Ladies and Gentlemen, the following contest is set for one flaw. Introducing first, from the Man Up Show. Welcome to another episode Q&A with Koloff, The Devil's Nightmare. I get to have some fun. Well, I have fun on the Man Up Show and a lot of you are always giving some great feedback going over. Make sure you're going over listening to the Man Up Show because you're going to get full stories and interviews of people from all walks of life. And if you ever want to be on Q&A with Koloff, or maybe even the Man Up Show, you just need to go to koloff.net and send me a message direct message me and say, hey, I'd love to be on your show.
And I get those inquiries all the time. So, but with me today, from all the way from Sevierville, Tennessee, the volunteer state, Tracy Layman. Tracy, welcome to Q&A with Koloff. Hey, thanks for having me on, man.
Well, it's great to have you here, Tracy. And of course, we met just a while back. I was over in Sevierville there doing an autograph signing. And what was called Rise Up Con and Kevin Sorbo was kind of the main host there and put that together along with many other movie actors and directors and producers and writers and I mean, workshops from home school.
I think Sam Sorbo was doing home school workshops and they were having movie screenings and concerts in the evenings. Mac Powell was there, Christian artists. And of course, you were there, Tracy. You were there and we got to meet.
You had a booth there, Autograph Plus booth, right? And I know you got a shop in Sevierville, you got a shop in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, a newer shop there in Pigeon Forge. But so what, like if somebody wanted to find out more, I mean, I know there's a website and you can tell us a little bit about what you offer there at Autograph Plus. Well, we try to offer a little bit of everything.
You never know what somebody's hobbies are or somebody's interests are. So, you know, our little motto is we've got everything from Mickey Mantle to Mickey Mouse. So we've got everything from signed pictures of cartoons all the way up to signed to Mickey Mantle framed pictures, got signed Joe DiMaggio bats, got, you know, signed shoes, gloves, framed jerseys, signed Funko Pops. We try to keep a little bit of everything.
Yeah, I know. I went on your website. I was looking at it.
I've got it pulled up now actually. I mean, Autograph, framed photos, football helmets. I mean, I saw the autographed baseballs. And of course, I think while I was there, if I'm not mistaken, correct me if I'm wrong, autographed a few, some wrestling belts for you.
Is that correct? Oh, yes, sir. We got some. I think it was the Television Championship belt that you got signed for.
We should have those done and out probably within the next week or so. So if somebody wanted to go and get an authentic, and that's what you're big on, you're big on authenticity at your stores, right? Oh, yeah. I'm not going to sign it unless it's authentic. Like I mentioned, you know, even when we get stuff signed ourselves personally from somebody, we still get it authenticated by one of the major companies, just so people have that peace of mind. Yeah, but we're not going to sell it unless it's real.
Because there is a lot of, again, a lot of, what's the term for, a lot of rip offs? A lot of, I think the number is like 80% of everything that's on the market as far as memorabilia is fake. Wow, 80%?
Yeah, 80%. So you have to be really careful whenever you're buying stuff. You know, everybody loves a good piece of memorabilia, you know, nostalgia, whether it be sports or whatever, but you have to be really careful about what you get because, you know, there's people out there that will just make fakes and try to take your money. And especially if you're doing it online, right? Like, that's one thing to bring something to an autograph signing, like the Rise Up Con that I was at and other autograph signings that I do, or they come in your store.
I mean, they can see it firsthand, but go on your website. And your website for the record for those are APsevere.com, that's A as in Apple, P as in Paul, and then severe, S as in Sam, E, V as in Victory, IER.com, autographs, plus Tracy Layman, owner, and they got, when he says he's got a little bit of everything, I'm going to tell you, you go on the website and you're going to find out. That's exactly right.
He has a little bit of, I'm like, wow, that's amazing. Now, and of course you had a booth at the signing, which is where we met, so I think you're born and raised in Tennessee, correct? Oh yeah, we're born and raised in East Tennessee. I went to Seviq County High School, so I was born and raised right in that area on a small farm at the foothills of English Mountain. So yeah, I was born and raised in East Tennessee. And I think you told me 37 years of marriage, correct?
37, yeah, I found somebody that would put up with me for 37 years, yeah. What's her name? Oh, it's Imogene, it's an old-timey name, I-M-O-G-E-N-E, Imogene. That might qualify for a Tennessee name right there, Tracy. Oh it is, I guarantee it, that's definitely a Tennessee name, yeah. So she's Southern Belle, Southern born and bred?
Oh yeah, she grew up in Blount County, which is just a county over from Seviq County, and we actually met in college, our first year of college, yeah. All right, well congratulations on 37 years, and you know, in today's world, I mean that's a milestone, so congratulations on that. Well thank you, thank you.
For real. So okay, so you got some of my wrestling belts in there, and of course I'm sure other wrestling memorabilia, and I just want our listeners to know, all authenticated, all authentic and authenticated. And so I don't want to assume anything here, but growing up in East Tennessee, a wrestling fan? Oh I was, yeah, I was a huge wrestling fan from the moment I turned on the TV and saw it, you know, we had local wrestling all the way up to, you know, to the Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant, the Macho Man, and all of that. So yeah, I was always huge into wrestling growing up, yeah.
