10 Things You Didn't Know About Nikolai Volkoff

8. Volkoff Played A Russian Out Of Spite

Another tidbit of note from Volkoff's interview with Right Wing News was that he hated playing a Russian gimmick throughout his career. He only agreed to do it out of respect for Vince McMahon Sr, even though he "hated the bastards" (the Soviets). It wasn't until Nikolai met Freddie Blassie that his outlook changed.

Blassie believed his new chum should use his hatred of Soviet Russia - possibly motivated by the sour relationship between the USSR and Yugoslavia - as motivation for the new character. Thus, Volkoff began acting like the worst human he could imagine and started playing the gimmick out of spite to those he despised.

That's pretty genius when one stops to think about it. It's no wonder Freddie had such a long, successful career.

Volkoff said that Freddie only wanted him to make money, and reasoned he could possibly leave the character behind at some point in his career after that. If not, well then he could show people just how rotten the Soviets were and paint the image he wanted to.