The Bolsheviks

The Bolsheviks
Tag team
Members Nikolai Volkoff[1]
Boris Zhukov[1]
Slick (manager)
Name(s) The Bolsheviks
Heights Volkoff:
6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)
Zhukov:
6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Combined
weight		 604 lb (274 kg)[2]
Billed from The Soviet Union[1]
Debut 1987[3]
Disbanded 1990[4]
Years active 1987–1990

The Bolsheviks were a professional wrestling tag team in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) from late 1987 until the spring of 1990. The team was composed of Nikolai Volkoff and Boris Zhukov portraying a pair of Russian Communist bad guys. Volkoff was born Josip Peruzovic on October 14, 1947. Although he portrayed a Russian as a wrestler, he was, in fact, from Croatia. Zhukov was an American named Jim Harrel, who had spent the previous few years of his wrestling career portraying a Russian.

Team history

Zhukov was brought in from the American Wrestling Association (he was one-half of AWA World Tag Team Champions with Soldat Ustinov when he left) as Volkoff's partner in 1987 after Volkoff's regular partner The Iron Sheik was fired. The team made their debut in a 10-man battle royal on an episode of WWF Superstars of Wrestling on Oct 31st, 1987. The team was managed by Slick.[1] The pair made their first pay-per-view (PPV) appearance together in the 10 team elimination match at the inaugural Survivor Series in 1987. The pair had little success and were the first team eliminated from the match.[5][6][7]

They then made an appearance in the 20 man battle royal held at WrestleMania IV in Atlantic City.[8] They appeared on a WWF coliseum VHS cassette called Best of the WWF volume 17 and scored a major win when they defeated The British Bulldogs in short time. The duo lost to The Powers of Pain at SummerSlam '88.[9] They were once again a part of the 10 team elimination match held at Survivor Series '88 and during the match Zuhkov pinned Jim Powers thus eliminating The Young Stallions, but they were also eliminated shortly after by The Rockers.[10]

Breakups

They spent much of 1989 on the low end of the card, feuding with The Bushwhackers and despite being on the active roster the entire year they never made it on to a PPV card.[1] Slick was also phased out as their manager around this time. The team disbanded for the first time in mid 1989 when Volkoff left the WWF to go compete in the independents, and Zhukov stayed with the WWF competing mainly as a jobber. When Volkoff returned to the WWF about a year later in early 1990, the team reunited.[4]

The duo never held any titles together, and made their last notable PPV appearance as a team at WrestleMania VI, where they were defeated in 19 seconds by The Hart Foundation. Although their Wrestlemania highlight occurred at Wrestlemania 6 when they got music "lessons" from Steve Allen.[2]

After WrestleMania, the duo split up for the second time. Volkoff became a flag-waving American babyface and Zhukov remained the Russian heel.[4] The duo feuded throughout 1990 and ultimately culminated at Survivor Series 1990 in an eight-man elimination match when Volkoff's team of Tito Santana and The Bushwhackers, called The Alliance defeated The Mercenaries, a team consisting of Sgt. Slaughter, The Orient Express and Zhukov. Santana was the sole survivor.[11]

Championships and accomplishments

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Cawthon, Graham (2013). the History of Professional Wrestling Vol 1: WWF 1963 - 1989. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. ISBN 1492825972.
  2. 1 2 Shields, Brian; Sullivan, Kevin (2009). WWE Encyclopedia. DK. p. 39. ISBN 978-0-7566-4190-0.
  3. ↑ Shields, Brian; Sullivan, Kevin (2009). WWE Encyclopedia. DK. p. 41. ISBN 978-0-7566-4190-0.
  4. 1 2 3 Cawthon, Graham (2013). the History of Professional Wrestling Vol 2: WWF 1990 - 1999. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. ASIN B00RWUNSRS.
  5. ↑ "Survivor Series 1987 results". Wrestling Supercards and Tournaments. Retrieved 2008-05-27.
  6. ↑ "Survivor Series 1987 review". Complete WWE. Retrieved 2008-05-27.
  7. ↑ "Survivor Series 1987 results". Online World of Wrestling. Archived from the original on 2008-06-16. Retrieved 2008-05-27.
  8. ↑ "WrestleMania IV official results". WWE. Retrieved 2014-08-06.
  9. ↑ "SummerSlam 1988 Full Event Results". WWE. Retrieved 2012-01-02.
  10. ↑ "Survivor Series 1988 official results". WWE. Retrieved June 10, 2008.
  11. ↑ "Survivor Series 1990". Pro Wrestling History. Retrieved June 17, 2015.
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