I grew up watching wrestling, longing to be a professional wrestler from the time that I was a little boy. My cousin, Cliff, and I would act like professional wrestlers, diving off the nightstands and furniture in his parents’ room, dropping an elbow on stuffed animals that lay there helplessly. We were the kings of the double drop kick and many an afternoon was filled with us soaring through the air, imitating our heroes. (Sorry about that broken bed frame Uncle Keith and Aunt Joyce!) It was fun for us and each Saturday morning, I would turn on the television to see who was wrestling that morning, hoping to see Sting or the Rock N Roll Express, my favorite wrestlers at the time.

I never realized that dream of being a professional wrestler, due in large part to the fact that I was too lazy to work out that much. I thank God that He steered me in a different direction. I stopped watching wrestling in high school, but in college, we all got back involved in it. I must admit that I even went to see Fall Brawl one year in Winston-Salem, NC. Each week in college, we would have Monday Night Nitro parties and people would go crazy over the storylines and what incredible move some wrestler pulled off that week.

Before too long, though, I had to shut it off. I remember watching as one of the wrestlers smacked around a woman and in my mind, the line was crossed. There is entertainment and then there are things that are just not right. They had begun to write many sexual situations and foul language into the scripts and now, beating women was being glorified, something that I staunchly stand against. At that point, I put the remote down and walked away from the masses that followed the sport.

Am I a saint? Not in the least bit. Do I feel that more need to take the same stance? If we are Christian, the answer is yes. In light of the death of wrestler Chris Benoit this week, I decided that I would write this commentary out of the conviction that I felt the Lord placing on my heart. I am but one voice, however, throughout time, God has done much with the voice of just one person.

I read the headline on a sports web site and continued to follow it as the facts began to leak out. Yet another wrestler was dead before the age of fifty and this time, he was believed to have murdered his wife and his child before taking his own life. Steroids were found in his house and we have to wonder if that might have had a part in it. Either way, he had been involved in an industry that promoted violence and what were the last moments of his life but a violent encounter that ended in an act of desperation.

Miss Elizabeth died a few years ago of an accidental overdose and had two weeks prior been the victim of domestic abuse at the hands of another professional wrestler. The house that she died in had steroids, testosterone, and saizen. Curt Hennig, known as Mr. Perfect, died at the age of 44 of what was believed to be a cocaine overdose. His father believed that it was a lethal dose of steroids. The saga goes on and on as many wrestlers have committed suicide or have died from overdoses or lived shattered lives due to the strain their career placed on them as a professional wrestler.

So, what does this have to do with you the Christian and you the viewer? It has everything to do with us. For one, when we tune in to Raw, we are supporting this lifestyle. We are telling our heroes that they need to look like this, even if it takes the use of steroids to attain it and maintain it. We are saying that the violence, especially towards women, is entertaining and that it is accepted behavior. We are telling them that their stage personality of self-glorification is admirable, which usually leads them to the pits of depression and substance abuse. We are telling them to kill themselves for the sake of our entertainment.

The second way that this involves us is with the wrestling promotions and our support of them. They are not going to change anything that makes them money and seemingly each year, more and more people are watching and attending the events. They continuously push the envelope and we continue to ask for more. Is that something that God would find acceptable? The answer to that question is no and we can find it in His Word. He warns us to never become stumbling blocks and when we support this, we are the main stumbling blocks.

Is wrestling a bad thing? That is a question that you can answer according to your conviction. Is the form of wrestling that the WWE presents a bad thing? There is no question to that. We have watched many of them for years because in some form, they were our heroes. However, we have to stand up for them, as we always long to see our heroes prevail. The way we can stand up for our heroes in the wrestling world is to stop watching and keep them from killing themselves through the lifestyle that the wrestling world thrives on.

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