10 Things You Didn't Know About Nikolai Volkoff

1. He Never Officially Retired

Note the word "run" and not career. 1997 was far from the end of Nikolai Volkoff as an active professional wrestler.

After leaving the WWF and striking out on his own, Nikolai continued to wrestle a part-time schedule on the independent circuit. He'd even make a few short WWE returns in later years, albeit in more of a non-wrestling capacity for comedy segments, and was inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame in 2005 alongside ex-tag partner The Iron Sheik.

In an interview with SLAM! Sports in 2013, Nikolai revealed that dropping over 100lbs of weight helped him stay in the ring, and his last registered match (on the Cagematch.net database anyway) was against DJ Hyde on 6 September 2017. In other words, Volkoff never officially retired from active wrestling.

That's incredible. Even as a man approaching his 70th birthday, Nikolai liked to work a match at least once or twice per year. The old adage, "they don't make 'em like they used to" certainly applies to the Croatian's protracted, successful career.

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