Chris Champion

Christopher Ashford-Smith II
Christopher Ashford-Smith II
Born	February 17, 1961; Tampa, Florida
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)	Dennis Smith ; Chris Champion ; Kowabunga ; Yoshi Kwan ; Synn
Billed height	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Billed weight	222 lb (101 kg)
Trained by	Boris Malenko; Dean Malenko; Joe Malenko
Debut	1984

Christopher Ashford-Smith (born February 17, 1961) is an American professional wrestler better known as Chris Champion or Yoshi Kwan.

Career

Chris Champion (born Christopher Dennis Ashford-Smith) started wrestling in 1984 as Dennis Smith. He went to Florida Championship Wrestling in 1986 and changed his name to Chris Champion. He formed a tag team with Sean Royal called the New Breed, who claimed that they were from the year 2002. They won the NWA Florida Tag Team Championship and left for the National Wrestling Alliance's Jim Crockett Promotions in 1987.

In the NWA, they started a feud with The Rock 'n' Roll Express but it was ended when they had a car accident and Champion was not able to wrestle for several months. He eventually came back with a cast on his arm with computer parts on it, claiming it was an advanced cast from 2002. He came to ringside with Royal several times while he recovered. As faces they feuded briefly with The Midnight Express before Royal retired and The New Breed split up. Champion claimed in a shoot interview the two did not speak again after this for 13 years.

The New Breed memorably claimed that Dusty Rhodes would be elected President of the United States in the 2000 election, and addressed him as "Mr. President". Their entrance music was the Beastie Boys' song "Fight For Your Right to Party".

Worth note is that Champion competed in the Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup tournament in 1987, teaming with Denny Brown and again in 1988, teaming with Mark Starr as "The New New Breed". He then briefly competed in the NWA as "The Karate Kid". Ric Flair, Barry Windham and others complained of Champion's stiff kicks and he was soon out of the NWA.

Champion showed up in the Continental Wrestling Association teaming with his brother, Mark Starr, in 1989. They were called "Wildside" and feuded with the Rock 'N Roll Express. They were also tag team champions there.

After Starr left the CWA, the CWA became the United States Wrestling Association. Champion turned face and feuded with Jerry Lawler and later "Dirty White Boy" Tony Anthony. He was one of the top faces in the USWA at this time.

Champion left USWA and later went to World Championship Wrestling as "Yoshi Kwan" where he was managed by Harley Race and feuded with Cactus Jack. Despite not being Asian, he played an Asian character sometimes being billed from Hunan and other times being billed from Hong Kong. After the feud with Cactus Jack he was scheduled to be in a feud with Ricky Steamboat and face him at Halloween Havoc that year but a knee injury forced him out of action. He soon left WCW and went back to the independent circuit, where he continued to wrestle as Yoshi Kwan and later wrestled as "Synn" in U.S. independents and in England.

He returned to the United States in 2002 and suffered a stroke.

Champion recovered well from the stroke. He most recently wrestled in the SWF, an independent promotion in Tennessee. He was a three time tag team champion there.

According to his MySpace page, on February 21, 2008, he was sentenced to 11 months 29 days in jail for breaking a probation. There is no mention made of why he was on probation to begin with.

Champion claimed in a "shoot interview" with RF Video in 2001 that he had a fling with Stacy Carter years ago when he wrestled in Memphis.