Konnan

Charles Rudy Ashenoff (born Carlos Santiago Espada Moises; January 6, 1964), better known by his ring name Konnan, is a Cuban-born American professional wrestling personality, manager, and former professional wrestler.

He is currently signed to Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide (AAA).

In Impact, he was the manager of The Latin American Xchange (LAX) and currently serves as a member of the creative team.

During a career spanning almost three decades, he has wrestled for independent and national promotions in the United States and Mexico, and held fifteen title belts in nine promotions.

He was also involved in the creation of Lucha Underground, where he was supposed to serve as a writer and producer, but ended up in an on-camera role as manager to Prince Puma throughout the first season.

Outside of wrestling, Konnan is an occasional rapper.

He is best known to United States audiences for his run in World Championship Wrestling as part of the nWo stable and as part of The Filthy Animals.

He also formed

In 1966, he and his mother arrived in Boston.

Soon after landing in Boston, she met a young half-Jewish, half-Puerto Rican private investigator from New York named Richard Ashenoff.

They soon married, and raised Carlos together.

By 1967, the family relocated to Carol City in South Florida.

When Richard formally adopted Carlos, he listed Carlos' legal name as Charles Ashenoff.

By 1976, under the influence of older friends and neighbors, Ashenoff had gotten into stealing cars.

He learned how to drive at 12, learned to box, and was an "avid weightlifter".

Ashenoff was expelled from several schools before landing at Miami Southwest High.

In 1982, he graduated a year early from Southwest Miami Senior High School, and was arrested and charged as a juvenile with credit card theft and motorcycle theft.

He won the California state (amateur) Middleweight Boxing Championship in 1983.

He set a goal to qualify for the Junior Olympics in boxing, but injured his shoulder in training and was deployed to the Middle East subsequent to the U.S. Embassy bombing in Beirut on April 18, 1983.

His ship was in the Strait of Hormuz when the US Marine barracks (along with the French paratrooper barracks) in Beirut were bombed on October 24, 1983.

By 1984, the Cape Cod was rotated out of the Persian Gulf.

Ashenoff returned to San Diego, and received an honorable discharge.

In San Diego, Konnan met John Roberts.

Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter then details Ashenoff's first foray in to professional wrestling:

"Carlos traveled to Tijuana on Wednesday, January 6, 1988, (his 24th birthday), where he was led to the dressing area and introduced to Manuel de los Santos, the promoter of the show, and who also wrestled in the main event as 'Kiss'. De los Santos took one look at the 215-pound bodybuilder and did the classic double-take –– what the hell is this guy doing here, and, how quickly can I get this guy in the ring. Konnan introduced himself and explained how he was brought here by his manager/agent, John Roberts. Roberts had already bragged to de los Santos that Carlos had been a wrestler in Florida. Suddenly, a big roar (laughter) went up from another wrestler, Miguel Lopez, who wrestled as Rey Misterio. Lopez/Misterio explained to Carlos that Roberts was just a nutty fan, always in the front row, but that he did nothing involved with managing or agent-ing or anything else in the business. Still, the wrestlers asked Carlos, want to give it a try?"

Billed as El Centurión ("The Centurion"), Ashenoff debuted for the Universal Wrestling Association (UWA) on January 6, 1988.

In the early part of his career, he wrestled for many different promotions.

After making his debut for UWA, Konnan wrestled for the UWA Heavyweight title against El Canek at UWA 14 on January 29, 1989, and wrestled six- and eight-man tag matches intermittently for the promotion until 1994, with the likes of Dos Caras, Mascara Sagrada, and others.

Konnan wrestled in a six-man, two out of three falls, tag team match as Konnan El Barbaro ("Konnan the Barbarian") with Lizmark and Yoshihiro Asai against As Charro, Indio Yori & Negro Casas on February 3, 1989, for World Wrestling Association.

Konnan joined Empresa Mexicana de la Lucha Libre (EMLL) later that year.

He used Konnan El Barbaro with EMLL as well.

Konnan's first stint with World Championship Wrestling lasted only a few weeks.

All of his matches for UWA after 1991 were cross-promotions with EMLL and AAA.

the 3 Live Kru for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) in the early 2000s and later the Latin American Xchange (LAX) stable there.

In Mexico, Konnan was the first-ever CMLL World Heavyweight Champion, and the leader of the Foreign Legion in AAA when they were the top stable.

Konnan was born Carlos Santiago Espada Moises in Santiago, Cuba, of Puerto Rican and Cuban descent.

Shortly after his 18th birthday, Ashenoff was caught selling drugs and charged as an adult.

He was given a choice of going to jail or entering the military.

He chose the latter, joining the United States Navy.

After basic training, Ashenoff was relocated to San Diego, and assigned to a destroyer tender in the Pacific Fleet – the USS Cape Cod (AD-43).