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Tully Blanchard, Ric Flair's former partner in World Championship Wrestling, offered his own testimony during a break in the match and stood ready at the altar call -- a regular feature of UCW events - to counsel any new believers. Though none approached the ring that evening, wrestling, he said later, can win souls that conventional worship can't. "If you're fishing, and you don't catch fish, change bait."
Fields' precepts are simple: No blood, no profanity, no rude gestures, no scantily clad divas. Even the UCW "heels," or bad guys, refrain from insulting their opponents or any fans.
This restraint doesn't seem to disappoint the fans. John Rowell, 34, a Woodstock resident and a manager for a chain-link fence company, approved UCW's head-knocking evangelism and brought his 8-year-old son Tyler to the Zoom Town match.
"There are other ways, other than going to church, to get the word out," he said, adding that wrestling encompasses universal themes. "This is good and evil."
Truly.
In one match a pair of bad guys had bested a babyface -- a good guy -- and were ready to power-bomb the fellow through a folding table when Adonis stepped in to offer himself as a Christ-like substitute. Boom. Through the table he went.
But, as one learns from Corinthians, and from the "Rocky" movies, you shouldn't count out a babyface before the bell.
"My message," said Fields, "is even when you're down, you're not really down. Your job as a Christian is to keep kicking. It's not over until Gabriel's trumpet sounds."