Big into wrestling. Any quick favorite match that comes to mind, pops in your head? Oh gosh, as far as matches go, it was, you know, it was always the big ones, you know. I remember the Royal Rumble. Okay, Rumbles, Wrestlemanias, all that kind of stuff. Oh, Wrestlemanias, yeah.
Any Starrcade memory, you know, NWA Starrcade, or War Game memories? Oh gosh, honestly, I watched them all. Put you on the spot, Tracy.
They all just sort of bleed together on me, so it's hard. Ah, that's a good answer, actually, that's a good answer. So, I know when I put people on the spot, I hear you. Well, plus you get put on the spot, your mind goes blank, right? At least mine does.
It does. Anyway, well, alright, so Q&A with Koloff on that note, and I have no clue what you might ask, but let's segue and go ahead and fire away your first question and we'll have some fun and give you the opportunity to ask me something. Oh, everybody wants to know, how did you get into wrestling? What happened to get you into being a star wrestler?
Yeah, it was not on my radar as a kid, and football was my passion, weightlifting, bodybuilding were my passions. Of course, I was familiar with it, I mean, I grew up in Minneapolis, AWA, Vern Ganya, All Star Wrestling, headquartered in Minneapolis, St. Paul area, and would eventually meet Jesse Ventura and work out at his gym back in the day, and so, you know, I wouldn't necessarily say I became a fan, and I would venture to say I became a friend of Jesse, the body, Ventura. In fact, one of my books, I actually have a back cover quote from him on my book, Wrestling with Success, and so we had become friends, and then some of my buddies got into wrestling, some of my buddies from high school, and that's a whole long story, and that's where they have to get my other book, Nikita, A Tale of the Ring and Redemption, and they can get that autographed on my website, or actually I went in studio last year and did an audiobook version in my own voice, Tracy.
Oh, that's awesome, I love audiobooks. Yeah, my life story, I just wanted people to hear the inflection, hear my voice tell my story, but that's got the full story, but the long and short of it, the Reader's Digest version of answering your question is, so my buddies had gotten involved, guys like Barry D'Arso and Ravishing, Rick Rude, Mr. Perfect Curt Henning, we all went to high school together, they get involved, yeah, one of my best buddies, Road Warrior Animal, I actually recruited Animal out of high school to play college football with me, he dropped out of college, next thing I know he's on the Super Station TBS, you know, with a mohawk and painted face.
I loved Hawk and Animal. Well, the Road Warriors were fans of many, many people, so all that to say, I guess Turnabout's fair play, Road Warrior Animal called me one day randomly out of the blue and asked me, shared a story with me about becoming a nephew of Ivan Koloff, legendary Russian bear, Ivan Koloff, and all that to say, made a five-minute phone call to a promoter in Charlotte named Jim Crockett, showed up randomly the day he said to be in his office, following one simple instruction of be there with my head shaved bald. I did that, introduced myself, Nikita Koloff's born in the hallways of Charlotte in June of 1984, and a little over 40 years ago now, and introduced me to Ivan Koloff and Don Coronado, World Tag Team Champions, read on the interviews, we finished the interviews, Tracy, and he said be in Raleigh, North Carolina tomorrow night, Dorton Arena, you're going to wrestle on television, and I had never been in a ring, had never had amateur wrestling background, nothing, it was trial by fire, Tracy, trial by fire.
You're listening to the Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com. Nikita Koloff here, and I am excited. Did you hear the huge announcement, the big announcement?
Well, maybe it's a minor announcement. Anyway, Facebook, go look up my new fan page, Nikita Koloff Fans, and like it, and follow today. If you are a business owner and would like to advertise your company or product on The Man Up Show and or Q&A with Koloff, contact me directly, nikitakoloff at koloff.net. 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 eyeassociates.com for more information. You seem to be in natural. You jumped right in there and people took to your character. Well, and I think what helped with, you know, as a halfway decent athlete, you know, I was actually, believe it or not, I was an academic All-American my senior year of college. So I excelled in academia, which was not necessarily my strength, but I was able to. What was your major in college? So physical education was my major. I thought as a backup, I'll get a teaching degree.
And since I like weightlifting and bodybuilding, and then I got a minor in coaching and health since I liked health and working out and eating healthy and all that. And never actually, never officially, I was never officially a teacher per se, although I have been teaching feels like a good portion of my life now, Tracy. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. I mean, everything from like, I did some homeschooling for a while for some of my children. And of course I've been teaching people in the gym forever, how to work out, how to eat and all that kind of stuff. So lots of, lots of teaching was just never a, if you want to say, uh, went into formal teaching per se. So, yeah. So that's the story, man.
That's how I got into wrestling. I'm sure you would have made a good coach teacher, teacher at a high school so far. I think, yeah, I think it would have been, you know, being a pretty driven person.
