Q&A With Koloff- #192

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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 of Q&A with Kolov, the Devil's Nightmare. Another episode, Q&A with Kolov, questions and answers, and this is where you potentially can get a personal phone call from yours truly, the Russian nightmare, Nikita Kolov, and you get the opportunity to ask me a few questions. And if you're an avid fan of The Man Up Show, and I hope that you are, you know over there I'm usually asking all of the questions, but here you get the opportunity. And if you'd ever like a call from me, go to, I almost said Nikita, go to kolov.net, kolov.net. Go to kolov.net and just submit a request and we'll get it scheduled and get you on the show.

But with me today, all the way, southern bred and born, roll tide, down in Alabama, comedian, Mickey Bell. Welcome to Q&A with Kolov. Oh, I love this.

I have questions I have always wanted to ask you. It's about time I get this. Oh, hey, timing is everything.

Timing is everything, right? All right, so you are down, so born and bred down in southern, let's give our listeners just a quick back story here. Mickey Bell, you and I, well let me just back up. You and I met just a while back. You were doing some stand up comedy in the middle of a Jason Crabb concert.

If anyone's familiar with Southern Gospel, the Crabb family, and Jason is just an anointed, incredible man of God, has a heart for God, a powerful testimony. But you yourself have a powerful testimony, but not only that, the ability to tie comedy in with some of the tragedy that you've experienced, Mickey. So take a moment, tell our listeners who you are and take a moment to talk about that.

Absolutely. Well, I was serving as a pastor of a church. Ministry was going to be everything that I've always done, and I just didn't deal with my emotions properly growing up. And since I didn't deal with those emotions properly, they kind of started festering and coming out of me to the point that I started becoming a person that I didn't like. I started making some bad decisions, decisions that didn't cost me my job as a pastor. And so while most people were having a midlife crisis, I was having a midlife start over.

I had to start in a totally different career, start completely from scratch, right around the time that COVID hit, so a lot of things were taking place during that time. And I remember that there was a night where I got out of my bed. I didn't know what to do, didn't know which way to go. I got out of my bed while my wife was sleeping, and I got on the floor. My face was literally on the floor, and I was just saying, God, I need a business plan. And that's the way I put it.

I need a business plan. And before I went back to sleep that night, God outlined for me exactly what He wanted me to do that was completely out of my ordinary, completely off my radar, and nothing that I had ever thought about doing. Probably one of the scariest moments I had the next morning was when my wife woke up, and she says, Did you hear from God?

And I said, I did, and it's a little confusing. And I told her, I said, I'm going to be a comedian. Well, she started laughing, and I said, Well, that's a good start.

And so she said, Mickey, you're not a comedian. And I went, I know, right? So from that moment forward, I just, I stuck to the plan. And everything that God showed me during that prayer time has come to pass, and it came to pass quicker than I ever imagined that it would.

And so I'm just blown away. But the encouraging thought for other people is, trust God, because He knows what He's doing. And if you're in God's will, He can make things happen for you that you can't make happen for yourself. Yeah, I mean, He can open doors, right?

You know, that old expression, He'll open doors that no man can open, closed doors that no man can close, right? Et cetera, et cetera. And your story right there, I want to tell you, I don't know what you're going to ask me in terms of, excuse me, in terms of questions. But it just kind of parallels or reminds me, when your wife said, you're not a comedian, I think about my own life. When I told my family, some of my friends, I'm going to be a wrestler, and they're like, you've never wrestled in your life.

You're like, yeah, I know, but that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to go pursue wrestling. Or as they say in the South, I'm sure you've heard in Alabama, hey, you're one of them wrasslers, ain't you? Wrasslers, yeah, wrasslers. A wrassler, I'm not a wrestler, I'm a wrassler, I do that wrassling.

It's spelled with an A, not an E. It's spelled with an A, not an E. Well, R-A-S-S-L-I-N, I do that wrasslin'. Well, that's pretty amazing, and I want to tell you what, I know when you came out in the midst of Jason's concert, and I don't know, I think you're right about trusting God, because just like I wasn't a wrestler or dreamed of it growing up, but I became one, and fortunately I had success as one. I would say you have been highly successful, and in fact, when I look at some of my notes, in 2021 Inspirational Country Music Awards Comedian of the Year, that's a pretty amazing accomplishment. In 2024, you released an award-winning comedian now who released an album, Live from the Paramount.

I mean, you've got a lot of things already happening on the comedy scene, but let me ask you this, because I do want to go back to that in just a moment, but correct me if I'm wrong, but part of the tragedy that you made a reference to. We give a whole lot more of your story over on the Man Up show, so I want to encourage you to go listen to Mickey's full story on the Man Up show. You'll be blown away by what God has done in this man's life, but I recall you were adopted, right, Mickey? I was.

