minutes later. He'd have spoken to 12 or 15 of us.

Garth, would you mind signing my ticket? He's like, yeah, do you spell that D-O-A-K? Now, he's just talked to 15 other people. Yeah. He remembered my name.

Do you spell that D-O-A-K, Doug? So he signs it. So what I learned, Garth pays attention.

Everything you say to him, he listens and he remembers. Years later, a couple of years later, my mom was, I had cancer. She's going to have an operation two days later. I'm at an event with Garth and I said, Garth, could you do say hello to my mom, give her some encouragement?

She has a big operation on Fridays. He's like, sure. Hey, Doug Turner, you ready? And he records a little, Betty, Friday's a big day and you're going to get through it.

Me and Garth got you covered. She did. A month later, I run into him, how's your mom?

Oh, man, she's going to hurt, but she's going to get through this. So he pays attention. If he could do that, why can't the rest of us not do that? So the lesson there is be respectful. Pay attention to the person you're talking to. Yeah.

Let them know that they're actually in the room. Yeah. And that your mind's not somewhere else. And you've got over 100 stories in this book, and that's just one of over 100.

I'm sure a lot of people recognize the name Garth Brooks. And of course, yours truly. You got a quote from me on the back cover. And inside you said, too, right?

I had a thing. I believe, I'm not mistaken, you're in the thank you section, too. Oh, the thank you section. The thank you section of the book has several stories. It's not just to think of that person, but I reminisce some of our stories over the years together. Yeah. That's cool.

And it's to inspire you, and every story has at the beginning or end a positive statement, a takeaway of how did that happen? How do you meet these people? Well, you help them. You meet them. You're respectful to them. You introduce them to somebody else. You do something for them. Yeah.

That's the takeaway I want to give people is it's a business book, too. Well, let me kind of, before we transition to your questions for me, so in this crazy journey, you know, you subtitle, Finding My True Identities. So take a minute for our listeners. What's that all about? Nikita, life can change as we know it. You're riding a wave. Your identity is your job, your career.

Man, I'm the guy that gets to do this. Things changed in 2017. I moved back to Charlotte from Nashville. I'm going back and forth a couple years, 20, 20 hits. I closed down a couple of my businesses.

I had a couple of businesses that were like a GPS to help people navigate the music business, selling sponsorships, hosting events with pros giving advice. Shut that down. What do I do now? I'm lost. That's always been my identity. I felt like I failed on my journey. I went to write hit songs, and I did not get the big hit song. In my mind, I'm a failure. I failed in life on this journey.

Now what do I do? I wasted so much time. My awesome woman, Kathy, bought me a book.

It's called Your Beloved by Bobby Shuler, and I read that. It had the identity statement made me realize my job is not what I do. I'm not what I do. I'm not what I have. I'm not what others say about me. I'm a beloved child of God. I will not hurry.

I will not worry. In other words, that's just stuff that we do. It's not who we are, and that applies to anybody in any field. As so many men, oh, I'm my job. I'm the provider.

I do this. In entertainment especially, as we've all seen, they are that rock star. Wrapped up in their eyes. They are the hit writer. They are this.

They are an architect at one of the best architectural firms in the world, whatever. I'm a NASCAR driver. Whatever.

No. To get wrapped up in that identity. Yes, and I got wrapped up in my identity was my job. I'm a songwriter. I'm this. Kathy puts a book in your hand, and you are enlightened to the fact that your true identity is in Christ. You are a child of God, and your true identity is in Christ.

Yes, it helped probably save my life because I was down low, and I just didn't have any, and I didn't know what I was going to do. Well, and I want to encourage you. Go out and get a copy of A Crazy Journey.

Where can they get it? Website, acrazyjourneybook.com. Again, acrazyjourneybook.com, or Amazon, Barnes & Noble, places like that. And in the book, you can reach out to me if you read the book, if it helped you change your life a little bit, thinking. I have my information in there. Reach out to me. I'd love to help people. Shoot an email. Send a message.

If I come and speak to an organization, I would love to. Awesome. Well, that's awesome, Doke.

Hey, by the way, I'm going to say kudos to Garth, but Doke's not exactly your common everyday household name, so the fact that he remembered Doke, I'm just going to say for the record, that would stick in somebody's mind. All right. Hey, it's Q&A with Koloff, so let's segue here. I'll give you the opportunity to throw a couple questions at me. I've asked a bunch already, so fire away.

What's your first question for me? 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. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. 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 koloff.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. While we're talking identity, Nikita, what was your identity to yourself before you found Christ and you realized your real identity? What's this big wrestler's identity? I think before wrestling you had a lot of success. I was, yes, I mean, I was, you know, as an athlete, you know, I would say my identity was all wrapped up in being a weightlifter slash bodybuilder, like, you know, I took a lot of pride in how I looked. You know, the day I walked into Jim Crockett's office and broke into wrestling, I was 285 pounds, 8% body fat, 34 inch waist. My mindset would have been when I walk into a room, my goal is for every head to turn and go, wow, you know, look at whatever, look at the size of that dude's traps, look at his chest, look at his shoulders, delts, buys, you know, whatever, right?

