SLAGLE:  What about losing the WWF title to Pedro (Morales)?  Can you touch on that a bit?

KOLOFF:  Sure.  As I mentioned before, the plan was changed and I ended up dropping the belt after about a month.  I dropped it to Pedro.  And it was...I think it was an ethnic thing.  I think they believed it took an ethnic person to be able to draw.  Of course, Superstar proved that wrong.  He went back up there a few years later and he was champion for like a year.  But he was very unique, he connected, because he had fans as a "bad guy" and as, you know, not a "good guy," but fans really loved his thing.  Even the Governor, to this day.  I mean, look at Jesse Ventura.  Jesse has said how important Billy was to him, how he was his protégé, how he really loved the Superstar, and how he copied him.

SLAGLE:  In addition to Billy Graham, you had several other very successful tag team partners, such as Ole Anderson, Alexis Smirnoff, Ray Stevens, of course "The Russian Nightmare" Nikita Koloff, and many others.   Now, it might be kind of a tough question for you to answer, but I was wondering if you could tell us who your favorite guy to team with was, the one that you felt you clicked best with, and was, you know, the most formidable tag team you were a part of?

KOLOFF:  You know, I had so much success with...it is a hard question, it really is.  I mean, I've had tag teams with guys like, well, The Superstar of course.  We were tag team partners in Minnesota (AWA), New York (WWF) and also in Florida (NWA), and it just seemed like, you know, I don't know what it was, but there was just this great contrast between us, with his super body type of thing, and a different style of working from what mine was, but it was complimentary in the sense that we were both going for strength and power.  And to get along with Billy?  Well, it was never a chore.  He's such an easy-going guy, he was a guy that didn't get into drinking, and you know, drugs or any of that, so his moods were always pretty well the same.  He was a very serious man, very serious about business, wrestling, and always worked hard.  As for his diet (laughs), I would just marvel at how rigid he was, and uh, how good he was at watching his diet.  He gave me an example, even though I didn't always follow it, of what I should be doing.  I was more of, you know, just an off-the-farm, chunky type of guy, and just did some heavy weights and got big.  Whereas he was more of a bodybuilder, he had the physique type thing, and he got it because he knew what he was doing, concentrated on proper diet, proper exercise.  So, I have to mention Billy, I really enjoyed being partners with him, we were both very complimentary, both in the pocket book and as far as just being pals and being out there with him.  Other guys, of course, Ray Stevens, we were World tag champions in the NWA, and, wow, there's so many.  Don Kernodle.  Of course, the one that was really with me steady, for any length of time, apart from Graham, was Nikita.  Nikita and I together were champions of something or another for like four or five years straight.  We always had a belt, and we really stuck together.  I teamed with Ole Anderson on several occasions, over a couple of different years in Georgia, and he was a good partner to have.  He was very versed in matches and such, more or less that same training as the Eddie Graham's, he could always come up with something.  Teaming with Ole was a good learning process for me.  I tagged up with so many guys that were of different schooling, and I learned from them all.  I can go back to old guys like Han Schmidt in Montreal, who I learned a lot from, and he was my first partner after I had, you know, become known, with the Canadian championship, before the WWWF.  He was such a rugged guy.  Very dynamic.  We had several riots up there in Canada, in Montreal.  They got so mad, so angry when we went up and defeated their boys, the Rougeau brothers, back in the late sixties.  Now, Alexis Smirnoff was a guy who was playing Double A hockey up in Canada during the period I was up there, and he ended up coming down to the Atlanta area.  (Laughing) He knocked me on my butt several times at the hockey game we had for charity, the wrestlers against a minor league hockey team.  So Smirnoff ends up in Atlanta, and he had already been trained as a wrestler, and I have to say I was impressed with him.  He was a good athlete, good in hockey and he had learned wrestling, we was good at the Russian thing, so we tagged up and won the Georgia titles twice, held them for about three or four months.  We had a real good run together that lasted almost a year.  Joe LeDuc was another old partner, and the Japanese guy who passed away recently, Mr. Saito, there's just so many great partners I had.  I learned from them all, and I got along with all of them.  In fact the only incident I ever had was against the Iron Sheik, on an airplane.  But, we're still friends, and I understand that incident was mostly my fault, my fault that it even happened.  But, I got a nice little tattoo from it, a bite mark in the neck.  I guess he thought I was one of those camel burgers or something (laughs).

SLAGLE:  Earlier we kind of touched on how Billy influenced you in terms of your training, and I was wondering if you could just tell us about the first time you met the Superstar, and how you became his partner originally in the AWA?

