The Outsiders' Edge

Elevation Radio

Tuesday September 22, 2009

Guest: “The Russian Bear” Ivan Koloff

Link: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/LordElevation/2009/09/22/Elevation-Radio-with-Ivan-Koloff

Ivan Koloff’s links: www.ivankoloff.com &  www.crowbarpress.com

Elevation Radio’s John Kline had the pleasure to be joined by former WWWF World Heavyweight Champion Ivan Koloff for an in-depth 35 minute interview on Tuesday night. The Russian Bear was in great spirits and a story telling mood as he entertained John and a captive audience with many tales from his wrestling career including stories about his wrestling experiences and interactions with Andre the Giant, Bruno Sammartino, Vince McMahon Sr. and a wide range of classic wrestling legends. Koloff also shared details with Kline about his current Christian ministry work and how his Christian beliefs prevent him from watching today’s wrestling product.

Koloff and Elevation go one on one.

A few of the main interview highlights include:

Ivan on whether he would like to be a part of the WWE Hall of Fame:

“I hope Vince (Jr.) will turn a kind ear to me, and maybe get enough e-mails up there from my fans, and maybe Vince will have me in that hall of fame up there, seeing as how I’m one of the last of the old guys that’s not in there.”

Koloff shares his thoughts on working for Eastern Championship Wrestling-the forerunner to Extreme Championship Wrestling- in 1992:

“ That one night I went up there I brought one of the students from my wrestling school (Vladimir Koloff)…..we went up there as a tag team against the Head Hunters….We ended up going all over the building, all for of us were bleeding all over the place, what a mess, and I said to myself they are either going to take this off the air all together this program or its not going to go because of the violence or its going to go to the big time.”

Ivan recounted some advice he offered to a young Mick Foley in 1992 about making it in the wrestling business and shares surprise at the fact Foley is still wrestling today:

“I can remember Mankind was at that show with me and 1-2-3 Kid….they wrestled against each other and what a match they had. Mankind, Mick Foley was saying to me “What do I got to do to make it to the big time?” I said “Keep doing what you’re doing and you’re going to get noticed.” Because was doing all this crazy stuff over the top rope….I’m surprised he is still able to do it (wrestle with TNA) do it at all. I know what I feel like and I tried to protect myself, but it was still hard.”

The Russian Bear describes his admiration of Bruno Sammartino and the circumstances behind his ending of Sammartino’s eight year WWWF World heavyweight Championship reign:

“It was really a surprise, because I had wrestled Bruno about 8,10 months before that and I had left with the understanding that sometime down the road I would come back and I really enjoyed wrestling with my hero Bruno Sammartino. He was my hero, he was a legend man…….I was in Hawaii and I ended up getting a call to show up there with the understanding that they wanted me to wrestle in the New York area with the WWWF. ….The plans got changed a bit…and I ended up receiving the belt. I accused Bruno of giving it to me because he was sore. Close to eight years as champion and had to be hurt a lot, because of the hard boxing rings in the North Eastern area….I really looked up to him as the champion. Sort of like people look up to Ric Flair today.”

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Visit www.blogtalkradio.com/lordelevation to hear the rest of the interview and Koloff’s stories including getting so worked up as a young fan that he interfered in a match near his hometown, working in Puerto Rico, his time in the NWA including his run with Nikita Koloff and so much more.

Also check out Kline’s interviews with Bret Hart, Jerry Lynn, JJ Dillon, Frank Shamrock, and more.