Yesterday (Sept. 23), a social media user posted screenshots of text messages and photographs that are allegedly evidence of former TNA Knockouts champion Masha Slamovich’s abuse of former partner, MLW and independent wrestler AKIRA. They also included a link to an archive of additional texts and pictures.
Slamovich’s real name is Anna Khozina; AKIRA’s is Alexander Atkisson.
Reporting on the accusations, Jon Alba of SI.com’s The Takedown was not able to verify the screenshots and photos. He did reach out to TNA for an official statement, and a spokesperson replied with:
“We take any allegations like this very seriously, and have begun an internal investigation.”
Alba writes that The Takedown team also reached out to Slamovich, but didn’t receive a response. AKIRA posted a lengthy statement on his social media about the situation without directly mentioning Slamovich.
In addition to TNA’s investigation, two independent promotions that had Slamovich booked for upcoming dates have announced plans to replace her on their shows. Prestige Wrestling has pulled her from their Oct. 5 Roseland XII event in Portland, Oregon…
… and West Coast Pro’s taken her off their Nov. 1 San Francisco card, How The West Was Won:
A well-regarded talent mostly known for deathmatchs, in addition to his MLW work AKIRA has wrestled extensively in North America and Japan since getting into the business in 2018. He’s held MLW’s Middleweight and Tag titles, and for five months last year represented Big Japan as their Deathmatch Heavyweight champ. He and Slamovich wrestled as a tag team in 2022-2034.
Slamovich began wrestling a couple years before AKIRA, and really rose to prominence when she became a regular for Impact/TNA in 2021. She was their Knockouts (women’s champion) last year, and has been featured on NXT as part of the WWE partnership. Slamovich took the pin when Ash By Elegance won the Knockouts title from NXT’s Jacy Jayne last month at Heatwave.