I was. At 13 years old, my mom and dad sat me down, and they just explained to me, and a lot of people said, well, what made them? And the reason is because evidently some people in my school had found out that I was adopted, and were starting to bully me, and were kind of saying things that they said, all right, we better go ahead and tell him.

And so, you know, and I was glad that they told me. It just put a lot more questions in me than answers, and I lived the rest of my life to the point of always feeling like that everyone that comes into my life is going to leave my life. And I just, you know, I've always dealt with that, always dealt like that I was not enough, and it's amazing what people can put on you without asking. I never met him, never met my dad, never, I don't know his name, I asked to not know his name, I didn't want to go try to find him, I didn't want to look him up, and he has since passed, but I just didn't want that. I thought, you know what, God has blessed me with two parents that have raised me in church, I've had a good life, and I didn't want to mess that up. And so I just, you know, but I had to work with the emotions that came with that abandonment. Well, and I want to tell you what's really cool about that story that I didn't share on the other show, but I want to share on this show, hopefully, you know, maybe as an encouragement to you and encouragement to many others out there as well. My youngest daughter, Colby, and her husband, Andrew, just recently adopted their first child. Yeah, and infertility played a major factor in that, they went through, speaking about emotions, they went through about a three year emotional roller coaster and trying to deal with infertility.

And then God gave them a piece to pursue adoption, and they just adopted little Elliot Gabriel, Elliot Gabriel, and a little newborn little boy, and he is beautiful, and they're going to be some of the best loving parents that little boy could ever imagine. Which sounds like your parents were in adopting you, and even though, you know, you had some struggles that you had to work through there, it's evident that God has brought you through that, and especially with your giftings of comedy and all that you're doing there. And I know, let's just touch on too, because you're a major advocate for mental illness as well, right? And of course, the adoption kind of played, or fed into that or whatever, but it's prompted you to be a major advocate for mental illness too.

Take a moment and just talk about that for our listeners too, Mickey. Absolutely, and thank you for that, because I just really want to get the word out there. When I was raised in my super religious home, and I'm not downing that, I'm very thankful for that, but I didn't know that there were people out there that you could get help from. I didn't know that I thought it was anti-spiritual to go and get therapy and to go and talk to people, but there was a scripture in the Bible that I always hated. I hated the scripture in the Bible until I became an adult, and I went through what I went through, and it says, Confess your faults one to another.

And I was like, heck no, I ain't sharing my faults with anybody. And then, when I became an adult, I not only figured it out, I felt it out. I felt the healing that came with getting stuff out.

Just being able to say things and get it out and having someone there who you can trust that can handle what you're saying and not turn it on you. But I understand that scripture better, because I understood the healing that came with that. And so now, I'm just trying to get the word out to everyone else. Don't be like me and wait until your life is completely falling apart before you start realizing the help that is out there that is afforded to you. But go ahead now, and go ahead and get the help that you need, and not waste any more days, any more weeks with your family of not having the joy of the Lord in your life simply because you're afraid or you don't fully understand what you're going through.

Get the help that you need so that you can overcome that quicker rather than later. Well, and it's great advice, and I did quote, you're quoting James 5 16, and we use that in our camps, and especially in our camps, and sometimes in our conferences, our Man Up conferences, and the Man Camp that Lex Luger and I facilitate. In this sense that we tell guys, you know, guys struggle with all kinds of things, but you said the key word, and the key word in that passage is healed, healed. It's one thing to be forgiven, but man, to receive a complete healing, you do need to confess one to another, confess to your brother, you know, that you might be healed.

Scripture says that you might be healed, and it's in that healing that you can grow and move beyond that, and so that is great advice. The Man Up show is honored to have Dr. Johnny Gaten as one of our longest running supportive sponsors. Dr. Gaten is regarded as one of the world's leading elite eye surgeons. He is motivated by his faith in doing all things heartily as unto the Lord. His desire to do his best has contributed to success in his eye care practice, performing over 70,000 eye surgeries. In addition, he's a world-renowned speaker, writer, and author.

Go to iAssociates.com for more information. Nikita Kolov 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 Kolov Fans, and like it and follow today.

If you are a business owner and would like to advertise your company or product on The Man Up Show and or Q&A with Kolov, contact me directly, nikitakolov at kolov.net. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Now, let's just before we segue to the questions you have for me that you've been waiting all your life to ask. Yes, my entire life.

Your whole life. So you'll perform on average probably over 150 shows a year. I know some of the names you've traveled with and you're doing some solo stuff.

