Sporting Life, Victor Penney:
Do you want to know one of the easiest ways to get under the skin of the toughest, most intimidating professional wrestlers on the planet? Call out pro-wrasslin’ for what it is: fake.
The outcomes are predetermined and the moves are choreographed, but make no mistake: the athleticism and pain are real, and so is the passion. It’s a scripted sporting event, a mix between a carnival sideshow, gladiators, and a soap opera, but so what? I don’t care if it’s “fake” and cheesy because it’s show business.
Pro-wrestling has been a part of my life, to varying degrees, for as long as I can remember, going back to when I’d watch it on TV with my dad and the Hulk Hogan lunchbox I carried around in elementary school. As a Catholic father now, I have serious objections to the trashier side of modern pro-wrestling and its extreme displays of violence; these days, I also find myself walking a line between respecting what the performers do in the ring and the beliefs about life and family they espouse in public.
Take John Cena for example, one of the greatest in-ring performers of all time. The World Wrestling Entertainment star spent much of the past year on a retirement tour that wrapped up in December, and one of the bigger headlines he made was for saying that he was determined to live a child-free life.
The 17-time world champion told an audience at a Boston fan expo last August that he doesn’t plan on being a father. Why? Because, he says, he doesn’t have the time.
“If I were to bring a life into this world, that needs environmental nurture and unconditional love, I also know that takes time,” he told the crowd, “and I’ve been blessed with some great opportunities, and life has awarded me the chance to do some amazing things, and right now I want to seize those opportunities. So, I don’t want to make an irresponsible choice and bring a life into the world that I will neglect. I don’t think that’s fair.”
This is from the same man, by the way, who set a record for the most wishes granted through the Make-A-Wish Foundation, meeting with hundreds of children who were facing life-threatening illnesses. I’ll give him this: at least he’s consistent. In 2024, on the Club Shay podcast with former NFL star Shannon Sharpe, Cena said he’s felt this way about parenthood since he was a teenager, and even though he’s married now, he vows he’ll never be a dad.
“It’s a tough subject to talk about,” he said, “because it immediately puts you in a category and we can’t help but judge … (and) I’d like to believe that I operate under the construct that everyone’s okay living their life.”
That’s a morally-relativistic, “live and let live” way of looking at things. I’ll give him points, though, for being honest, and he’s absolutely correct in that parenting requires time, sacrifice, and love.
Children are a lot of work. In the early stages, we’re talking about plenty of diapers and drool. As the years go on, it can mean cleaning vomit in the middle of the night, long talks about broken hearts, and whiny tantrums over “unfair” screen times. In the end, though, it’s worth it, and not just for the sake of the children.
In the 1917 Code of Canon Law, the Catholic Church teaches the “primary end of marriage is the procreation and education of children.” (Canon 1013, Section 1) This is expanded in The Catechism of the Catholic Church, which says that the very nature of the institution of Holy Matrimony is ordered to those ends, and in those ends, the sacrament “finds its crowning glory.” (CCC 1652)
God’s plan for marriage is beautiful, so when John Cena says he’s rejecting fatherhood to “live life for all it is,” he’s missing the point. Throughout his career, he shouted the catchphrase, “You can’t see me,” but now he can’t see the bigger picture.
The challenges in fatherhood are difficult for any man to bear, but to God, as Christ tells us in Sacred Scripture, all things are possible. That’s why our strength is in Him, not in ourselves, not even if we can powerslam 7-foot-tall, 500-pound wrestlers. The time is now for all fathers to invite Christ into their hearts, to follow His lead – and brush aside the misguided musings of celebrity athletes who reject God’s design for life and marriage.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.