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WRESTLER OF THE DAY: NIKITA KOLOFF


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This is one of the rare '80s JCP dudes that I don't get. The ridiculous voice kills me and I don't typically enjoy Koloff matches. I love love love '85-'89 JCP, but this dude loses me every time. He's even worse in '90 AWA (I think it was '90...somewhere between '89 and '91), but I guess he was going through personal issues then.

 

Still, I just can't get into him, even in stuff like the best-of-seven with Dusty which was a hot angle. Hell, I even enjoy his running buddy Krusher Khruschev well enough, and Krusher sucked at that point. What am I missing? That's an honest question because I'd like to look at Koloff again and find a way to appreciate him more. 

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This is one of the rare '80s JCP dudes that I don't get. The ridiculous voice kills me and I don't typically enjoy Koloff matches. I love love love '85-'89 JCP, but this dude loses me every time. He's even worse in '90 AWA (I think it was '90...somewhere between '89 and '91), but I guess he was going through personal issues then.

 

Still, I just can't get into him, even in stuff like the best-of-seven with Dusty which was a hot angle. Hell, I even enjoy his running buddy Krusher Khruschev well enough, and Krusher sucked at that point. What am I missing? That's an honest question because I'd like to look at Koloff again and find a way to appreciate him more. 

Well it might help if you remembered the best of 7 was with Magnum and not Dusty?

Seriously though, Nikita is an acquired taste. It also helps if you grew up during the Cold War, when Reagan ruled the landscape and all Russians were Godless Commies that wanted to feast on the fat capitalist Americans,. Hell he made Flair a De Facto Babyface for the first Bash and thuis was when Flair was starting the peak of his Flairness character wise. Then he went after Magnum andMagnum was the goddam Golden Boy who was going to save the NWA. I can't think of a more All American Babyface than Magnum who wasn't named Dusty Rhodes.

 

Buying Nikita as a good worker was really difficult as an educated fan now, but as kid, the thought of this Commie beating a good American was kinda scary. Hell if not for Nikita insulting Magnum's mom we never would have gotten Magnum slapping Bob Geigel (Motto: I was alive when dirt was in BETA Testing), and I don't want to live in a world where that didn't happen

 

James

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This is one of the rare '80s JCP dudes that I don't get. The ridiculous voice kills me and I don't typically enjoy Koloff matches. I love love love '85-'89 JCP, but this dude loses me every time. He's even worse in '90 AWA (I think it was '90...somewhere between '89 and '91), but I guess he was going through personal issues then.

 

Still, I just can't get into him, even in stuff like the best-of-seven with Dusty which was a hot angle. Hell, I even enjoy his running buddy Krusher Khruschev well enough, and Krusher sucked at that point. What am I missing? That's an honest question because I'd like to look at Koloff again and find a way to appreciate him more. 

Well it might help if you remembered the best of 7 was with Magnum and not Dusty?

Seriously though, Nikita is an acquired taste. It also helps if you grew up during the Cold War, when Reagan ruled the landscape and all Russians were Godless Commies that wanted to feast on the fat capitalist Americans,. Hell he made Flair a De Facto Babyface for the first Bash and thuis was when Flair was starting the peak of his Flairness character wise. Then he went after Magnum andMagnum was the goddam Golden Boy who was going to save the NWA. I can't think of a more All American Babyface than Magnum who wasn't named Dusty Rhodes.

 

Buying Nikita as a good worker was really difficult as an educated fan now, but as kid, the thought of this Commie beating a good American was kinda scary. Hell if not for Nikita insulting Magnum's mom we never would have gotten Magnum slapping Bob Geigel (Motto: I was alive when dirt was in BETA Testing), and I don't want to live in a world where that didn't happen

 

James

 

Plus note that the NWA Russians were truly evil bastards as opposed to the pussy assed WWF lovable Russians.  The family dynamic of Ivan being the head of the clan and ordering his gigantic psychotic nephew to destroy whatever he wanted destroyed was pretty great stuff back in the day.  Nikita by himself was pretty shitty, but the dynamic with Ivan was solid gold.  Ivan was aging and losing his athletic edge over the Americans, but he was still smarter than the Americans and now he had this insane attack dog to really tear shit up- an insane attack dog that his sister sent over to help him.  Genius stuff.

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Shit, don't know why I wrote Dusty's name when I was thinking of Magnum. My bad.

 

I mean, I love goofy Cold War-style stuff. I think Rusev's Cold War-era throwback gimmick is great, for example. I guess he is an acquired taste, as you said. 

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Shit, don't know why I wrote Dusty's name when I was thinking of Magnum. My bad.

 

I mean, I love goofy Cold War-style stuff. I think Rusev's Cold War-era throwback gimmick is great, for example. I guess he is an acquired taste, as you said. 

 

Nikita's gimmick was perfect for the times.  JCP read newspapers and put the Cold War right in your living room.  First Nikita beats Magnum FOR THE US TITLE of all belts.  A godless Soviet Union monster heel defeated the best of us and he cheated to do it and kayfabe put our beloved standard bearer out of wrestling. 

 

My kid brother and I wept for hours.  Not even chocolate bar cake could cheer us up.

 

But just when when you think that the Russians are about to invade Murica and Old Glory is down for the count, Glasnost hits and Nikita turns face and forms a tag-team WITH THE AMERICAN DREAM, DUSTY RHODES~!

 

Genius level stuff.  Nikita was arguably the best handled gimmick in the history of our beloved industry.

 

Rusev is handled almost as well, but he lost his invulnerability mystique far too soon, IMO.   He should not be losing clean pinfalls just yet, but that is my opinion.  The perfect storm of poor relations with Russia made is possible for the Rusev gimmick to gain so much traction right now with Cold War kids and current fans..

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I was first introduced to Nikita when he ran down and smashed Sting in the head with a chain in 1991 during the Steiners match. I know 1991-92 Nikita is just a shell of his former self, but I bought into him completely. They made him seem like a big deal, so he was a big deal to me, which is a lesson WWE, for instance, is so bad at learning. He intimidated me as a kid more than anyone else in WCW that year. 

 

And then I went back years later and saw him when he actually was a menace. 

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Unfortunately, I can't find my favorite Nikita moment on youtube which was when he smashes Luger's US belt into the ring post.

 

I always liked that pretty much everything he did in WCW 91-92 (aside from the umm..wrestling part) made sense so much as wrestling ever makes sense - he attacks Luger because Luger took his belt all those years ago and then his feud with Sting was mainly because Sting took a hit meant for Luger. Then Nikita disappears and comes back as a face who apologizes to Sting and leads to the Sting/Nikita hug during the War Games against the Dangerous Alliance. And then Vader broke him.

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Smelly, the key might be watchign the build in Nikita's angles as opposed to watching the matches themselves. Nikita was half-decent on the mic. He was really great at calling out guys as cowards (and if got off topic Ivan took voer). The TBS show the week after Nikita wins the US title is great, David Crockett nearly breaks down crying on camera because Nikita beat Magnum. Ivan spends his interview time rubbign it in Magnum's face and then he and Nikita state flatly there would be no rematch. 

 

Crap I might just go back and watch this whole damn angle!

 

James

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