KOLOFF:  I think it was something that the office put together.  I don't really know what reason, or why, but we both had our fans, plus people who did dislike us because we were villians, I guess that they just thought that together, I suppose, maybe Billy's got more insight about that, but I was just approached one day and they said that they were going to put Superstar and I together.  It was a very unique team.  Billy was a real genius with interviews.  He'd do stuff like whenever he'd wear sunglasses out there, he get me to try to be 'cool' like him and he'd put the glasses on me, or he'd buy me a flashy shirt like his, and try to get me to wear it. You know, making the stiff Russian Bear 'cool.'  (laughs)  And the people really related with the whole thing.  But as I recall, I don't remember that there was a certain incident that put us together.  The place (AWA) was on fire at that time as far as things happening, individuals being over as personalities, the whole territory was afire.  There was truly great talent up there at that time.  Dusty Rhodes, Dick Murdoch, Nick Bockwinkle, The Crusher and Dick the Bruiser, guys like Superstar, Ray Stevens, Pat Patterson, Gagne, Red Bastein, myself, there's just so many, I can't even think of them all now.  Such great talent in the AWA at that time, the early seventies.  The Blackjacks, Mulligan and Lanza were up there, Larry Hennig, Billy Robinson, Heenan, Pepper Gomez.  Whenever you get such talent like that and you put them all together, there's bound to be things happening.  Crusher and Bruiser, being the big babyface team, I believe that they looked for teams to put against them.  And you know, you had to be a big individual to go against them, because they were big guys, known for their strength, and they were characters.  I think they could see Billy and I as being ideal to go against them.  So, with the Superstar, we complimented each other, and we got along well.   He put up with my bad habits, maybe I was the type of guy who drank a little too much and (chuckles) could maybe be a bit boisterous at times.  I tried not to be, but a lot of the times, I took it as like...if I had a match, then I had a reason to celebrate, you know?  Superstar was more the quiet type, and a lot of times back in those days, you paid a lot of your own expenses.  So, you'd get a motel room and sometimes two, three of us would be in one room, you know, trying to save some money.  So we'd end up rooming together, and you know, a guy coming in two hours after you went to sleep and he's wanting to talk because he's been drinking too much, you know.  But Superstar was always very patient, we never had an incident, ever.  It was the type of thing where we'd just get up, go to the gym and work out, so I think it was just a natural thing for the promoters to put us together, and I was glad they did.

SLAGLE:  Now, you were partners with him in the AWA, the NWA in Florida, and also in the WWF.  Can you  recall in which promotion you felt that your team with BIlly really hits its stride, and that you had your best storylines and opponents, and things really clicked for you guys?  Was there a time in any of those promotions when you felt that the team was at its best?

KOLOFF:  Wow, um, well, I guess because of the size of the area, the WWF, and because it just seemed like no matter who they put us against, Billy and I always had a great match.  I guess I'd have to say the WWF, but you know, we really had a good thing in every area we wrestled.  We really did.  Then again, looking back, the Florida area might be my choice.  We had `em going in Minnesota, too.  That's hard, because everything was on fire, it really was back then, and the fans were so emotional.

SLAGLE:  Actually, Billy's told me a few times about how he really felt that when he was the champion, that if they would've just had you turn on him, that he could've streched his title reign out as a babyface for another couple of years, easily.  Looking back, if they had made that decision it would've changed so many things, it's kind of interesting to think about.  You know, the ramifications of turning Billy into a `face and keeping the belt on him instead of putting it on Backlund.  Did you ever think about that then?

SLAGLE:  Yeah, I think they were intent on having Backlund take the title just because they were kind of commited to it, and they couldn't change it without kind of, you know, making it look like Vince Sr. was going back on his word.

KOLOFF:  Right, right.

SLAGLE:  Now, I really want to thank you for your time today, but before I let you go, I do have one final question for you.  In addition to being his partner and friend, you were around before, during and after the career of "Superstar" Billy Graham.  So, you really have a unique perspective, and I was wondering if you could give us your thoughts on what were some of Billy's longterm effects on the wrestling business?

KOLOFF:  Well, usually when you have someone try to copy you, or emmulate what you've done, it's the biggest form of flattery.  And there have been so many guys, so many, that were off-shoots of Billy's type of character.  That's says a lot.  I think Billy was a big influence so many wrestlers, the fans probably don't even realize it today, but he was.  He changed things, he really did.  Of course the body was a big factor, but there was more to Billy than big muscles.  I have to say that the attire, you know, you see so many wanting to be cool with the glasses and stuff.  You never really saw that before Billy.  There was, of course, Gorgeous George, but BIlly was so unique in the sense that Gorgeous George was not really known for his body, or being cool, or even being very "manly."  Billy brought all of that to wrestling.  And he had his own style in the ring.  As a matter of fact, this morning before you called me, I was just thinking about that, how Billy, some of the things he did in the ring were, you know, the people really got it.  Did you ever notice when the good guy came back on Billy, Billy would sometimes hang himself in the ropes, with his legs wrapped around the ropes, and he was, you know, hanging on for dear life, hanging on like a monkey.  Do you remember that?