I think it would have, you know, challenged those that was coaching and or teaching to rise to the occasion. Yeah. So great question. Great question.
And I'll put you back on the spot. What is your favorite match that you've been a part of? Well, it is, it's just so hard.
Like honestly, like somebody does some recent research. I don't know how they figure this stuff out, but I guess flare, I guess Ric Flair, I wrestled the most of anybody I ever wrestled. It was like a hundred and I don't know, it was like 112 or 127 times or something. It was a lot that I wrestled flare. And apparently I won like 64 percent of the matches that I wrestled him in. That's cool.
Yeah. So all that to say, you know, I say obviously, but the very first great American bash in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1985 was against the Nature Boy Ric Flair. My very first match ever for the world heavyweight title.
Certainly that pops in my mind. The best of seven series against a guy named Magnum T.A. So it wasn't just a match.
It was a series of seven matches that we the best of seven. And that's probably what's mentioned most often with the fans. And then I mentioned war games earlier. That very first war game, you know, just I mean, I just think about Atlanta and the Omni and just what what it was like. And it was, I mean, electrifying.
So I'll narrow my top one down to to those three examples. How about that? That's cool. So well, we've got time for one more. If you've got another message, another question.
Yeah. At what point in your life did you know, did you turn or as far as your Christianity goes, you know, where did you at what point in your life did you turn more towards your Christianity? So I had a life encounter, a Christ encounter 17 October 1993. And that was about about 11 months after I left professional wrestling. Of course, as most have figured out now, I didn't grow up in Russia, but I also didn't grow up I didn't grow up in the church either. I was I was familiar with the story.
You know, I had heard the story, you know, you know, the man, the man Jesus and and, you know, dying on a cross, nails driven through his hands, his feet and a spear through his side. And so but the story never made Tracy the 18 inch trip from my head down to my heart till the 17th of October, 1993. And it was the first time I'd ever been in that church in Concord, North Carolina.
Some some friends I'd met this Christian couple through through other business ventures that I was involved in. And it was just God's timing. I look back and just feel like it was really just God's timing.
I was 34 years old and have been out there living in the world, just living for myself, doing my own thing. And and I have that encounter at the altar and everything shifts for me. Everything changes. I mean, my my focus, my motive, my motivation. I mean, just over the course of time now in pursuing a purse, that personal relationship with Jesus. Many things have become less important and more things, more things have become more important.
And I'm at a place now, Tracy, where, you know, I'm not trying to hoard things or gather things or build bigger silos or any of that. My my objective, my goal, just like with this show, the man up show or man up conferences or man camps at Lex Luger and I do or anything I do autograph signings where I met you, the rise up con. That anything I do, my hope is in some way, shape, fortunate, you know, sitting in a restaurant, talking to a waiter or a waitress that I can be salt and light and and hopefully make a positive difference and impact social media.
The stuff I post on social media, I hope is encouraging and impactful for the people that that read it. And by the responses I get, it is so. Yeah. Yep. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So that's awesome. Yeah. So that's what that's what my that's when when my relationship was established and it was the real deal.
And I have been in pursuit of developing that relationship ever since that time. And it's a daily thing, as I'm sure you're aware of, Tracy. Oh, it is.
It's sometimes it's sometimes hourly with me. Yep. Yeah. Yep. Absolutely. Yep.
Absolutely. So, well, I appreciate, man, you being on the show. Tracy Layman up in Sevierville, Tennessee. And I just want to encourage all of you out there. Autograph Plus, if you're ever in Sevierville, Tennessee, if you're ever in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, make a point of put it put it on your list.
Stop by Autographs Plus, stop in the store there, see things, maybe a meet Tracy in person. And but you'll get tons of sports, movies, toys, television, music, wrestling. You need to put that on your business card, man.
Wrestling. Come on. Yeah, I need to put that on my card.
You do, you do. So and one more time, give them the website, Tracy, one more time. www.apsevere.com So you go out, you check it out and look forward to hopefully, Tracy, us cross the paths again. Here's some time in the future, OK? Oh, I'm sure we will. Thanks again for having me.
All right. And to all you out there in listening land, thank you for being so faithful week in and week out, tuning in to not only the Q&A with Koloff, but also also the Man Up show. Go over to Koloff dot net, Koloff dot net. And you can link. Follow me on social media.
You can get the links to all these shows. Download the Truth app. And I'll tell you what, I believe some of these conversations and questions will will be a blessing to you.
I know that because you're sending me messages telling me they are. So go out and live with just a God, have a God filled, God blessed day today till next time. 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 dot net and donate today.
Hi, Nikita Koloff. Be sure to check out the Man Up show now available on television, broadcast and podcast. Go to MorningStarTV dot com or the Truth Radio Network. Check out your local listings or better yet, download the Truth Network app today. If you are enjoying Q&A with Koloff, would you help us spread the word? Tell your family, tell your friends, tell your neighbors to download, subscribe and leave a comment. Nikita Koloff here.
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