When I was growing up, it was pretty much universally understood that wrestling was “a boy thing.” It wasn’t something that girls were into. The women that were involved were overtly objectified and were only there as eye-candy bikini models. The idea of indulging in expressions of violence still isn’t considered lady-like. I can understand why many people who have never seen wrestling dismiss it as nothing more than a low-brow display of toxic masculinity. If you’re in that category (no judgement!), you might find it surprising to learn that one of the loudest cheers from a WWE audience in all of 2023 came as the result of a hug. Yes, you read that right: when friends-turned-rivals Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn reconciled a long feud with a hug in the middle of the ring, the crowd went nuts.
This is one of the layers of wrestling that fascinates me to no end. After all, the industry is still in many ways made for men. But our society is often quite quick to dismiss hugs between men as embarrassing, weird, and emasculating. And yet, the (mostly male) audiences cheer as loudly for these moments of reconciliation as they do when someone’s put through a table. It’s as if the hypermasculinity of the atmosphere and the exaggeration of the emotions creates a safe space for the audiences to revel in expressions of love.
When considering this from a theological standpoint I see a lot of similarities between wrestlers hugging it out and the stories of Jesus’ healings. So many of the physical healings end with him returning the afflicted person to their people. Sometimes, such as in the cases of dying or dead children, we’re told he literally hands the child back to their parents. Could that action look like anything other than a long, hard hug? In other cases, adults with diseases that would have separated them from their communities are told, at long last, to finally go home.
He even restores the relational ties of his own disciples. After falling so far short of even his own standards during Jesus’ arrest and trial, I can’t imagine Peter had the greatest relationship with the other ten. They probably found it harder to trust him. He probably found it harder to trust himself. So after the resurrection, Jesus gathers the whole gang for a picnic on the beach. Of course there would have been joy, but I imagine there may have also been tension and awkwardness. Especially when Jesus pointedly asks Peter, “Do you love me?” Like, right in front of all his friends! And to his credit, Peter doesn’t hesitate to say “Duh! Of course I do. You know that.” And they repeat this song and dance three times. I imagine that much like a long hug, this repeated affirmation of love and mission healed something. And that something, I believe, was the apostles’ ability to trust and work with one another as they went out into the world to continue their ministry.
Why is it that hugs inside wrestling rings get such loud cheers? Why is it that Jesus’ care to heal relationships as much as bodies is a moving end to a story? I believe it’s because these kinds of wounds - the relational rifts and the disconnection - are the relatable part of the story. Because, let’s be real. Most of us don’t know what it’s like to have leprosy or get hit in the back with a steel chair. But all of us - to some extent or another - know what it’s like to experience alienating shame or have a fight with a loved one that puts a seemingly insurmountable distance between our hearts. And those of us lucky enough to experience forgiveness of ourselves and others also know about the loud cheers our souls give when we finally get to hug it out.