Charles Ashenoff, better known by his ring name Konnan, had one of the most decorated careers in professional wrestling history. He started in Mexico and became one of the biggest stars in the history of the country while competing for its two premier promotion companies, AAA and CMLL.
During his career, Konnan won the CMLL and AAA heavyweight championships before making a full-time move to wrestle in the United States in 1996 when he signed with WCW. In his time with the Ted Turner-owned company, Konnan was a two-time World Tag-Team champion, World TV champion and a United States champion. When the company folded in 2001, Konnan went back to AAA and also wrestled for TNA (now Impact Wrestling).
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These days, the 54-year-old is working as a producer with Major League Wrestling along with a behind-the-scenes position with AAA and an on-air role on Impact.
Sporting News recently caught up with the Mexican legend ahead of Thursday night's MLW TV taping in Chicago. Here, we discuss his role with MLW and the company needs to do to break through in the U.S., who is the next "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and a farewell tour in 2019.
(Editor's note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.)
SPORTING NEWS: You recently joined the backstage team as a producer at MLW. What do you make of your time there so far?
KONNAN: I’ve only been there a few months, but so far, so good. To compete with the other companies that are on TV, you have to do something different. It’s hard to do something different when a lot of the same things have already been done. How do you make it different? It’s like, how do you make a horror movie different? We just have to be more resourceful in the way we present the product. We have been around for about a year or so. It’s still a baby in trying to get our name out there and making our stars. We are still in the beginning stages. As you can attest, the product has been good. The feedback from the fans has been good, so I think we are on the right road.
SN: What do you feel MLW needs to do to separate itself from everybody else?
KONNAN: It’s pretty hard to separate yourself from everybody else unless you are going to be something really different. I think for us its going to have to be through the storylines, talent people want to see. It’s hard in this day of age find new talent that no one already has. Everybody is kind of cannibalizing each other. If someone gets hot, everybody starts using them. If somebody is hot at Impact then they go somewhere because everybody wants to use them. You just got to be able to use those performers to the best of their capacity and give them good storylines that are going to connect with the audience so they came back and watch your product. That’s basically all you can do. What can we do that’s different? You just don’t be wanting to do stuff for controversy just to get click bait an be something that’s very superficial. I think any wrestling fan wants to see good matches with good storylines and I think that’s MLW is doing.
SN: Wrestling isn't how it once was. The commonsense storylines were what resonated with the fans. Why do you think the sport isn't produced that way anymore rather than the over-the-top sensationalism we see from a lot of companies now?
KONNAN: If people are willing to pay to see "The Fast and the Furious," why would do you need a real good plot when people are paying to see CGI? People are paying to see Marvel Comic movies, so why didn't they go back to basic s— when you can get away with computer generated stuff. I love to watch horror stuff. Why? Because their budget is very small. Which means when I watch a film from Romania, Cuba or El Salvador, I know their budget doesn't have a lot of money. So you got to have good acting, good directing, good cinematography. You always see really good camera shots because they aren't using CGI and you see some really good acting scenes because they don’t have much money to be getting all these actors.
When I was younger, you can get away with using a rest hold and the crowd would pop for it. People knew it was apart of the match. Now you can’t do a rest hold because most people want to see action. Everything can’t be how it was before because everything evolves. The young cats today whether its in social media, in wrestling or in the arts and entertainment field, they’re the ones who are the architects. They’re the ones who are setting up the rules, the parameters and the paradigms of what you’re watching, not the old guys. If you try to tell the new guys how to do things, they look at you like, Hey man, that was your time and you did that way. We are doing it our way.
That’s just what they do. I’m not a fan of today’s hip-hop, but whose to tell Drake and Lil Wayne what they’re doing isn’t successful when they making as much money than a lot of artists in their history.
SN: When you look at today’s wrestling, is there anyone who stands out to you as the next Steve Austin, The Rock or Hulk Hogan to lure in the casual fan and put more eyes on the product?
KONNAN: There’s just so many factors that determine if someone can make it that far — like the politics that are involved, the work ethic of the person. There are things that are out of your control that make it hard. I don’t see anybody right now. Somebody will come along. They always do.
The problem with the independent market is WWE has so much money and clout now that when something does get over like you saw at All In with The Young Bucks and now WWE is making them offers. There has to become a point where they’re like, “OK, we love our creative liberties. We love that we can make a lot of money and be at home. But, I’m pretty sure there’s a point in their careers where they are going to get older and they are just going to want to take it easy and make some money. You’ve got to be wary whenever WWE sees something, they’re going to make a substantial offer."
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SN: Let's flip back to you and what is going on with your career. You’re behind the scenes in AAA, behind the scenes in MLW and been doing some stuff with Impact. How do you view this stage of your wrestling career?
KONNAN: It’s great because I’m still in the game and I don’t have to take bumps. I’m actually getting in shape to do a retirement tour, but that doesn't mean I’m going to be taking a lot of bumps. I just want to do a final farewell tour. Right now, I get to work with the young generation and get to give information that is to be used and not to be abused and to be shared. When I broke into the wrestling business, it was very hard especially in Mexico. For anybody to give you any advice, I had to take guys out and get them drunk and get advice on how to do things right because everybody wanted me to fall flat on my face.
When I went to WCW, there were few guys willing to give me any advice on how to wrestle the American style. Scott Hall was one of them, Kevin Nash was another and so was Sean Waltman. I’m out there to give the guys as much information as I can. It’s a very different generation that I grew up in. This generation feels entitled and that they should have everything. That isn't everybody, but a lot of them just don’t want to put the work in. They don’t want to wait or don’t understand there’s a process.
It takes a while to learn the business. This is an art. This is a craft. Just because you can do some high spots and people say, “This is awesome," does not mean you are a star or that you have arrived.
SN: WWE has been hot on the heels of some of the best talent on the independent scene. If you're Cody, The Young Bucks, Pentagon and Fenix, what would you tell them?
KONNAN: Enjoy this ride while you can right now because once you go over there, a lot of your creative freedom is stifled. I think everybody now knows some of the pitfalls of WWE. They don’t use you correctly. That has to be on their mind of, “What if I go in there and something happens to me like Neville, who had a lot of potential and a lot of talent an they didn't use him correctly. There’s a lot of people we can name that weren't used correctly. They have wonder what’s going to happen if I go over there. Yea, I’m going to make a lot of money but you can’t put a premium on happiness. You also want to be happy. It’s a hard decision to make.
SN: Earlier, you talked about a retirement tour. Why make a final return in 2019? What was the thought process behind that?
KONNAN: I had gotten hurt in a wrestling match so I went in to get my hip replaced. When I had the surgery, I had kidney damage so bad that I had to get a kidney transplant. All of a sudden, I retired. It was nothing official and nothing I wanted to do. Then I had to get another hip implant. I was just thinking to myself that I could get into good enough shape so I can say goodbye to this sport that’s given me everything that I love so much and do a farewell tour in places that I can draw a crowd like Mexico, the United States, Puerto Rico and possibly Europe.
