NewsflareWhat’s the greatest combination life has to offer? Bread and butter, bacon and eggs, fish and chips, Lennon and McCartney? All good, but the best surely has to be gravy and wrestling?
Think about it: everyone loves WWE (or at least its late 90s era) and I’d like to think everyone, at the very least, has a soft spot for gravy – so why not fuse the two?
Well, that’s what a couple of punters in Lancashire have done.
The World Gravy Wrestling Championships is being held today (27th August 2018) at the Rose‘n’Bowl, Stacksteads to raise funds for the East Lancashire Hospice and the competitors’ selected charity.
Take a look at this:
They write on their website:
Without a doubt this is one of the World’s craziest culinary competitions. A wild and whacky wrestling competition in a pool full of Lancashire Gravy! Contestants must wrestle in the Gravy for 2 minutes, Points are scored for fancy dress, comedy effect, entertainment and oh! yes, wrestling ability. [sic]
All our contestants get sponsorship and really give it their all to raise money for charity. There are many activities for the family, in previous years we have had cheer leading groups, BB gun shooting range, Bouncy castles, face painting, craft beer stalls, cake and tombola stands. Also kids get a chance to get a go in the gravy.
Fun for all the family then. In case you build up an appetite watching strangers leather each other in a moat of Bisto, food and drink is served all day with the fire brigade on hand to wash down wrestlers between bouts.
The event was started 10 years ago and remains a firm favourite among the locals. Costumes for this year have included a butcher, a bride, a policewoman, a chef, and ‘Connor McGravy’. Good that innit?
The winners, one male and one female, will walk away with a World Gravy Wrestling Championships trophy with their name engraved on. They will only be able to keep it for a year however, until the new kids on the block make their debuts.
‘The event is right up our street,’ Joe Hicks AKA The Butcher told the Manchester Evening News. ‘It’s good fun – it’s a great day for the whole family and a good way to spend the bank holiday.’
49-year-old Dave O’Connor, who fights as The Golden Roast Rebellion, said:
I am quite nervous before going into the ring – the first time I was bricking it. Some people do get quite competitive, and the gravy gets in all your eyes and your ears, but it’s all in a good cause.
Gravy Girl, 36, real name Christine Rogers is a first time contestant and also admitted to getting nervous prior to her entrance into the world of gravy wrestling.
She’ll be raising money for the neonatal unit at Preston Hospital, where she works when she’s not grappling in gravy.
‘I’ve done tough mudders and things like that but I was more nervous about this,’ she said. ‘Once I was in there I just thought “Right, I’ve got this”. I lost my bout but I’m getting back in there whether they like it or not!’
That’s the spirit!
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