We mentioned the name Jason Crabbe, but also Chandra Pierce, Mark Lowry, David Phelps, Unspoken, and so many others, and now you're doing some solo stuff. And if others, if someone out there wanted to bring Mickey Bell to their community, where would they find you? Where are they going to do that, Mickey?

You know, Kolov wanted me to go on tour with him. All he would have to do is go to themickibell.com. The, are you writing this down?

themickibell.com, and that will have all the information. It's the Mickey Bell on all my socials. Also make sure that you're going after the ones that's got the blue check because there's, I've gotten, I'm so grateful that, you know, I finally had someone try to become me and they tried to set up a fake thing. I thought, I have made it. I've made it. You've arrived, Mickey. You have arrived. I have arrived. Someone tried to duplicate me, so go for the blue check.

But if Nikita ever wanted me to go out on the road with him, he would just need to go to themickibell.com. All right. Check your inbox. We're going to see what happens here. So, and let me just say this before we transfer over to your questions for me. I love this. I said it on the other show, but what do you get? What do you get when you take a depressed man, you hype him up with antidepressants and throw him on stage? Well, you guessed it. You get Mickey Bell. I just want you to know. A Southern-bred mama's boy.

A Southern-bred mama's boy. So, hey, you're listening out there. You need some good comedy coming your way to your community. I assure you, you will not go wrong having Mickey Bell in your church or at your community center or part of an outreach or part of a conference.

You look this man of God up. He has a powerful story. So, all right, Mickey, on that note, all right. What is it you've got for me? Here we go.

Here's your chance. Here's my inside as a kid growing up, watching the whole wrestling movement out of Atlanta, watching you come in there because, my goodness, I knew that if Nikita Kolov ever came to the ring, my guy was done. And I'm talking about Dusty. I'm talking about Ricky the Dragon's steamboat. I'm talking about Sting.

I'm talking about the rock and roll with all of them. If you came out, it was over. And I hated you. I hated you. You caused me to become the biggest American because you were Russian. And as a kid, I would start my day with the Pledge of Allegiance just to spite Nikita Kolov. So I'm just honestly, I'm a big fan of the behind the scenes stuff.

So any documentaries I can watch. So when you, because like when you talk about your career as a wrestler, you're always mentioning the different belts that you have won. And I know that people try to knock off and say, well, the wrestling is not real or it's scripted or that. But my first question on that is, what was the feeling of being able to win those belts?

I mean, even if it's not what people want to try to measure it up to be as a Super Bowl or an NBA championship or the World Series, what did it mean to you to be able to still win those belts? Well, that's a great question. And I honestly don't know I've ever been asked that or at least not in that way. And you know, I'd be remiss to not say it's exhilarating.

I mean, you know, that's one word that immediately pops in my head. Because if you think about it for a moment, okay, it's yes, it's entertainment and outcomes can be predetermined while at the same time. And keep in mind for the avid wrestling fan who was either a part of that era or familiar with that era, what many have called the golden era of professional wrestling, you know, it was a different product back then. And in terms of being scripted and by that meaning, you know, the art of the business was to be given an outcome. But then if I'm wrestling Ric Flair for a 60-minute draw, that outcome might last three or four minutes.

Well, that's 56, 57 minutes. He and I got to go to the ring and through verbal and nonverbal cues figure out what we're going to do. Because very often we were in buildings where you didn't see each other until you got in the ring.

So there was no collaborating in a dressing room, right? And some people don't know that. And so that was the art of the business, being able to tell a story spontaneously in the ring without you knowing as a fan we're communicating with one another. Now, parlay that in. And I feel, whoa, whoa, hold one second. I feel dirty right now just for you sharing. You're not supposed to be talking about that. I feel terrible right now. Well, that's it.

I feel like I'm going to be called in to testify. Oh my goodness. That's inside baseball, but you know what? The WWF let all that out of the bag years ago. And Mickey, for real, we wouldn't have talked about it.

You would have never heard that come out of my mouth anyway way back when. You're listening to this going, I can't believe he's saying all this stuff. Well, much of it, because of the documentaries and all the things you've mentioned, you know, that A&E and many others are doing and have done, you know, a lot of this is now, you know, just common knowledge. But that said, specifically to your question, I mean, who wouldn't be thrilled to stand before 20, 30, 40, 50, 60,000 people? And even though they may have had an inkling, that guy's going to have the belt around his waist at the end of the night. They're still drawn into the whole experience. And when you got thousands and thousands of people cheering you or the night I turned and came to Dusty's aid and had whatever it was, 20,000 people chanting, nah, ki, nah, nah, ki, nah. I mean, I've got chills now. Oh, that's exhilarating. It just is. I'd be remiss to say it wasn't or dismiss it as anything less than that.

