Want to get lubed-up, wrestle your fellow queers and even win some exciting prizes? Come along to BENT Collective’s Oil Wrestling Fundraiser at The Nests on Saturday 27th June!
Oil wrestling is a simple, fun sport originating over 4,000 years ago in the ancient Mediterranean. By covering themselves in olive oil, wrestlers would be unable to use pure strength to get their opponents to the ground and would have to use technique. We’re going to replicate that with baby oil and a paddling pool, and we hope it will be extremely silly and at least twice as gay.
Whether you want to have a fun little wrestle with a friend, watch the chaos or compete for our grand championship, all are welcome! The rules are simple:
- Bouts will consist of a single two-minute round.
- Competitors will start on their knees and try to wrestle each other to the ground.
- The aim is to “pin” your opponent by forcing both of their shoulder blades onto the mat and holding them there for up to three seconds. You will score a point for each second you have your opponent pinned.
- At the end of the round, the competitor with the most points wins!
- In case of a tie, the audience decides! We’ll ask you to cheer to show your support for each competitor. Whoever gets the most cheers wins.
We’re here to have fun, so this will only be as rough as you want it to be. We’ll check in with all competitors before their bouts, and if anyone is wrestling in a manner we deem dangerous or unsafe then we will hand out warnings and/or disqualifications. For more information, please read our oil wrestling ground rules.
Don’t want to wrestle? No problem! We’d love to have a good crowd of queers cheering the wrestlers on. There are three options:
- You can come along and watch, cheer and have a great time without getting oily.
- You can sign up on the day for a friendly bout, and we can either pair you up with a friend or we’ll find someone for you to grapple.
- If you’d like to compete, you can sign up to be part of our sixteen-person grand tournament. You might have to wrestle four times in one night, but we’ll have prizes for the winners and the eternal glory of being our oil wrestling champion!
You don’t need to buy a special ticket or anything to compete, your ticket will cover you whatever you choose to do. Please note we will have limited slots for both the tournament and the friendly bouts, so turn up early if you’d like to get oiled up!
We’re doing all this to raise money for BENT Collective. We’re a queer combat sports collective that runs accessible martial arts, self-defence and pro wrestling classes in Leeds. Your help will allow us to keep going at a time when many venues are becoming inaccessible for grassroots groups, and when queer and trans people are increasingly being shut out of combat sports. We want our LGBTQIA+ community to be proud of what their bodies can do, and be able to learn the skills needed to defend themselves from violence.
So come along on 27th June at The Nests and take part! If you’re taking part, you might want to bring a change of clothes (and please be aware that baby oil can damage some clothing!) and a towel, although we will try to provide towels where possible. We’re excited to see you there!
This event is no one turned away for lack of funds. If you are not able to afford a ticket, but would like to attend, please email us and we'll put you on the guestlist. Please also contact us if you have access needs and would like seating or a free carer's ticket for example. If you have any questions or would like more info, please feel free to email bentcollectiveuk@gmail.com and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.