Mixed pantyhose wrestling is a captivating spectacle that blends athleticism, entertainment, and female empowerment. Featuring strong female combatants, this unique form of wrestling challenges traditional notions of sport and performance.
Lucha Libre masks, a key element of Mexican wrestling culture.
The Pillow Fight League (PFL): A Case Study
The Pillow Fight League (PFL) exemplifies the blend of athleticism and entertainment in women's wrestling. The Pillow Fight League (PFL) is engaged in the unprecedented whip-action attack of pillow fighting, featuring strong female combatants.
Refs walk around a small, matted “ring” making sure aggression is only leveled though brand-bearing pillows; a panel of judges enforce the wrestling-style rules to a T; and the several hundred people surrounding the makeshift ceremony enjoy the action like they would at any other sporting event - by screaming at the contenders.
Characters and Performances
Like putting the words “This is not a toy. It’s not some back-room lap-dance deal, just women fighting of their own volition in unscripted bouts as WWF-type characters - Trashley, Boozy Suzy, and Roxxy Balboa for instance.
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Earlier in the competition, co-referee Sarah Bellum - a short, conservatively dressed librarian type with soft blonde hair and horn-rimmed glasses - cast off her nerdy duds, trading black pants and a school-marmy button-up for a form-fitting cotton skirt and a black sport-bra mini-shirt.
With glasses gone and her role as smarty ref forgotten, she squared off in a devilish three-way match, only to taste defeat on the mat. Betty Clocker is a naughty housewife. Sure, she brings cookies out for the audience, but, when push comes to shove, her polka-dot blouse bends furiously around her figure, breasts pummeling the cotton.
The Audience and Empowerment
The important thing to remember is that it’s not about sex - or, if it is, it’s about sexual empowerment. The Washington Post put things best when it said, “anyone who comes for a giggly face-off between two chicks in undies - the age-old slumber party fantasy - is in for an unhappy shock.”
Having the referee scream “Fight like a girl” at the start each of the ten or so matches is the master stroke of a truly devious brush. The use of double-entendre and double-meaning to diminish and objectify the girls is masked by their more empowered reading of the words (genius!).
A pillow fight in progress, showcasing the energy and athleticism involved.
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Fashion and Identity
I thought Vic Payback’s white, cotton panties were a shocking choice, especially pressed against Eiffel Power’s leopard tights - talk about an artsy juxtaposition. Of course, that wasn’t the norm: Sailor Gerri embraced the marauding nature of her character, wearing a pair of frilly, ocean-blue undies that bunched up and down in smooth waves of cotton.
And nothing subverted the perverted fantasy that the Post describes quite like reigning champion Champain’s double-undie attack: a red filly pair over a second set of lighter blue panties with dark dots and a light orange frill, both tucked under a super-short skirt that declared in proper feminist fashion, “You won’t make an object out of me!!”
The evolution of women's undergarments from open-crotch designs to closed-crotch styles began around the late 1910s-early 1920s. Control-top pantyhose were a huge boon when they came in because you no longer had to wrestle your panties up under your girdle after using the bathroom.
The Spectacle of GLOW
GLOW: The Story of the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling
The series was a massive hit, screening to an audience of twenty-six million at its peak. Fans of the current GLOW series appreciate that it is about more than wrestling. The joy comes from that particular brand of 1980s glamour and decadence: big hair, over-the-top personas (that would be seen as sexist and racist today), sexual charisma and high-camp attitude.
Read also: Exploring Bodyscissors in Mixed Wrestling
The cast of GLOW, Netflix.
Lucha Libre: A Mexican Tradition
While professional wrestling started in the late nineteenth century in America, Lucha Libre emerged in Mexico thanks to Don Salvador Lutos Gonzales, the father of Lucha Libre. The earliest Mexican wrestlers used to go back and forth between Mexico and Spain until the Spanish Civil War.
The Spanish Civil War shut everything down and Don Gonzalez took it back to Mexico. He was inspired by Texas wrestling in the nineteen thirties and gave birth to what was called the Impressive Mexicana de Lucha Libre.
Lucha libre is translated as free fighting or free wrestling. The luchador is the name of the wrestler. The mask is huge, and while not all of them wear masks, most of them start out wearing masks. The whole persona of the luchador goes outside of the ring too.
The Luchador Code
Luchadors are traditionally divided along two lines, the good guys and the bad guys, or in American pro wrestling, the bad guys are called heels. Down there, they're called rudos, rude boys, or um just basically villains. And then the good guys, the heroes, are called technicos.
| Category | Description |
|---|---|
| Technicos | Heroes who fight for the common man, often based on superheroes or saints. |
| Rudos | Villains who often embody corrupt officials, drug dealers, or gangsters. |
The masters play such a huge part that they have certain matches called uh luca pistas matches with wagers. They are very special match matches where they will wager generally one of three things, either their mask, their hair, or their career, and it can be in any combination.
At the end of this match, obviously whoever loses either is unmasked, which means they're either done or they adopt a new persona and leave that behind.