SLAGLE:. Yeah, actually I have a few videos where he does that, one in particular against Bruno where the crowd goes nuts, I mean absolutely insane...

KOLOFF:  Well, that was one of Billy's trademarks, he came up with that spot.  And when they saw him do that, they figured he was really in trouble, and he was trying to get away, right?  And that's when they'd pop so hard it would almost blow the roof off the place!  So, yeah, I think to say he had a big impact is almost an understatement.  He did have an impact, and still does today.  When they look back, and want to duplicate somebody, whether the fans know it or not, a lot of the times, they're going back and duplicating aspects of Billy.  He really had it, all around.  Billy was not just a body, he could really work in the ring, as far as the wrestling part goes.  He could surprise you with how good in there he really was, he had some great moves and incredible psychology.  Of course, he had a fantastic look, his ring attire and such.  And let me tell ya, what a guy on the mic!  He could really talk!  He had it all, Billy did.  That's what it takes to make a superstar, and that's what The Superstar had...everything.  Nowadays, if you have those three things, a body, a look, and the ability to speak well, then it's only a matter of time.  So, I think that's part of what Billy is known for, respected for, even by the guys in the business today.  He was really the prototype for today's wrestling, and kind of started a lot of the things that people look at today and just assume have always been around in wrestling.  Not so.  A lot of it started with The Superstar.

SLAGLE:  Well, Ivan, it really has been a pleasure talking to you today, and I want to thank you again for joining us...

KOLOFF:  Can I say one other thing before we wrap this up, Steve?
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SLAGLE:  Sure, of course.

KOLOFF:  I just want to take this opportunity to say to the fans out there, over the years I got into, you know, too much drinking, and even to the point of taking drugs.  Because anyone who thinks that wrestlers don't get hurt, they are very mistaken.  A lot of times we are given painkillers and such, because of our injuries, so we think it's alright to take those.  Whatever it may be...steroids to build our bodies up, we think it's alright because we can get ahold of them on the street.  And, uh, it's very wrong.  I just want to go on record as saying that I'm not one to rattle cages and go out there and say how it's terrible what some guys do.  I'm saying what I did was wrong, and I want young guys not only in wrestling to know that, but people out there, just people in general, to realize that staying away from things like that, you're doing yourself a favor.  Trust me.  It causes so much damage, not only physically, but emotionally, damage to your family, to anybody else that you come into contact with.  I went through quite an ordeal over my career because of all the drugs and alchohol, to the point where I believed I was not only an alchoholic, but also addicted to certain drugs.  It was a big problem, a terrible problem with me.  I was slowly killing myself, with all the drugs out there, and believe me, I went through the majority of them, and I just want to encourage the kids out there not to take it.  Not out of curiousity, or because it's cool or anything else.  Because, it's such a terrible thing to have something control you.  You can't be yourself, and you end up not accomplishing everything you'd like to do.  I found, personally, that the only thing that took it away was my God.  So there is an answer to it, thank God for that, but it's the type of answer a lot of people will not want to accept when their on it, until they are taken to a level that is so low down.  So, I want to encourage people, to say that if you're out there and you have a problem with drugs or drinking, there is hope.  You know, I thought I was a tough guy.  And there are a lot of tough guys, and I put this as a challenge to all of the tough guys:  If you're tough enough to quit all of this stuff on your own, then my hat's off to you.  But I needed help, I'm the first to admit that.  I got the help, and I'm still getting the help, because you can't do it on your own.  I wanted to pass that on to you.  And I want to say thank you to all of the fans out there...

SLAGLE:  Even the one who shot a nail into your head? (laughing)

KOLOFF:  You bet, Steve, you bet, even that guy (laughs). God bless each and every one of you!  And give my love, and a big Bear Hug, Steve, if you see my old friend comrade Billy.  Give him a big bear hug from The Russian Bear, ok buddy?

SLAGLE:  That I will do, sir, absolutely.  Again, we all wish you the best, and I want to say thanks again for spending some time with us here on the website.

KOLOFF:  It was my pleasure, Steve, I really enjoyed it.