Icons of Wrestling #21 – Max Moon

Jamie Lithgow

Height: 6’1″
Weight: 240 lbs
Hometown: Outer Space
Glory Days: September 1992 – January 1993
Fun Fact: Max Moon has a brother called Alfie. He’s not from ‘Outer Space’ though, he’s from Albert Square in Walford.

Konnan: Superstar in Mexico, robot in America

Bio:
Over the years WWE has played host to a lot of interesting characters, from a lot of interesting places. We’ve had an undertaker from Death Valley; a pimp from ‘The Red Light District’; a fat white guy from ‘Deepest Darkest Africa’; and a ton of weirdos from a place called ‘Parts Unknown’. However, in 1992 WWE reached their zenith of creative genius when they introduced a spaceman, from ‘Outer Space’…. and also ‘The Future’.

Maximillion ‘Max’ Moon was the aesthetic brainchild of Charles ‘Konnan’ Ashenoff. For those who remember the character, you are likely still asking yourself what in the blue hell it was all about?! Well say goodbye to those sleepless nights because a wrestling spaceman will likely make a little more sense if I tell you that K-Dog’s inspiration came from a robot he saw on a Japanese cartoon. They always have the best stuff on those shows…

Although Konnan did not debut as the Max Moon character – or Comet/Komet Kid – until mid 1992, he was actually under contract to WWE for the best part of a year beforehand. While the details of his gimmick – specifically his $13000+ costume – were ironed out, Konnan was allowed to continue working in Mexico. During this period Konnan’s popularity south of the border went through the roof. Thus, one can understand his reluctance to transport the component parts of a Transformers costume which he would then have to wear, whenever he worked in the States. This led to Konnan missing WWE dates and – coupled with the fact that he worked Lucha style and nobody else in WWE at the time did – ultimately parted ways with The Fed after just two or three televised appearances as the spaceman.

There’s Konnan, as the original Lucha version of Max Moon

Having invested a good chunk of money in a costume with a jetpack and confetti shooting ray guns, Vince McMahon was not about to give up on this gimmick just yet. Tom ‘Paul Diamond/Kato from The Orient Express’ Boric was identified as the man with the talent – and inside leg measurements – to take it forward.

One would think that by the time Boric was handed the gimmick WWE would have settled on a permanent name, right? Nope. Boric also flip-flopped between ‘The Comet Kid’ and ‘Max Moon’ before settling on the latter. Other potential names for this version of WWE’s resident spaceman were ‘Stellar Steve’, ‘Paul The Amazing Planeteer’ and – randomly – ‘Quagmyre’.

Fitting the in-ring portion of the costume perfectly, Boric is the Max Moon most people remember – assuming they remember him at all. Instead of a Lucha Libre style, this Max Moon wrestled like everybody else in WWE, only with a few extra forward rolls.

The more familiar version of Max Moon, portrayed by Kato – the masked dude from The Orient Express

Mr. Moon would mainly wrestle on Wrestling Challenge and occasionally Prime Time Wrestling, where he would either pin jobbers or defeat fellow low-card acts, like Repo Man and Rick Martel, by disqualification. As unimpressive as that sounds, it was sufficient enough to earn the space traveller an Intercontinental Title match against champion Shawn Michaels on the very first episode of Raw. He lost, of course. Subsequently Max made his first PPV appearance by lasting a whopping two minutes in the 1993 Royal Rumble. Ironically, Moon’s PPV debut would be his last appearance on WWE TV.

Having bombed spectacularly, even by early 90’s standards, Vince finally gave up on the Max Moon character. Having been ridiculed by adults and laughed at by children, Max Moon returned to his home planet when his contract expired in February of 1993.

Note: Max Moon was killed on his way back to his home planet

All previous ‘Icons of Wrestling’ can be read here.