[So, here we go again. This is the bit where I’m supposed to set the scene for you, isn’t it? Alright. Just give me a moment to compose my thoughts and I’ll provide you with the mental picture that you demand from me. Hmm. Maybe I’ll tell you that Chris Champion is wandering through the streets of Mexico in nothing but a pair of Union Jack boxer shorts? Is that so hard to believe? Actually, I’m not particularly keen on that idea. I don’t think that the Mexican climate would suit the tone of Champion’s skin somehow. What would actually suit him though? I’m challenging you to find an environment that would enable this ‘wrestler’ to merely fit in with the rest of the world.

I’m supposed to be telling you what this is about and where all of this is leading to. The truth is that I don’t really know. If I mentioned T-shirts, jeans, small Mexican villages or maybe even a sixty foot donkey…would that be good enough to create a mental image for you? Absolutely not. It’s absurd.

All you need to know is that troubled times lie ahead]

Dear Mr Champion,

I’ve followed your progress longer than most. I tend to think of myself as one of those annoying Internet fans with an undying hunger for wrestling. We’ve not actually met each other in real life, but I’ve seen you at a couple of shows in my home state. I guess you could say that I’m one of those guys that respects wrestlers for their actual ability – rather than just considering whether or not someone is a good guy or not.

I can totally respect your decision to side with Shawn Collins too. He’s always been one of the stronger personalities in the locker room, or at least so my sources say. I think that’s exactly what you need to develop your skills too; a watchful eye. Collins might just be your key to immortality. I would certainly like to think so anyway.

Despite my obvious respect for you, I was left both baffled and curious by the plot to kidnap Suzy Sharp. You see, I actually respect Sharp just as much as anyone that this industry has ever produced. He’s probably one of the greatest underachievers of all time and I’m one of those oddballs that takes the time to delve beneath the surface when analysing a particular person. The fact remains that you had no business kidnapping Suzy and although I accept that this is professional wrestling, you showed me a side to your personality that bordered on sadistic.

That’s what I can’t understand, you see...

I mean, I thought I had you all figured out. I looked at Chris Champion as a charismatic, old school bad guy. Obviously, you’ve got some cowardly tendencies but that goes with the territory that you occupy. You’re supposed to be the guy that the crowd loves to hate, right? I totally dig that vibe, man, because I’ve never really thought Batman was better than the joker or anything along those lines. It’s always been the bad guy that has interested me. That’s why I took to you as both a wrestler and a person, I think. Anyway, just as I thought that I’d cleverly found a definition for you in my wrestler catalogue of personalities…

You send me right back to square one.

Over the past few weeks, you’ve evolved into something that’s actually frightening me, Chris. It’s almost as if you’re beginning to believe that you’re untouchable and that you must make a bloody example of every opponent. More over, you steal Sharp’s wife and taunt him about it. I don’t, for one second, believe that your only reason for kidnapping Suzy was to merely further your own career. I really don’t. There’s some darker hidden purpose here.

The strangest thing is that I used to watch you, back in the day, when you wrestled for another company and you never seemed to be as aggressive as you are now. It’s almost as if your rise through the HWF ranks has instilled some sort of unparalleled arrogance that is only conveyed through rage. I can’t explain it entirely. If I could, then I wouldn’t be sat here right now, scribbling this letter down.

Maybe you just think I’m some fucked up kid that wants to get inside your head and perhaps there’s some truth to it. I try to think of myself as someone that asks questions and refuses to accept anything other than a clear answer. It’s like some sort of disease. My brain wants to digest everything, especially linked to wrestling, and when it can’t – that’s when I start to have problems.

I don’t mean to burden you with my problems but it’s really frustrating for someone with my condition. Even the slightest things have been known to drive me crazy. Hell, when the HWF fed me all the 'Trey’s dead' bullshit I cried myself to sleep as I continually asked the same question over and over again. Why? Why? Why?

One day it actually struck me that professional wrestling hinges on the ratings of its shows. That was when I realised that, although Trey might have been seriously injured, it was always about what kind of reaction the company could get from the fans. They wanted people like me to sweat it out and believe that my one time hero was dead. I ripped all of his posters down from my wall in an attempt to forget about him. Even the mere sight of Michael Trey’s face was enough to send me into a near paralytic state. I’d watched a man die out there. I’d watched him fight for his dream and pay the ultimate price for something that he loved.

Do these people honestly believe that faking a death to increase ratings is what it’s all about?

For a time, I strayed away from the HWF as I followed a number of other companies including some of your older homes. No matter how hard I tried to escape though, the HWF seemed to maintain its position in the limelight. I wasn’t allowed to forget.

It was chance that actually led to my discovery of the faked death too. I never even meant to turn on that particular channel but somehow fate commanded me to do it. Imagine my shock at seeing Michael Trey standing there as if nothing had happened. I’d lost a relative. I’d lost a family member. And now these assholes start telling me that he ‘didn’t really die’? It’s fucking bullshit.

So, I’m asking you, Chris Champion, whether or not you’re going to go down the same road. Are you going to allow yourself to be consumed by these bastards and give them full access to your personality? They’re trying to change you. It’s already begun. You’ve not been a particularly demonic individual but there’s a space in the company that needs to be filled. Are you going to allow them to control your destiny or are you going to stand on your own two feet and do it your way? It troubles me, Chris. It really does.

I’m not expecting you to write back or anything because I really don’t think that wrestlers even read half of the fan mail they receive anymore. In fact, I’m really not expecting you to even acknowledge my existence. I’ve heard the way you talk, so you can go and sit on your perch in the trees or do whatever you need to do. It’s ok. I understand.

But I don’t understand where this is all leading and if truth be told… I don’t even think you know either.

So, please, even if you’re not prepared to respond to this, at least show myself and the rest of the people out there that you’re not changing into someone that you can never be. Even though you’d like to think that the world hates you, quite a few of us actually like watching your matches.

Just think about it. Ok?

Yours sincerely,

Tony Walt (Toronto, Canada)

[How’d you respond to something like that? It’s hard, isn’t it? Professional athletes are mobbed by similar views everyday and something like this isn’t uncommon. You might read this little letter and think, “Maybe this guy is concerned about Chris Champion. He cares for him." I fail to see how people reach that conclusion.

Does this guy actually know Champion? Sure, he might have taped his every match in the past five years, but that does not detract from the fact that he is a still nothing more than a stranger on the horizon. He’s just one of a million kids that tries to live the life of a wrestler in every way that’s humanly possible.

People like this guy need to get out into the real world and understand that there is a life beyond wrestling. Not everything in the world revolves around gimmicks, crowd pops and T-shirts.

And so, as I stand in my dressing gown at the bottom of the stairs at 8 am reading this propaganda, I’m not left to actually think about any of the points raised by the letter. No. I’m left to ponder over whether or not this is a genuine plea from a concerned party or just another cry for attention?

I’m the bad guy though, right? So, you’re already assuming that I’ve already screwed the paper up, laughed a little and tossed it into the trash can. Option B it is then.

Yes, I think I’ll decide that this is actually a cry for attention.