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Rasslin', Redemption, Theme of South, Koloff Books

Posted: Jun 4th 2012 By: CMBurnham

There?s no shortage of pro wrestling books on the market today, and two of the best focus on the lives of a pair of grapplers who found their greatest success in the Mid-Atlantic territory.

?Dad You Don?t Work, You Wrestle? chronicles longtime journeyman George South?s life inside and outside the wrestling ring.

?Nikita: A Tale of the Ring and Redemption? is the story of how a Minnesota native named Scott Simpson transformed into the ?Russian Nightmare? Nikita Koloff and became one of wrestling?s top stars.

South?s book is, not surprisingly, a delightful look at ?old school? wrestling through the eyes of one of its most fervent proponents.

While the North Carolina-born South was one of the more accomplished performers on the old Mid-Atlantic circuit, his main job was that of an enhancement talent who helped make the big stars look even more impressive. To that end, South was respected in the business and a valued opponent of the Flairs and Steamboats of the wrestling world.

While many books purportedly penned by athletes, entertainers and celebrities are actually written by ghostwriters, there?s little doubt that every word in South?s book comes straight from the author.

Reading the 348-page book is much like listening to the personable performer as he holds court with entertaining tales from the road.

There aren?t many wrestlers South hasn?t crossed paths with during his three decades in the business, and he regales the reader with a fascinating recall of his experiences in wrestling.

A Charlotte-based publication several years ago dubbed South ?The Last Rassler.? There could be no better description for a man described as ?the most passionate wrestler who ever lived.?

?George has always had faith ? blind faith ? faith that won?t submit to a sleeper hold,? the article?s author said of South. ?His gospel is tattooed on his forehead and printed across his chest. Between his faded blue eyes and his shoulder-length gray hair (which he wore in a mullet in the golden 1980s), George?s forehead looks as if someone has played tick-tack-toe on it with a knife.?

Those sentiments resonate throughout ?Dad You Don?t Work, You Wrestle? as South pays homage to the glory days of the wrestling business he loved.

South, who still wrestles and trains aspiring grapplers, perhaps discovered his greatest calling after his active ring career had ended and old school wrestling had given way to sports entertainment.

For years his main motivation has been winning souls, not titles. His faith, he says, makes it paramount that he spread the word to as many people as possible.

?If I can tell one person about Jesus, it?s worth it,? he says. ?We might draw 50 or 60 people, but if I can just get a tract in one of these fans? hands, to me that?s the whole bottom line.?

South, who has performed and spoken at churches across the country for the past two decades, has a unique way of getting heel heat during a typical match.

He simply tells his detractors that he?d like to take them to church. And he means it.

?The biggest heat (reaction from fans) I get is if I tell someone that I?m going to take them to church with me,? says South. ?That gets more heat than anything I?ve ever seen, more than if you cussed them to death. They?ve had to pull many of them out of that ring, and I?ve had policemen ask me what in the world I said to them. I told them that I just invited them to church.?

Wrestling great Blackjack Mulligan might have put it best when he wrote of South?s book:

?It should be part of a dreamer?s library and every school library as well. Cruise through a preacher?s life, dreamer?s life, a show business character?s life as he introduces you to the layering of clowns that come and go! And in the end when the show is over and the lights are out, there is George laboring with a beat-up old truck with 300,000 miles on it, trying to let us see an American dream that is kept alive ? because of George South!?

It is a fact that no wrestler has done more to preserve the history and tradition of Mid-Atlantic wrestling than ?No. 1? (a nickname taken from favorite grappler ?No. 1? Paul Jones) George South. His converted garage, noted one writer, is ?a wrestling museum, a grappler?s Cooperstown.?

His latest written offering is yet one more valuable addition to the Mid-Atlantic treasure trove.

Just like during his wrestling career, it?s George South who once again does the honors. In his book, however, it?s the readers who get the ?W.?

The fact that Memphis wrestling historian Mark James assisted with the book makes the narrative that much more enjoyable.

?Dad You Don?t Work, You Wrestle? ? a line South?s daughter once used ? is available through Amazon and his website at georgesouth.com.

