Revival n' Wrestling

It's time to play a game of true confessions. Since I'm the only one with a voice on this blog, I'll go:
I have been a wrestling fan for 27 years, since I was ten years old.
There. I said it.

It used to be fun in 4th and 5th grade, especially after school when I would wrestle around with others in school, we put each other in figure-four leglocks, etc. I even went to school with my face painted as Sting.  I was the only one I knew that was a wrestking fan, though, after 6th grade.This used to be something I had to keep quiet about.
Wrestling became mainstream in the 1980s, thanks to the efforts of Hulk Hogan, Vince McMahon, and the WWF's Rock n' Wrestling time. The NWA was what I gravitated toward, however, thanks to living in North Carolina, and World Championship Wrestling on Saturday nights. 
Wrestling revolutionized in the 1990s, with the NWA morphing into WCW, the Monday night wrestling wars, and the "Attitude era." It also got a lot more raunchy in different aspects, and things got a lot more real.
Wrestlers were dying.
I used to collect wrestling magzines like crazy. I read Pro Wrestling Illustrated like it was going out of style, while my friends read comics, Tiger Beat, etc. I remember the deaths of Mike von Erich (David was before my time), then Bruiser Brody's murder, the fatal accident that killed Adrian Adonis. Then it was Chris von Erich, then brother Kerry. Then it was Brian Pillman, later on Owen Hart, then the list grew by leaps and bounds. If you want to get an idea, check out this site. It goes from the 1980s to the 1990s, and then starts breaking down by 5 year increments, if that tells you anything.
There was a common denominator on all of them: drugs, suicide, or heart conditions. Rick Rude, Curt Hennig, the list continued to grow. Chris Benoit's seemingly tragic-then revealed murder-suicide shook up a lot of people.

Something else started happening as well. Something glorious. It started with reading the book Every Man Has His Price by Ted DiBiase. There was Jake Roberts becoming born again. There was my childhood hero, Sting. 
Wrestlers were being saved by the grace and power of God.

Shawn Michaels, Nikita Koloff, and the Road Warriors, Hawk and Animal. Hawk (Mike Hegstrand) is unfortunately one of the wrestlers that is also among the statistics of wrestlers that died early, but told quite a story of deliverance from drugs and a dangerous lifestyle before God called him home.
In the last two weeks, two things brought this back to me. I finally got to read Lex Luger's book, Wrestling With the Devil. God saved him from, basically himself. I lifestyle of self, drugs, alcohol, infidelity, and deceit, that found him dealing with the death of Elizabeth Hullete and in jail.  His story of redemption is well worth a read.
This past Sunday was the other- getting to meet Marc Mero at Bald Mountain Baptist Church here in West Jefferson, NC. Here's a link of pic's his team took of this event- I'm on the far left of the congregation shot (just saying). He has a powerful message that he is taking to schools and churches, and I wish his group the best. They are changing lives and reaching people.

I am so happy to see what God is doing in the wrestling world. The battle is still going on- I noticed former wrestler Shawn O'Haire committed suicide this week at age 43. The saddest thing I saw while reading his biography was that he was a practicing Buddhist. That breaks my heart, knowing what that means for his eternal soul.
The really good news for us Christians is that our battle, like the wrestling world, is pre-determined. We don't know what our battle will look like, how long the match will be, but we know who will win the match.
Now that should get a pop!