Nikita Koloff was recently interviewed on the Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling podcast where he talked about his wrestling career.
During it, “The Russian Nightmare” stated that he once turned down an offer by Ric Flair where “The Nature Boy” would drop the NWA Title to him just so he would return to wrestling.
Koloff did make a return to do some NWA TV tapings in 1990 before working again in 1991 until he retired in 1992.
“I had a wife die of cancer, Mandy,” Koloff said. “I actually left wrestling at one point in the midst of my main event career. I walked away on a sabbatical to take care of her. She was diagnosed with cancer at age 24. It went into remission and then came back with a vengeance, and when it came back, that’s when I stepped away to take care of her and nurture her through that. She passed away at the age of 26.”
“It was actually just a few weeks after her passing that he invited me down to his house in Charlotte. We had lunch by the poolside and he offered me the World Heavyweight Title. It just didn’t feel right. I would say maybe a few weeks later, or a couple months later, I can’t remember the exact time frame, but he invited me down again, and offered it to me a second time. Looking back, no regrets in doing that, and I established my character where I didn’t feel I necessarily needed a belt to be over.”
H/T to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription