COPYRIGHT 2005 by Mike Rickard II

Boris Zukhov first started wrestling as Jim Nelson, a perenniel jobber in Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling (MACW).  He was later recruited by Sgt. Slaughter along with Don Kernodle and transformed into "Private" Jim Nelson.  Privates Nelson and Kernodle won the Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Championship.  Nelson's partner Don Kernodle later teamed with Sgt. Slaughter to win the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) World Tag Team Championship.  Nelson broke away from Slaughter and Kernodle and taught their opponents Jay Youngblood and Ricky Steamboat how to defeat Slaughter's dreaded hold, the Cobra Clutch.  Now a babyface, Nelson continued wrestling in MACW until Jack and Jerry Brisco ended Nelson's career with the figure four leglock.     After his career ending injury, Jim Nelson was no more.  Nelson debuted in Mid-South as Boris Zurchov, a Russian heel wrestler.  He then began a stint in the American Wrestling Association (AWA) teaming with Soldat Ustinov to win the AWA World Tag Team Titles. Zhukov then jumped ship to the WWF where he formed a heel tag team with Nikolai Volkoff known as the Bolshiveiks.  When the Soviet Union collapsed it was revealed that Volkoff was not Russian as largely believed but actually Lithuanian (at the time the nation of Lithuania had declared its independence from the Soviet Union).  Zukhov began feuding with Volkoff after he felt he had stepped out of line.  He began losing more and more matches and disappeared from the WWF.

SOURCES:

Various. "Obsessed with Wrestling." Wrestler Profiles. 5-28-2005. . 5-28-2005 . http://www.obsessedwithwrestling.com/profiles/b/boris-zhukov.html

McAdams, John. John McAdams Wrestling Video Library. . 09-17-2005 http://www.johnmcadam.com/atlantic.htm.