''Is that wrestling fake?'': the bear facts

Excerpt from 'Is That Wrestling Fake?' The Bear Facts Copyright Ivan Koloff and Scott Teal
I got mad one night when Dusty told us, 'Nikita needs to get pinned tonight.'
I thought that was the worst thing they could do. 'Just a minute,' I said. 'If we need to lose tonight, then pin me. Don't beat Nikita, because down the road, it will mean more if he's unbeaten.' I was smart enough to know that after spending twenty years in the business, I could get the job done both in the ring and on interviews, so it wouldn't hurt me to lose. If they beat Nikita when he was still relatively inexperienced, it would kill him. His mystique was that of a monster Russian who couldn't be beaten. We would get a lot more mileage out of the Koloff team if we waited to beat him when he was over more.

For decades, professional wrestling fans have asked the question 'Is that wrestling fake?'

However, they wouldn't have dared ask that question directly to Ivan Koloff, whose work in the ring made believers out of the most cynical viewers.

Growing up on a farm in Ontario, Ivan learned the meaning of hard work and discipline. Unfortunately, he made wrong choices and wound up in prison for cattle rustling. Upon his release, he enrolled in a wrestling school and began a career in pro wrestling as Red McNulty, the Irish Rogue.

Five years later, on January 18, 1971, he appeared in Madison Square Garden under the name Ivan Koloff and did what had never been done before. He pinned Bruno Sammartino's shoulders to the mat and won the WWWF heavyweight title. When the referee called for the bell, you could have heard a pin drop as the more than 21,000 screaming fans were instantly moved to a stunned, disbelieving silence.

That accomplishment made Ivan Koloff one of wrestling's biggest superstars until his retirement from the ring in the mid-1990s. Competing in virtually every major promotion throughout the world, he feuded with every top name in the wrestling business, including Andre the Giant, Ric Flair, Dick the Bruiser, Bob Backlund, Billy Robinson, Dusty Rhodes, and Ivan Putski.

Here for the first time, Ivan tells the story of his life: the highs and the lows; his admission of alcohol and drug abuse; reflections of a life spent on the road, and the toll it took on his body and soul; the event in Kannapolis, North Carolina, that changed his life forever.

Ivan tells stories about many of the personalities he worked with, including Bill Miller, Stu Hart, Mad Dog Vachon, Ernie Ladd, Andre the Giant, Johnny Rougeau, Jacques Rougeau, Bepo Mongol (the future Nicolai Volkoff), Bruno Sammartino, Pedro Morales, Gorilla Monsoon, Freddie Blassie, Bobby Heenan, Red Bastien, Bull Bullinski, Kevin von Erich, Kerry von Erich, Mr. Fuji, Johnny Valentine, Dick the Bruiser, Roddy Piper, Mr. Saito, Ray Stevens, Stan Hansen, and Abdullah the Butcher.

This is a revealing memoir that will take you into the mind of the Russian Bear, both in and out of the ring.

One extra bonus is the inclusion of over 205 photographs, most of which are from Ivan's personal collection.