Puerto Rico for World Wrestling Council (WWC) and engaged in some bouts with Hercules Ayala. He returned with Ivan Koloff in 1986 and faced Invader I and Invader III at a big house show at Juan Ramon Loubriel Stadium in Bayamon. While he learned more about the sport on the road with Ivan and Kernodle, Koloff was booked in very short matches until his skills developed. During television promos, Nikita stood behind Ivan and Kernodle with his arms folded while they took interviews. As his wrestling ability and speaking skills grew, the length of his matches and interviews grew as well. His improvement negated the need for Kernodle to continue teaming with Ivan and, shortly thereafter, the Russians turned on the American turncoat. Koloff went to great lengths to keep the "Evil Russian" gimmick as realistic as possible. He learned Russian and refused to come out of character, even when away from the ring. With Kernodle out of the picture, Uncle Ivan Koloff introduced a new comrade named Krusher Khruschev. In December 1984, Jim Crockett rewarded the Russians with the NWA World Six-Man Tag Team Championship. Three months later, on March 18, 1985, Koloff and Ivan defeated Dusty Rhodes and Manny Fernandez to win the NWA World tag team title. Ivan invoked the Freebird rule which dictated that any two of the three could defend the titles. Ivan and Krusher lost the titles to The Rock 'n' Roll Express (Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson) on July 9. Prior to committing themselves with Jim Crocket Promotions, The Koloffs feuded with then AWA World tag team champions the Road Warriors in both the AWA and the NWA in a brutal series during 1985. One of their encounters was voted Match of the Year runner-up by the readers of Pro Wrestling Illustrated. The feud was often fought in steel cage Russia chain matches, with lights-out stipulations. The Russian 'chain match', using thicker chains than normal chain matches, was considered a Nikita Koloff specialty. Continuing to improve, Koloff became a big enough heel to get a match against NWA World Champion Ric Flair at The Great American Bash 1985 on July 6. Koloff lost to Flair and was even attacked by a fan during the match, but he established himself as a superstar in the wrestling business. According to Koloff, it was his favourite match of his career. The Koloffs went on to regain