Under the vaulted ceiling of St. Peter’s Anglican Church in Shipley, northern England, cheers rang out as wrestler Billy O’Keeffe body-slammed his opponent Disciple. The stained-glass windows surrounded an odd scene—wrestlers rolling down the aisles, while church members of all ages cheered with glee. This is Wrestling Church, a fusion of faith and spectacle led by 37-year-old Gareth Thompson.
Thompson, who wrestles as Gareth Angel, attributes both professional wrestling and Christianity with saving his life. “Boil it down to the basics, it’s good versus evil,” he said. “When I became Christian, I began to view the world of wrestling in a Christian way. I began viewing David and Goliath. I began viewing Cain and Abel. I began viewing Esau being robbed of his birthright. And I’m like, ‘We could tell these stories.'”
Following on from childhood trauma and homelessness, wrestling provided Thompson with an escape and a feeling of empowerment. Seeing wrestling greats such as Shawn Michaels and Stone Cold Steve Austin was the inspiration. More recently, he became a believer in 2011 and created his first Wrestling Church event at a former nightclub in 2022 before moving it to St. Peter’s.
The priest of the church, Rev. Natasha Thomas, said she wasn’t really sure what to anticipate when she originally agreed to hold these events. “It’s not church as you would know it. It’s certainly not for everyone,” she said. “But it’s bringing in a different group of people, a different community, than we would normally get.”
At one recent event, almost 200 individuals—families, tattooed fans, teens, and older couples—ringed the ring. A brief prayer and sermon preceded the crowd’s eruption into two hours of boisterous, gleeful cheering. Giant foam fingers waved as supporters yelled encouragement like ‘knock him out!’
Long-time regulars have accepted the buzz that comes with it. “I think it’s absolutely wonderful,” said Chris Moss, who married her husband Mike in St. Peter’s nearly 50 years ago. Even though some of the wrestlers may first appear fearsome, Moss said, “You shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.”
Thompson, with a shirt that says “Pray, eat, wrestle, repeat,” toes the line between preacher and promoter. Aside from the monthly events, his charity, Kingdom Wrestling, conducts training sessions for children and adults, women’s self-defense classes, a men’s mental health group, and coaching for school expulsions.
And in the locker room, too, the combination of wrestling and religiosity is reflected. Wrestler Liam Ledger, aka Flamin’ Daemon Crowe, claimed it was “surreal” when they held baptisms between bouts. “It’s a two-way thing,” he said. “There’s some people that are here that do like religion quite a lot, and they come here for all that kind of thing. And then they’re like, ‘Oh, as it happens actually this wrestling’s quite nice’.”
For Kiara—26-year-old Stephanie Sid and Kingdom Wrestling’s women’s champion—the team assisted in uniting her Catholic religion and love of wrestling. “It’s because of Kingdom Wrestling that I’ve gained the confidence to pray in the locker room now before matches,” she explained. “I encourage my opponent to pray with me, pray we have a safe match, pray we have no injuries and pray we entertain everyone here.”
Though few have made the change to weekly Sunday worship, Wrestling Church baptized 30 individuals during its first year. Thompson’s form of Christianity is more action-packed than typical Anglicanism, and he has plans to open up locations all over the UK and eventually even start his own church.
Even though Britain is much less religious than the United States, where wrestling and Christianity tend to go hand in hand, Thompson doesn’t let detractors discourage him. People say, ‘Oh, wrestling and Christianity, they’re two phony things in a phony world of their own existence,'” he said. “If you don’t believe it, of course you will think that of it. But my own personal experience of my Christian faith is that it is living and living, and it is true.”. The world of wrestling, if you actually do believe in it, you believe that it’s real and you can suspend your disbelief.
“You suspend it because you want to get lost in it. You want to believe in it. You want to hope for it.”