The bar filled quickly, with wrestlers and civilians decked out in fishnets, wigs and corn syrup blood. As some matches grew longer, people jokingly bribed the judges to erase penalties for their favorite arm wrestlers. It was a silly situation, I’m sure, as seen from the crowd.
But from inside the operation, on stage and in the green room, it was as serious as any sport.
Baton Rouge Arm Wrestling Ladies (BRAWL) held a Halloween-themed tournament Saturday at Spanish Moon benefiting the Iris Domestic Violence Center.
I was supposed to arm wrestle at the MONSTER BRAWL and Costume Contest, but I knew from the safety meeting that I had to back out. Even the weakest mock matches, meant to test form and get wrestling hopefuls familiar with the ropes, painfully strained my shoulders, tense from years of terrible learned sleeping positions.
Arm wrestling is looked upon as a juvenile pastime — nothing serious. But I could have legitimately hurt myself if I had not swallowed my pride and called BRAWL organizer Rebecca Stewart to withdraw.
So I stepped down to admit my friend and fellow Reveille staff member Charlotte Willcox in my place under the stage name “Big Sis.” I did, however, stay on to be on Big Sis’s entourage and cheered her on through victory and defeat.
We dressed as an analog of the Kanker Sisters of “Ed, Edd n Eddy,” with Willcox as Big Sis, a.k.a. Marie Kanker, myself as entourage knock-off Lee Kanker and another friend as knock-off May Kanker. Funny as we might have looked to the audience, we meant business.
Big Sis won her first match against Miss Miyagi, a wrestler styled as a zombie samurai. Lurking behind my wrestler’s shoulder, I never screamed so gleefully in my life. This was a legitimate battle of strength and stamina, so intense that the pair ran out of time for many tries, hovering over the pads without an inch being given either way.
Sure, we danced like fools to our intro song, Danny Brown’s “Dip,” and did jumping jacks to clear a penalty, but when Big Sis was cranking up the bicep power, there was a serious risk of injury.
The wrestlers were urged not to drink in excess, given the drastically increased chances of breaking an arm. The warning called to mind the scene in 1987 Stallone flick “Over the Top,” in which an arm wrestling competitor gruesomely snapped his opponent’s arm at the elbow.
I was glad for the penalties and timeouts that left a window for the audience to give up their dollars for the wonderful cause of Iris, but every time it happened, I expected some ’80s special effect magic, bone-snapping horror to go down right there in front of me.
Thankfully, it didn’t. Everyone came out of the event unharmed, including the nine-month pregnant entourage member for the wrestler from Iris.
I’d suggest anyone with a place in his or her heart for women’s causes volunteer for BRAWL and raise money for organizations like the Baton Rouge Sexual Trauma Awareness & Response (STAR) Center or the Iris Domestic Violence Center.
Just be sure to bring some stamina and undercover seriousness. Nobody needs to sacrifice their bodies for the cause.
Samantha Bares is a 20-year-old English junior from Erath, La.