Just look how big that guy, you know, whatever. So, you know, turn ahead and then end on a football field. My goal, my dream was to play in the NFL one day. You know, I was scouted by the NFL my senior year in college, you know, suffered some injuries that were a setback but didn't hold me back, but were still a setback. And so sports, my identity was wrapped up into sports, wrapped up in weightlifting, bodybuilding, and then eventually I break into wrestling and become this Russian nightmare, Nikita Kolov, and now I take on that identity and that's who I become. And only realizing 17 October 1993, when I go to an altar in a church and surrender my life to Christ, do I have an aha moment and realize all those things I did in the past or simply as you said, things that I did, but not who I am.

So who I am is I am a child of God, my identity is in Christ, so that's who I identify with. And then everything else from this point on are just assignments. I just look at them as assignments, whether it's facilitating a man camp, speaking at a men's breakfast or a men's dinner, or facilitating a man up conference, or even this show, Q&A with Kolov, the other show, the man up podcast, man up radio show, those are just things I do, doke, it's not who I am, they're just things I do. And so for the listener out there, whatever station in life you're in, whatever your chosen profession is, just make sure that you're not so wrapped up, your identity's not so wrapped up in what you're doing, a stay-at-home mom, that you're so wrapped up in what you're doing that your life at the foundation is built upon the rock Jesus and then everything else is simply icing on the cake.

So great question. What was your biggest challenge though? Okay, all of a sudden it changes. Okay, what about your friends? What about your friends?

What's your biggest challenge? They're like, did I do the right thing? I mean, did that ever occur?

Anything like that? Yeah, so the Lord tested me. If you read your Bible, you'll find out the Lord, like the Lord tested, like in the wilderness, the Lord tested the Israelites in the wilderness.

There's all kinds of tests that you can read about in the Bible. So to make sure, someone tell this story, Doke, to make sure that my identity wasn't wrapped up in being the Russian nightmare, Nikita Kolov, I was in a prayer room, I'll try to condense this story down, I was in a prayer room on a New Year's Eve, praying about, you know, reviewing the past year and the successes and all I had accomplished and getting a glimpse of what the Lord had in store for me for the next year. And he said, grow your hair out starting tomorrow, right?

Okay, because the Russian nightmare, except for a short period of my wrestling career, you know, I had a shaved head. He said, grow your hair out starting tomorrow. And he said, I'll tell you when you can cut it. I'm like, okay, have you ever heard this story?

Have I ever heard this story? No, I love this. He said, I'll tell you when you can cut it. And I'm like, okay, you know? And so January 1, that year, the next day, I stopped shaving my head. And I shave off the Fu Manchu, which was part of my wrestling persona and identity. I shave it off, as you might guess. That first month or so, I look like Chia Pet. I look like the Chia Pet.

I have seen a couple of those pictures online. I remember, woo, right? Like I stuck my finger in a socket. But all that to say, Joke, so fast forward.

Let me condense the story fast forward. I grow it out, grow it out. Some people are actually looking at me like in church and stuff going, hey, are you doing like a Nazarite Vow or something or like Samson or you can't cut your hair?

What's the deal? I'm like, I don't know what the whole Nazarite Vow, but God said, and I want to walk in obedience to what God said. Okay, so I grow it out, grow it, grow it, grow it, grow it. People are like, man, when are you going to cut it? I'm like, when God says. They're like, he hadn't said yet.

I go, he has not said yet. Fast forward 14 months later, 14 months. I had a full-blown mullet, like for real, like the real deal, full-blown mullet.

I want to see these pictures. 14 months, right? And when he finally released me, of course, my two youngest, Colby and Kendra, got the clippers out and I gave them permission to, and they had fun.

They had zigzags all through my hair and all kinds of, before it was all gone. Anyway, so I do it, right? Now the proverbial question might be for those out there in listening land and even you, as you hear the story is, did the Lord ever explain to you why he asked you to do it? Here's what he, the short answer is yes.

Here's what he said. He said, I wanted you to grow your hair out, take on a different look, because I wanted to find out if you were comfortable and okay if people didn't recognize you as the professional wrestler, Nikita Kolov, that if nobody recognized you, would you still be okay in your skin? Would you be okay in who you are? Were you? I like to say I passed the test, because he gave me permission to shave it off again. So I took that as confirmation that I was okay. And the truth is, obviously with a ton of hair and no mustache, I was still occasionally recognized. Like Luger would say, you can't change those eyes, dude.

You can grow hair, shave hair, whatever. But all that to say, I was recognized a lot less. And yes, I was okay with that, recognizing my identity's not in the wrestler, my identity's in Christ. And so yeah, he put me through the test. The Lord put me through the test, when it comes to identity. And your other friends, they noticed your attitude, your family, what did they think? What did they do, say to you?

Yeah, no, it was challenges. Well, what was kind of funny was, I actually went down to all the guys, it was December 1995, and all the guys were wrestling. I hadn't seen the guys since I left wrestling in the tail end of 92. So I hadn't seen for like three years. And it was in that time when I fast forward, it's December 95, I started growing the hair out January 195.

