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“We reap what we sow” – Galatians 6:7-8 For thousands of years, man has attempted to decipher the word of God to determine the date of the end of the world. The Christian Bible Book of Revelations describes it as “Judgment Day.” The Mayans even have a date for it set on December 21, 2012. How fitting, then, that on a 21st night of a month in 2012, a night after the WWE’s Judgment Day PPV, the sun became as black as sackcloth, the star of our universe fell to the earth, and the sky, along with hope, vanished. On Raw, the day of wrath finally came. God had given us our chances to repent. Unfortunately, long gone are the days when the general public understands symbolic gestures from the Heavens. For instance, on April 2, 2006 in Chicago, Illinois, at Wrestlemania 22, God surrounded the Allstate Arena with angels in the clouds, who sadly drenched the outgoing fan base with billions of raindrop tears. He was disheartened that we had so vociferously shunned the man of integrity that He had given us to help restore values to a fan base much maligned for having few. We, instead of changing our ways, followed the Chicagoans lead and created over 2,000 days of hate toward a man bestowed upon us as a symbol of tolerance. We condemned children for buying his merchandise and being sucked in by a false prophet, yet we were the ones being led astray. For years, America’s youth had revered a wife beating drunk, teaching them to swear at and flip off their next door neighbors and think nothing of it. With him, he brought sex and violence. He masked these crude behaviors as “good” when they were, in fact, “evil.” God gave us John Cena to remind us of His teachings. Yet, we did not understand. God was patient with us. He knew that a good man of strong core values and a work ethic capable of inspiring millions to give their all even in the face of adversity was exactly what we needed as the leader of professional wrestling’s most globally visible company. He instilled in Cena an inner strength that kept him from succumbing to the pressures placed upon him by a rabid fan base. It started that night in Chicago, when God came down and placed a protective bubble around Cena, shielding him from horrible obscenities and shocking disrespect. Yes, The Lord kept Cena on the right path. Despite our unjust and unwarranted transgressions against him and his followers, John Cena smiled at us and shook our hands and said he respected us, all the while touring the world as a sharp, well-dressed, well-spoken, and – most of all – a decent human being representing professional wrestling. The Lord also gave the people that run the WWE the ability to continue His plan; to resist the urge to change the on-screen persona that so accurately reflected the true self of a man dedicated to the greater good. Despite our resistance, God was hoping that, in time, we would come around. We looked to every little excuse for abhorrence and, yet, He still believed in us. We demanded from Cena unbelievably high skill level on par with the greatest of champions. He made sure that Cena possessed as much as any wrestler that came before him. We decreed that Cena must have greater physical grappling skills, so God obliged and made it so. As Cena put together a body of work that stands against any wrestler in the history of the sport, STILL, we heathens pushed forward. The Man Upstairs gave us dozens of chances to change, yet for six years, we tore Cena down. Finally, the WWE gave in to temptation. They started questioning Cena’s character openly in television storylines. They made T-shirts supporting Cena’s detractors, emblazoned with the symbol of hate otherwise referred to as “Cena Sucks.” The Rock was brought back to make a handful of appearances, each dedicated to slighting the very personality traits that God gave John Cena to make him special. The Lord watched as we traded listening to Cena preach foundational building blocks of life for listening to The Rock talk about slangs for female reproductive organs and sling unnecessary obscenities. We cheered the man that couldn’t be bothered to mention us on national talk shows for fear of still being known as “a wrestler.” We crucified the man who so passionately defended all that was good about being a pro-wrestler and a fan of pro-wrestling. That was when the Almighty changed his course for John Cena and, subsequently, changed our courses, too. At Wrestlemania XXVIII, the Apocalypse began… A torrential downpour on an unseasonably cool April night in Miami incensed the 75,000 people in Sun Life Stadium and wreaked havoc on the elaborate electrical circuitry woven into the complex Mania 28 stage and ring setting. The Undertaker and Triple H went to war and the devout Christian, Shawn Michaels, was sacrificed by a Deadman. A whiny, egotistical jerk – a false prophet - retained the WWE Championship and took his position at the top of the company. A scheduled US title defense by Zach Ryder was aborted at the last moment, deceiving