DVD Review: Wrestling With Satan

By Jeffery X Martin

One of the fascinating things about Christianity is you can do anything and call it a ministry. Hand puppets. Being a clown. Fixing cars. Shaving. Do it in the name of Jesus Christ, and it is a fully sanctioned activity done for the benefit of the Church Universal.

It makes sense, therefore, that there could be a professional wrestling ministry. The documentary Wrestling with Satan spotlights a six-year period in the history of the Christian Wrestling Federation (CWF). Led by the charismatic Rob Vaughn, who performs under the name “Jesus Freak,” the CWF is an actual independent wrestling company. His stable of wrestlers is highly trained and works well in the ring. Wrestling fans will appreciate the fact that the only special feature on the disc is comprised of seven bonus matches.

These folks are earnest in their faith, and no one can fault them for that. CWF shows lean on the “good vs. evil” story angles, with no anti-heroes or “tweeners**” to be found. The other performers go by names like Apocalypse, Angel, and Tim Storm. Although they sound like members of the X-Men, the movie shows them to be fallible.

The running time of the film is less than 90 minutes, but it still feels like an eternity until we get to the conflict that we know must come. Vaughn is painted as an arrogant leader, and with his tattoos and Guy Fieri hair, he makes an easy target for such accusations. We are shown performers in small, modest homes, working for Starbucks to make ends meet. More than once, we are told that the wrestlers will take home 20 dollars or less after working a show, but we see Vaughn’s home, which is nice and large by any standard. Not only that, we see the area where his new home is being built. He’s obviously doing all right for himself, and the implication is that the money is coming directly from the coffers of the CWF.

Most damning is the story about how Vaughn faked a heart attack while driving in order to shut down the CWF and let all the performers go. Vaughn says it actually happened, and that he spent some time in a Christian care clinic, where he decided he could no longer run the CWF. Other people within the organization say it never happened, and that Vaughn refused to allow CPR to be performed on him.

The truth about that is between Vaughn and his God, of course, but it is hard not to feel a twinge of disgust towards the man for some of his decisions. When two of his wrestlers begin wrestling for a secular promotion in their spare time, Vaughn cuts them from CFW. He sets himself up as the moral compass for the organization, but makes decisions which are questionable in their spiritual basis.

Wrestling fans will enjoy cameo appearances from performers A.J. Styles and “Dr. Death” Steve Williams. They’ll also enjoy some excellent in-ring storytelling, whether they believe in the story or not. Those who aren’t familiar with what goes on inside the squared circle will be fascinated by the behind-the-scenes aspect of planning each match and how intense the training is.

Wrestling with Satan seems to be geared toward a Christian audience, but once the revelations about the CWF’s structure and financial situation begin to come out, the film makes no attempts to whitewash it. There’s a balance, and the viewer is left to make up his or her own mind about the legitimacy of the whole thing. A trigger warning should be issued for recovering Christians, though; there are multiple scenes of proselytizing that could remind those previously injured by religion of past life events.

Body slams and salvation are a strange marriage, but Wrestling with Satan is always engaging and almost makes sense of the thing. Saying that the subjects of this film are wrestling with their faith is an unavoidable pun, but it’s the hard truth. We all have things we struggle with. Seeing those things played out in such a literal, physical fashion is an eye-opening, although not life-changing, experience. There is the sense that the filmmakers held back, that more information on insidious things was known and not released.

Maybe we’ll get to see that on a future Wrestling with Satan pay-per-view.

**tweeners: characters who can play either good or bad, never settling on one particular association; chaotic neutral.

Wrestling With Satan was released on January 20 through Wild Eye Releasing and MVD Entertainment Group.