Bill Murdock, who helped pen the excellent Jack Brisco autobiography in 2004, does a stellar job in not only chronicling Nikita Koloff?s unconventional rise to stardom in the wrestling business, but giving readers a history lesson along the way.

Koloff?s transformation into an imposing Russian menace was so convincing that few fans had any idea that he was a Midwesterner who initially couldn?t speak Russian, much less have any roots in the old country.

?The Russian Nightmare? became one of the most feared men in the wrestling business during the mid-?80s. A 280-pound powerhouse complete with shaved head and a ring outfit prominently displaying the hammer and sickle, he was the stereotypical ?Russian? villain whose goal was to win the world title and take it back to the homeland.

Billed as the nephew of longtime Muscovite bad guy ?The Russian Bear? Ivan Koloff, Nikita spoke in a raspy Russian voice and routinely carried a chain ? a symbol that represented Soviet oppression.

Koloff, though, was neither Russian nor a bad guy, Born Scott Simpson in the Twin Cities area, he was as American as apple pie. He played high school football at Robbinsdale High School alongside future mat stars Curt Hennig, Rick Rude, Barry Darsow, Tom Zenk and John Nord. The Academic All-American played college football at Morehead State University, walked away with honors and graduated cum laude.

Koloff, who played the role to the hilt and even legally changed his name, took to wrestling like a duck to water. With little formal training, he became a major attraction for Crockett Promotions and wrestled for the world title against Ric Flair before a crowd of nearly 30,000 fans at Charlotte Memorial Stadium.

Murdock reveals a number of interesting facts about Koloff in the book. The wrestler?s act was so good that actor Sylvester Stallone invited him to try out for the part of the Soviet challenger in ?Rocky IV.?

Koloff, whose size difference with Stallone might have been too much of a stretch for the audience to believe, narrowly missed getting the role.

Hollywood?s loss, though, was Mid-Atlantic Wrestling?s gain. Koloff?s matches with the likes of Flair and Magnum T.A. were among the highest-grossing in the wrestling-rich Crockett territory.

Koloff retired from pro wrestling in 1992 at the tender age of 33 due to injuries, leaving the business in the prime of his physical life, but turning to another endeavor.

Like South, Koloff has made a tremendous impact in his post-wrestling career, traveling the world and spreading the gospel. The born-again Christian?s voice, no longer raspy and menacing, is now soft but deliberate. The wrestling business, he says, is no longer what he?s about.

?How I look at it is that he ( Nikita Koloff the wrestler) starved to death, and the good Lord used nine years of exposure on television to bring me to a place and time where I am.?

Life would imitate art years later when Nikita and ?Uncle? Ivan crossed paths again? this time at a small North Carolina church where the two former wrestling partners reunited for a different type of occasion.

And, like a good teammate, Nikita was ready to catch Ivan when he fell.

The reunion was set up when Nikita asked Ivan to attend a revival that featured noted evangelist Terrence Rose. Ivan accepted, somewhat reluctantly, but soon found himself at the front of the aisle.

?Actually I don?t remember going up front. I just found myself there,? recalls Ivan, who was raised Roman Catholic in his native Canada. ?He was praying with the people, and they were being slain in the spirit. I had heard the expression before and I knew you were supposed to be born again, but I was never pushed in the Roman Catholic Church. I had left the church when I was 16 or 17 years old.

?I remember thinking to myself that I hated to disappoint the guy, but there was no way I was going down, even though my heart was telling me that I needed the Lord. He (Rose) came up to me and asked me if he could pray with me. He started praying, and boy, I was on my backside just like that. Nikita caught me. I guess that was the Lord?s way of just letting me know through the Holy Spirit that `I?m for real, man.??

Like his former partner, Ivan would eventually begin his own ministry.

?Nikita: A Tale of the Ring and Redemption,? edited by Scott Teal, is available directly from Crowbar Press at www.crowbarpress.com.

Fanfest canceled

NWA Wrestling Legends Fanfest organizer Greg Price announced Friday that this year?s annual event, scheduled Aug. 2-5 in Charlotte, has been canceled.

Price, who has promoted the reunion since 2004, cited medical reasons for canceling the event, but added that he plans to bring Fanfest back in August 2013.