Keith Champagne Talks WWE Heroes

 

Keith Champagne: OK, I've answered this question a few times but for the very first time, I'm not going to lie. This is the straight, balls out truth of how I got involved.

 

It's a little-known fact that I'm actually a hero in real life. I've saved several cats from being stuck in trees over the years, have the strength of at least 3 or 4 (really weak) men and once (my crowning moment) survived a 30-foot fall off a sheer cliff face while trying to help a drunk friend climb down (true story!). So, long answer short, I'm obviously the most qualified writer in comics to handle this assignment.

 

I can only imagine my wunderkind editor at Titan, Ned "El Gato Loco" Hartley (he occasionally wrestles in Mexico under a mask) heard whispers of my reputation because he showed up at my doorstep and challenged me to a match. Fortuitously, I have a full-sized ring in my backyard. The stipulation was that if I defeated Ned, I got the gig. If he defeated me...well, he could brag that he defeated me. Only a few hundred people have earned that right, it's a prestigious claim.

 

What Ned couldn't possibly have known is that, while I may be a hero in real life, I always carry a little bag of salt in my tights - a trick I learned from Mr. Fuji back in the 80's. I blinded him with it, hit him with a chair for good measure, and the rest is history.

 

 

 

Keith Champagne: Absolutely! Growing up watching wrestling is equated in my mind as family time, it was something my dad and two brothers watched together on Saturday mornings. Mom, not so interested but those of us with a Y chromosome in the Champagne family spent countless hours glued to the tube, reading wrestling magazines and going to live shows when WWE would come to town.

 

Wrestling has always been in the background of my life and even in times when I don't watch religiously, it always cycles back around again.

 

 

 

KC: WWE is protective of their brand but aside from a couple of guidelines they've asked we respect, we've had nothing but latitude in the handling of their characters. They've given us acres of freedom to come up with the story we're telling, there's been very little editorial interference. It's actually quite a simple approval process, especially compared to some of the crossover things I've written for other companies.

 

 

 

KC: Wouldn't that be awesome? When it was first announced that I was writing this series, I got that question asked from so many people so there's definitely strong interest there in seeing the old school roster in comic book form.

 

 

 

KC: Origins, per se? No. But there are definitely plans to explore characters like Undertaker under the umbrella of the overarching storyline. We have talked about doing a 'year one' type of story with different characters and it's not out of the question that we will. But I think we're going to focus more on where the characters are going than we are where they came from. That's not written in stone, the door is open, but it's the direction we're leaning in.

 

 

 

KC: I wouldn't say Triple H and Randy Orton are exactly friends in the comic but for the most part, we're doing our own thing. We're not tied to the television continuity, we're using these characters to build our own mythology and tell our own stories.