millions around the globe. The great Randy Orton was booed out of the building. Prior to the main-event, God removed His divine protection that surrounded John Cena, sending him to the ring unguarded against the seething mass of humanity. A man’s psyche is not designed to endure the vocal disgust of the thousands. The Heavenly defense removed, Cena began to crumble. Little by little, Cena’s shell cracked. When the fans at Wrestlemania threw trash in the ring after he defeated The Rock; when they had to be restrained from jumping the guardrail by security; and when they refused to give him the same respect that they had given Rock ten years earlier after had beaten Hulk Hogan…after all of that, he finally snapped. Not only did he plant The Rock through the announce table, but he did the one thing that he had not done in over a half decade. John Cena, with the world watching in record numbers, retaliated against the fans. The show did not go off the air that night with Cena smiling and shaking hands with The Rock in a torch-passing moment. No, John Cena was last shown violently screaming at the fans at ringside, saliva dripping from his chin and with his hate in his eyes. The events of Wrestlemania and of the past 48 hours of WWE programming should have us all looking within. The dichotomy between hero and villain exists within each of us. For some, the line is distinctly drawn favoring one or the other. For most, the line is blurred and we must choose our path. Cena is the former and most of us the latter. We are all capable of being the protagonist in the story of life, but it is easier to walk the dark path and force others to conduct unbecoming of their true character. Cena was good and we brought him down to our level. In the historic Batman films, The Joker succeeds in turning Gotham City District Attorney, Harvey Dent, from the White Knight defiantly opposed to evil into a broken man who becomes a reviled criminal known as Two-Face. Dent is an upstanding individual who simply gets corrupted. In the comics, Batman exists to ensure that good ultimately triumphs, that Dent dies a hero without the public ever knowing of his malevolence, and that the Joker does not get the last laugh. In reality, there is no Batman. There is God. And we failed Him. We chose corruption. We chose to support an overwhelming depressive movement against Hustle, Loyalty, and Respect. The end of the world came and we didn’t even know it. At Judgment Day, John Cena made just his third appearance since Wrestlemania 28. On the Monday after Mania, he stood quietly in the center of the ring and said nothing. After the WWE Universe loudly chanted his name, Cena - with a look that showed puzzlement, annoyance, and pity - simply walked out. He disappeared until Extreme Rules, where he oddly, but popularly chose to start a rivalry with Daniel Bryan by giving him an Attitude Adjustment from the top of a ladder in the ring to a stack of tables waiting outside of it. The loss cost Bryan the World Heavyweight title. Again, Cena vanished, not to be seen again until the opening match at Judgment Day against Bryan; though, it is hard to call what was seen a match. It started out with Bryan taking out his title-less frustrations, but then John Cena threw Bryan toward the corner, over the top turnbuckle, and into the ring post. From there, it was less an athletic exhibition and more of a massacre. A bloodied Bryan was savagely beaten until the referee stopped the match and awarded the victory to Cena. There was no hesitation. There was no remorse. There was no attempt at a classic, back and forth encounter between Cena and his very game opponent. The man that concerned himself with legacy and giving his all was gone. In the Bible, the people are warned by the prophets to not allow themselves to be tricked by Satan. They said that the devil would attempt to fool us into thinking that the Word of the Lord was untrue. If we allowed him to succeed, then the second coming of Christ would lift the veil of illusion and those that had been duped would reap what they’d sewn. Well, we had our chance to be set on the righteous path and we chose otherwise. God always gets the last laugh. Last night, the revelation came. John Cena was our wrestling savior. In the Book of Hogan, the story is told of a similar man of virtue bearing a cross. He is overcome with hate and turns to Satan. Together, they defrauded the wrestling world and made possible the most unholy time in sports entertainment history. Through bankruptcy, steroids, suicide, murder, drug addiction, and death, there emerged a great champion to lead us not into the same temptations. We tried to decline the gift, but it is the Will of the Lord that it shall be so. Since we cannot accept this and choose evil over good, then we must reap what we’ve sewn. Professional wrestling as we know it may stumble and fall, but only the repentant will move forward into the future. And now a reading from the Book of Cena…
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