http://www.pbase.com/slug/moulin_mud
Moulin Mud - held by mudwrestling.org in Chapel Hill, North Carolina on 11-May-2002

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mud_wrestling
Mud wrestling is defined as physical confrontation (fighting, wrestling, etc.) that occurs in mud or a mud pit. The popular definition specifies that participants, usually women, wrestle while wearing minimal clothing and going barefoot, with the intention of presenting an entertaining spectacle. Venues for competition are usually social in nature with equal numbers of male and female spectators. Mud wrestling is typically performed in a semi-competitive fashion -- though presented as a competition between participants, winning and losing is not considered as important as having fun.

[edit] History

The legendary Houston Wrestling promotor Paul Boesch is credited with the invention of mud wrestling, as he came up with the concept for the match when booking a feud between Gus Sonnenberg and Harnam Singh in Seattle, Washington. It first became popular in the United States in the 80's, and later spread worldwide. Although originally performed in bars, nightclubs, and strip clubs, mud wrestling is now mainstream to the point where organizations have staged mud wrestling events for fun and charity.

[edit] Variations

One common variation involves wrestling in gelatin rather than mud. This practice is known as Jell-O wrestling in the United States and as jelly wrestling in the United Kingdom. Other foods, such as pudding, creamed corn and mashed potatoes, have also been used for similar events.

Another variation of mud wrestling is Oil Wrestling, which is a very popular and traditional sport in Turkey.

[edit] Pop culture

Mud Wrestling was popularized in France by the TV game show Fort Boyard. In the 90's the Spanish TV game show El gran juego de la oca became highly popular in most Spanish speaking countries. In El Gran Juego de la Oca the participants played as pieces in a giant board game where they had to pass the test of the space where they landed. Next to space number 8 was a mud pit where participants had to complete a test while being disturbed by Romy, a model / female mud wrestler. The tests were different but with the main idea of the mud wrestling, they could go from taking gloves from a wall with hands, to completing a word by finding all the letters painted on the body of the mud wrestler.

The American movie ...All the Marbles deals with the subject of women in professional wrestling. One sequence features a mud wrestling match.

In the PlayStation 2 video game Rumble Roses, a fighting game with an all-female cast, there is a stage where the characters can have a mud wrestling match.

The "sport" came in to mainstream popularity thanks to the Bill Murray movie Stripes (1980), which featured John Candy facing off against six kickboxing wrestlers in a boxing ring filled with mud.