So I had the whole mullet, no mustache. So I was in the back, Doke, you'll appreciate this. I was in the back, like I saw Hogan. I'm like, Terry, hey, how you doing? And he's like looking at me, like shaking my hand, like, who's this Mark? Who's this dude in the back?

Who let this guy in? And I like the Midnight Express, I'm like, Bobby, hey, man, I love you guys. You guys are amazing. I'm one of your biggest fans.

I just went down. Nobody, the only guy that recognized me was Lex Luger. He's the only guy. Everyone else thought I was just like a Mark in the back, like somebody, like I snuck in the back. It was just this, you know, big wrestling fan. But I went through guy after guy after guy like that. None of them recognized me, dude, none of them.

None of them. Wow. Yeah. They look and say, that kind of hard to wrestle. He's pretty big. Well, finally, what I finally said, it was like, hey, dude, it's me, Nikita. And they're like, oh my gosh. Like when Hogan said that, you know, he's like, oh my gosh, like, wow. Like, cause I was like in the dressing room. Hey, Terry, man, you're so awesome. Like I just played total Mark, right?

I just had a field day with those guys. What is the Mark for the listeners? A fan, a fan. That was, that was a wrestling term for a fan was, was a Mark. Now there's a lot of wrestling fans that listen to the show. So they're already going to know that, but for the ones who don't. All right. We've got time for one more question.

If you have one. In today's world, what are your views of the church, of churches that we hear about that really don't preach, you know, how do they handle this wokeness going on in the world? What do you think they should be saying with all this woke stuff going on? And a lot of them will avoid it.

They just want all the niceties. Yeah. Yeah. I think in my view in, in having traveled to 1300 plus churches presently, I just stopped counting at 1300 that I've, I've had the privilege of preaching in and, and just I'm trying to be like a man of Ishkar, understanding the times in which we're living, paying attention to what's going on. And, and in my view, I'd say I would say ballpark 75% of the modern day Western church is, is falling right into the end time prophecy and what the Bible says of tickling ears and not wanting to offend anybody, you know, not wanting to shoe off the big tithers, you know, and et cetera, et cetera, afraid to speak the truth.

In fact, I heard a very alarming statistic recently dope by, I guess, Barna, George Barna, who does all these major surveys in that, like 60 something percent of Americans view themselves as quote air quote Christians, but yet about 6% have an actual biblical worldview, keyword biblical worldview. And so unfortunately, I think the church at large, just because the Western church has failed miserably, and, and pastors have come have caved into the pressure of not wanting to offend others or just accepting and embracing anything and everything. And, and that this is okay. And that's okay. You know, most recently, well, you know, give a gay couple your blessing, you know, which, you know, you, you go to go to the, go research scripture and see what scripture says about that.

And so many other things that you're trying to avoid. I mean, some, you know, other big topics like, like abortion and other things, the Bible's pretty clear. And I think all of this is falling right in line with end time prophecy. Now is that to say Jesus is going to come back tomorrow or next week or next month?

I don't know, but here's what I personally, my personal goal is whenever he comes back, if it's a hundred years from now, I just want to be ready personally and be in good standing with him, not be ashamed of the gospel or afraid to speak the truth. Even if there's consequences involved, even if there's consequences, like I just saw recently one quick story, and we'll have to wrap this up today. You know, there's, there's been across Canada, 90 churches burnt down across Canada. Nobody's really reporting that, but there's been 90 churches across Canada burnt down to the ground, burnt down. Nobody's reporting that and nobody up there seems to have a, I say, nobody has a problem with that. Those in power don't seem to have a problem with that.

Right. In America, many pro-life crisis pregnancy centers are being burnt to the ground. But most recently a half a dozen people sat in an abortion clinic and simply sang songs.

And as some of them are facing a decade in prison for singing songs, see something's wrong with that picture. And, and, and as a Christ follower, I've got to be willing. And last thing I'll say is if you go look at the original apostles, yeah, from Paul being beheaded to Peter being crucified upside down to just go through and you'll find out there is a cost to following Christ. And for you listening out there, if you're a Christ follower, figure out what your cost is, what the cost is for you and what you're willing to suffer through or sacrifice to being a Christ follower.

And I think we're going to see more and more and more dope persecution of, of Christians and persecution of Jews as we get closer to the return of Jesus. So great question. We can do a whole show on that sometime, but we're going to wrap it up there and a dope Turner. I want you to go out and get his book, a crazy journey, finding my true identity.

You're going to be amazed by a hundred plus stories in here. Thank you for being on Q and A with Koloff again. Thank you Nikita. This is fun. Let's do it again sometime in the future. And I appreciate your views and we agree on a lot of things, Nikita. We don't have to agree on everything, but we can agree that we disagree on some things too.

That's just life. So thank you for tuning into another episode of Q and A with Koloff. 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.

If you're needing to buy a car and have marginal credit and considering using buy here, pay here that's worse than taking the Russian sickle. Winston Salem motor cars will put you behind the wheel of a car you can rely on while helping rebuild repair or established your credit score. Conveniently located on Silas Creek Parkway in Winston Salem. Be sure to check them out today at wsmcthenumberone.com because you are number one. If you are enjoying Q and 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. 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. This is the Truth Network.