Chris Champion Passes Away at Age 57

According to Pwinsider.com, Chris Champion, who wrestled for Jim Crockett Promotions as one half of the New Breed tag team and later as Yoshi Kwan in World Championship Wrestling passed away today at the age of 57. Champion, real name Christopher Ashford-Smith, was trained by the Malenko family and started in the Florida territory. There is no word yet on the cause of Champion’s death.

The New Breed tag team with Sean Royal (billed as time travelers from the future who had to 1986 from 2002, where Dusty Rhodes was President of the United States) were to feud with the Rock N’ Roll Express but Champion was injured in a car accident. Former WWF and Memphis star Warren “Wolfie D” Wolfe initially posted the news on his Facebook…

“Another close brother has passed away. Chris Champion took me under his wing when I was about 16. I was a huge fan of his as the New Breed growing up. We both loved over the top wrestling gimmicks…we came up with all sorts of stuff from a crash test dummy idea to The Cyberpunks. He was also responsible for suggesting Jamie and I do a white rapper gimmick as a team, which ultimately took us as far as WrestleMania. He handed us a hubcap at a show one night that he was booking and said, “Wear this around your neck and hit them with it for the finish.” I have a lot of gratitude for Chris and tons of memories. Thank you for everything my friend”