The publicist for my publisher, ECW Press, passed along your invitation for me to appear on your Internet radio show. Of course, I accept, but with three conditions that I think are reasonable under the circumstances. Let me list them and provide the full background for the readers of my blog and email list.

The conditions are:

1. Just you and me – no other guests.

2. The interview is live, not taped.

3. You begin the interview by reading the complete Introduction to my book CHRIS & NANCY.

Last week you posted a negative review on the Amazon page for CHRIS & NANCY. Below is the review in its entirety. (I came away with the impression that you regretted that Amazon didn’t provide an interface for block letters with crayon.)

My God what a depressing book … Torture to read … The case is closed. Benoit did the terrible crime and then killed himself. What else is to be said? … my opinions, yours may vary

On your Friday night show, you debated the virtues and defects of CHRIS & NANCY with wrestling book and DVD critic Derek Burgan. On the Wrestling Classics discussion board over the weekend, you conceded, “I had my hat handed to me in that debate.” (http://wrestlingclassics.com/.ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=103539;p=1; PDF version at http://muchnick.net/wrestlingclassics.pdf)

You had initiated the Wrestling Classics discussion board thread on CHRIS & NANCY, where the consensus seems to be that you failed to articulate why you consider it “the worst wrestling book ever.” Eventually you made two halfway coherent points: (a) that a Benoit book serves no purpose because it is well established that Chris Benoit committed the crimes, and (b) that you don’t like my writing style. On the latter point, you said I use too many big words and my sentence structure is too complex. (The only supporting example on the thread, not provided by you, was a sentence from one of my earlier books.)

That is why I attach the condition that you begin the interview by reading the entire Introduction. Your show has a lot of time and the Intro is only around 1,000 words – shouldn’t take that much time, and it sets up the content and style of my book in full context. Needless to add, you can proceed to fire away with whatever questions or comments you choose, and can read whatever other passages you consider poorly written or condescending. (In the Wrestling Classics thread, you offered this insightful gem: “i’ve spoken with a lot of insiders off air and they don’t think he can write either.” Believe it or not, these anonymous critics have not reduced me to tears.)

I look forward to your response.

Irv Muchnick