Lawsuit Shows Konnan is Wrestling’s Jesse Jackson

Photo courtesy of obsessedwithwrestling.com

On Aug. 27, 2008, it was reported by PWInsider.com that a lawsuit filed by Charles Ashenoff (pictured above), better known to professional wrestling fans as “Konnan” in March 2008 against his former employer, Total Nonstop Action (TNA) wrestling, will begin its trial on Oct. 26, 2009, according to a report jointly filed with the United States District Court in Texas.

In the lawsuit, Ashenoff is blaming TNA for bad mental health, harassment, his kidney failure, makes claims TNA are racist due to their mainly White workforce, TNA owes him money, the Latin American Xchange (LAX) name and likeness and that TNA stole ideas/gimmicks from him that TNA has since made profits from and character defamation while he was employed there.

Ashenoff is also alleging that while TNA said they would help pay for his hip-replacement surgery, they did not and to add leverage to the suit, Ashenoff claims TNA helped pay for Scott Steiner’s recent surgery but did not help pay for his or Ron Killing’s surgery, who now works for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) as “R-Truth.”

Since coming to the United States in 1992 to work for WWE, Ashenoff has been a bust, never being able to replicate the success he enjoyed in Mexico, and then pulls the race card when things aren’t up to his liking.

It is simply amazing that every wrestling company Ashenoff has worked for in the United States, he has always placed the race card and screamed “Racism” when things didn’t go his way and honestly, I am sick and tired of it.

For those who don’t know, when Ashenoff was employed by WWE in 1992, he portrayed a character by the name “Max Moon” and when he was released for showing up boss Vince McMahon backstage in front of a highly respected Japanese wrestling promoter, Ashenoff claimed he was released as a result of discrimination and the changing of his character’s name as to why he didn’t receive a push and threatened to file a lawsuit against WWE, which was never filed.

It couldn’t have been the fact that Ashenoff, whose success in Mexico seemed to inflate his ego bigger than his head, resented McMahon for not giving him a guaranteed contract, something McMahon has never done for any of his wrestlers, but would be a common practice World Championship Wrestling (WCW) would adopt several years later.

Ashenoff would then use the race card again, this time in WCW in 1999, when his No Limit Soldiers storyline with Master P flopped and the West Texas Rednecks, a country group let by Curt Hennig, were getting more cheers when they were suppose to be the heels (bad guys). Ashenoff got up on his soap box and said that the people in charge of WCW didn’t understand Hip-Hop or how to market it and that’s why Master P didn’t get over with the WCW crowds.

It couldn't have been the fact that hardly anyone liked Master P, as he was booed his first night in the company at a live show, and was an over-rated rapper or that WCW was located in the South region, where Country Music is big or that Hennig and company were a damn entertaining group that could carry a nice tune? No, it just has to be racism.

As for his racism claim against TNA, how exactly is a company racist when a Black man, Killings, was their heavyweight champion two times; Ashenoff was a tag-champion several times; Hernandez and Homicide (LAX) held the tag-titles for a long-time; the formert X-Division champion, Jay Lethal, is Black and the current heavyweight champion, Samoa Joe, is Samoan? If that’s not equal opportunity, I don’t know what is.

Also, can someone please explain to me how TNA can be held for character defamation when Ashenoff was a heel (bad guy) in the company when LAX first started? Or did Ashenoff think that he wasn't a traditional heel, but rather, a cool heel like how most the New World Order (NWO) acted like in WCW?

In addition, I find it ridiculous that Ashenoff would hold TNA responsible for his hip injury when you consider the fact that when he first signed with TNA in 2002, he already had his hip problem, which was caused by not only wrestling professionally for 15-years at the time but also, his heavy drug and steroid use that gave him blasted physique, a rarity among Mexican wrestlers, that made him the Hulk Hogan of Mexico and popular enough to land acting roles on a Spanish soap opera.

As for the surgery incident, what is known is that TNA did indeed give Ashenoff the money to undergo the hip-operation, which later led to Ashenoff finding out he needed kidney replacement surgery and would later undergo the procedure after a fan donated his kidney. However, Ashenoff’s claim is that while TNA did give him the money for the hip-operation, they told him he would have to pay it back in full and that since it was a pre-conditioning problem, he was on his own.

Let’s clear a few things up. As already stated, Ashenoff’s ailing hip was a direct result of his heavy drug use and not his “extensive ring-work” in TNA which consisted of Ashenoff hitting someone with a “loaded” sock and throwing a shoe at them.

As a result, TNA is actually able to ignore worker’s compensation laws, especially when you consider that Scott Steiner got hurt while working on an international tour for TNA, TNA was legally required to pay for his surgery under worker’s compensation as the only exceptions to worker’s compensation are alcohol and drugs.

Quite frankly, Ashenoff has been nothing more than dead weight to the wrestling scene in the United States and has been barking up the racism tree for years now, using his race as a scapegoat and has not gotten very far with it. He had nothing on WWE, nothing on WCW, has nothing on TNA and will NEVER have anything on any wrestling company, EVER!

Simply put, Ashenoff is the Jesse Jackson of professional wrestling.