By Sean Radican, Torch columnist

RADICAN’S “IVAN KOLOFF: THE RUSSIAN BEAR” DVD REVIEW
RELEASED IN 2014 BY ELLBOW PRODUCTIONS IN 2014
BY SEAN RADICAN, TORCH COLUMNIST

“Ivan Koloff: The Russian Bear” is the latest documentary from Michael Elliot that takes a look at Ivan Koloff, who while portraying a hated Russian during the Cold War in the territory days was one of the most hated heels in wrestling. The documentary, much like Elliot’s recent documentaries on The Mid-Atlantic and Rock N’ Roll Express is well-produced with slick graphics, match footage, and a variety of interviews.

There is some interesting material on this documentary, particularly towards the end when Koloff talks about turning his life around from being an alcoholic and a drug abuser during his wrestling days, but ultimate Koloff and the other people that appear on this documentary don’t have a lot of interesting things to say beyond the surface of detailing Koloff’s career from beginning to end.

The early part of the documentary discusses how Ivan got into wrestling and eventually got the Russian Cold War bad guy gimmick. The most interesting part of this section of the documentary is the discussion of Koloff beating Bruno Sammartino for the WWWF Championship. The description of how stunned the fans were when Koloff beat Bruno for the title after he had been champion for 8 years was fascinating to listen to. Bruno discusses the title switch in-depth and talks about how he was expecting a riot when the hated heel beat him, but instead people were sad because he lost.

It is evident that Koloff is a nice man and doesn’t have any axe to grind when it comes to his wrestling career during this documentary. He doesn’t have anything bad to say about Vince McMahon Sr. taking the title off of him so soon after he beat Sammartino. It was interesting to listen to Sammartino say he would have never pushed for Koloff to win if he had known that the title would be taking off him so quickly.

The documentary hit a lull as. Ivan’s AWA career is briefly touched on and it would have been interesting to hear more from him about his time there. Ivan’s time in the IWA is discussed and Tommy Young and Bill Apter do a good job establishing that Koloff was the workhorse of the company, which is a theme that plays throughout the entire documentary showing that he was a dependable and loyal worker no matter which territory he worked in.

Koloff’s tenure in the Mid-Atlantic territory is covered in-depth, but nothing ground breaking is revealed about his time in the company. It did provide a nice overview of Koloff’s time in the Mid-Atlantic with Don Kenrodle talking extensively about how he took the idea to Crockett for him to turn heel having played the All-American gimmick to join forces with Koloff.

Nikita Koloff also speaks extensively about he was paired with the group and their run as a successful trio. It is fantastic to see some of the footage that Elliot was able to secure for this portion of the documentary. Barry Darsow also appears and talks extensively about being added to the Russian stable alongside Ivan and Nikita as Krusher Khrushev. Koloff eventually ended up staying on board when Crockett sold the company to Ted Turner, but he didn’t last long in WCW and ended up on the independents.

The best part of the documentary is the final portion talking about Koloff’s life after wrestling. Koloff had done booze and drugs throughout his career. When he started to take independent dates after leaving WCW he tried to get off of drugs and alcohol, but he couldn’t no matter how hard he tried. Listening to Ivan talk about the extensive list of injuries he had throughout the years and how he combated them by taking pain pills and other drugs while drinking on the road was scary to listen to.

Nikita ended up being the one to save Ivan after inviting him to bring Jesus into his life. The documentary brings out a lot of emotion at the end, as Nikita talks about being able to save the man who helped guide him through his wrestling career from when he started with no experience. It is powerful to listen to Nikita talk with tears in his eyes about seeing Ivan up at the alter at church to receive Jesus into his heart. There is also some powerful footage of Nikita preaching at a church and talking about how taking Jesus into his heart saved his life.

Overall thoughts: (6.0) – This is a well-produced documentary, but ultimately there’s not enough interesting material about Koloff’s career to carry it for over two hours. Elliot does a good job of producing his documentaries and making them look top shelf given the limited resources at his disposal, but this documentary would have benefited from more journalists or wrestling historians put into the mix of talking heads to talk about Koloff’s career. There’s also a second disc full of bonus interview and match footage included with this release as well.

If you don’t know a lot about Koloff’s career, this documentary is worth investing in, as it provides a nice overview of his career. Koloff doesn’t have a lot of interesting insight into his career, but he does seem to be a very nice man at peace with his wrestling career.

The strength of this documentary is the last half hour, which features Koloff discussing how the injuries piled up on him during his career and how he began turning to pills to combat the pain, which ultimately lead to him taking other drugs while drinking. The story of his ability to overcome his issues with drugs and alcohol is powerful and closes the documentary on a strong note.

You can purchase “Ivan Koloff: The Russian Bear” on DVD by clicking HERE; or by visiting ellbowproductions.weebly.com.

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