MEETING YOUR HEROES CHAPTER ONE: NIKITA KOLOFF

If you are sitting down with a nice, hot cup of Squared Circle Café coffee and ready for some Rasslin talk, you have come to the right place. This little subsection of stories I am going to call “Meeting Your Heroes”.

There is an old saying “never meet your heroes because they will always disappoint you.” I don’t subscribe to that theory. At all. I have been a pro-wrestling fan since I was eight years old. 13 years later, I became a professional wrestler. And I’ve pretty much lived out every single dream I ever had. But one of the perks of being a young professional wrestler is meeting the men and women that you paid tickets to see perform their art.

Back in 2004, myself, Chuck “Guillotine” LeGrande, and Ricky Landell were part of a Legends convention in North Carolina. I was 31 and had been wrestling for ten years. I was a full-time wrestler and office guy for Shinya Hashimoto’s Pro-Wrestling ZERO-ONE. Held the NWA and ECW World titles. I had a resume. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t marking out for my heroes.

Now I have never been one for conventions. Don’t get me wrong, I love wrestling fans. At least the ones I haven’t blocked on Social Media. It’s just not my thing. I can’t stand the gimmick table. Hate it. Love the money but hate the process. And it’s something weird to admit, but it’s because I always worry that when fans meet me, they are meeting Steve Corino the person. The father. The grandfather. The guy that gets off the plane from work and tries to mow the lawn before my boys get home from school and work. That guy is BORING. But I love being that boring guy. The guy I portrayed in pro-wrestling was an A-hole. Even as a good guy, I was a villain. An envelope pusher. Extreme. A heel’s heel. I never want someone disappointed that they are not meeting the guy they cheered or booed.

If that is hard to understand, let me give you a personal example: In February of 2020 I met Pete Rose. I’ve been on this kick on trying to meet as many of the 1980 Philadelphia Phillies as I can. You don’t have to be a baseball fan to know Pete Rose and his reputation. Hit king but disgraced and throw out of MLB for life. Defiant. Sets up across the street from the MLB Hall of Fame every year out of spite (and money). When he is not in Cooperstown, he signs autographs for a hefty fee in Las Vegas. I figured what the heck, I’m 47 and he’s 79. Time is not really on my side. I was in Vegas for an NXT Live Event. I go to the store with my sister, Allison Danger, and my niece. I may have flashed my WWE credentials hoping that the WWE connection got me something (it did. Wink). Anyway. I got there at a great time. The drunk people in front of me spent around $800 so I knew Pete would be in a pretty good mood. I sit down with Pete and we immediately start talking about wrestling and baseball. I’m an awkward dude, so I am sitting there like a little kid. But Pete is obnoxious and telling rude jokes. He is EXACTLY how I expected him to be and it was perfect. If he would have been a nice guy, I would have maybe thought that his book was BS. Or people were wrong about him. Anything really. But he was the Pete Rose I thought he would be, and it made the moment even better. Months later, Danger and I still laugh about it. Pete Rose was Pete Rose.

I’m getting away from my story. Back to the Legends convention. If I remember it correctly, Landell and I had just worked a Spinebuster Championship Wrestling show in Valdosta, GA the weekend before and its where I met Mr. Wrestling II. II was as cool as the other side of the pillow so the three of us buddied up to him in the green room. As we were walking out of the green room, Nikita Koloff comes in. There are four of us there and no where to go. Nikita shows his respect for Wrestling II and I’m off my already awful game when it hit me that Nikita Koloff doesn’t speak with a Russian accent. People, I know this already. I’m a fan. I know he’s from Minnesota. But the kid that watched him at the Philadelphia Civic Center did not apparently. I was 13 again, not 31. Nikita shakes both Chuck and Ricky’s hand and it comes to me. I’m rattled but putting on as good of a face as someone with bleach blond hair, tons of forehead scars, and a God-awful green shirt on can be. I introduce myself as “Steve”. No use in saying “Steve Corino” because there is no way Nikita has watched ECW and/or knows what I’ve been doing in ZERO-ONE. So, I’m just Steve. He asks me my last name. S*#t. I say it and he says, “I know that name from somewhere.” I him and ha like I owe him 7814 Rubles. He says it again in his Minnesota accent “No, I swear I know you from somewhere.” Once again, thinking Nikita Koloff has never even heard of ECW, I say “well I used to sit in the front row of the second level at the Philadelphia Civic Center.”

Silence.

Nikita looks at II. II looks back at Nikita. II has now flash forwarded three years and already regrets offering me the Mr. Wrestling 3 mask and shakes his head. Nikita, because he is a super nice guy, says “I don’t think that was it.” And then walks away. Doesn’t look back. I don’t blame him.

I have now made a jackass of myself in front of Nikita Koloff and Mr. Wrestling II. II turns to me and says, “What the hell was that?” and I say “I GOT FLUSTERED!”

16 plus years later I would bet the Bobby Cruise’s toupee that Nikita doesn’t remember this. 16 years later, I regret not getting a picture with Nikita Koloff. I wish I could say this was the only time I did something like this. Wait until you read about my Barry Windham first encounter!!

Time for another cup of coffee.

Share on Facebook

Tweet

Follow us