And so, yeah, what a kind of in a sense and once, you know, once in a lifetime experience or moment that not everybody in wrestling gets to experience. Truthfully, that's it. So, was it also a validation from the company? I mean, did you look at it as that when they said, okay, I'm going to make you a world champion or a tag team champion or a television champion? Did you take that as a validation of, okay, I've worked hard and they're now rewarding my work?

Yeah, yeah, 100%. I mean, again, not everybody got to put a belt around their waist and some just quite frankly didn't quite have the talent, you might say, or the skills and the ability to carry that match, that main event level match. And so, yes, that's a great way to phrase it or put it, validation that they trusted you enough to say, okay, you've proven yourself enough that we can put a title on you and draw.

So, here's the other thing, Nikki, you got to be able to draw. In other words, you got to be able to put in those days, you know, people in the seats, you know, not just have a belt around your waist, but either like you said, either people hate you, you know, like you and many others hated me and wanted to come pay up, buy a ticket, sit in the seat and watch me get the snot beat out of me so you could, you know, go home happy at the end of the night. Or, or I beat the snot out of your fan favorite, as you mentioned many, some of those names, Sting, Rock and Roll, Ricky the Dragon and others, and you go home mad as a hornet and determined, so here was the key, determined you're going to buy a ticket next time because retribution is going to be paid on the Russian nightmare. Yeah, this may be the night we take him down.

This may be the night we take him down. So whenever, because you brought up the fact of the night that you turned with Dusty, so I can only imagine, back in that day, we had a lot more what I call run-ins than we see today. Like, it seemed like that every other week, somebody's going to run in on somebody and just beat the stew out of them, even it didn't matter what match they were in, and the horsemen were good with that, you were good with that. So the night that you went in to help Dusty, when you compare that feeling to the feeling of winning a championship belt, which would you have rather had? So what was the contract, winning the championship belt or what?

I missed the last part. Winning the belt or I missed the last part. If you got to go back and relive one moment in your career and they had you pick the night that you went in to save Dusty or the night that you were given a championship belt, which would you go back and relive? Man, Mickey, why are you putting that kind of pressure on me, bro? Man! I can only imagine, because I go back and watch that video of you going in the ring and them chanting your name and the fact that, I mean, isn't it amazing how, with wrestling, and let's just, I mean, with wrestling, how you can have me hating you one moment, and then that one evening, I'm like, I'm trying to learn Russian now so I can be like, Mickey the co-op.

On a dime. Listen, to that point, I mean, just a month prior, I was in that arena where they were throwing stuff at me and letting me know I was number one in their heart, wink, wink, numero uno, wink, wink. And yes, in a moment's time, turn them on a dime to where, that night, Mickey, there were guys that took their shirts off or doing that most muscular pose that I would do on interviews.

And they probably, no kid with Dusty's help leading them on, probably a good 10-plus minutes that they chanted nakita, nakita. So, all right, so all that to say, oh, man, I'm going to answer it this way. Here's what I'm going to say, because it's hard to pick, it's kind of like you saying, you know, what was your favorite opponent in wrestling, right?

So I'm going to distill it down to say this. That moment there, the night I came to Dusty's rescue, was certainly a highlight, without a doubt, one of the absolute highlights of my career. The night, and ironically, in that very same building where I defeated Magnum TA for match number seven to become the US Heavyweight Champion as the Russian Nightmare, was in a different way an absolute highlight. Stepping into the ring against the Nature Boy Ric Flair at the Great American Bash for the first time ever was another emotional high.

And one other one, as we're reminiscing here, taking a walk down memory lane, Atlanta the Omni, the very first ever War Games, and being a part of that, I don't know, not in any particular order, but those four memories all rank right up there as some of the greatest of my career. Well, I know, I know that you're now a Christian and we're thankful for that, but had you not gone down and rescued Dusty that night, I don't know that we'd be having this phone call. You'd still be hating me, wouldn't you?

Admit it, admit it. If Nikita wants to talk to you, I'm like, well, he can keep wanting. He left Dusty hanging. So had you not come to his rescue, I don't know that we would be talking like that. I love it. Mickey Bell, you're amazing. And again, I want to encourage all of you, go out there, go to Mickey, the, the mickeybell.com and you check out his website, go follow him on social media.

Man, if he comes to your community or you want to bring him to your community, I can't encourage you enough to do that, to go support him and make that happen. And Mickey, thank you. Thank you for your time today.

Oh, this has been a dream come true. Thank you so much. Well, and to all of you out there in listening land, as I typically try to remember to do, I want to challenge you today. I hope you won.

You were inspired by some of Mickey's story and enjoyed his questions, but go out today and just live a God filled and have a 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. 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. Nikita Koloff here.

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