Wing Bowl is a competition held in the United States every year to see who can sonsume the most amount of chicken wings in a 30 minute time period. It is sponsored by radio stations across the country. In order to qualify, contestants are each given a hamburger roughly the size of a volleyball. Those who qualify are then systematically eliminated until they reach the final round. The final round usually attracts quite a bit of publicity; this year 5,000 people attended. Even though the main focus is a bunch of big fat guys who can eat a metric ton, attractive scantily clad ladies are the ones running the show and feeding thess guys the wings. Bulemia is not allowed; if you throw up, you lose - and that's often how contestants are eliminated.

This year the final round was held in Seattle, Washington. El Wingador won, making him the two-time defending champion. He consumed a total of 137 wings. Without throwing up. The final preparations for next year's Wing Bowl have yet to be made, but expect El Wingador to be a factor.

When asked to comment, El Wingador said, "It's thirty minutes of hell, but it's worth it."

Damned straight El Wingador won it all, and here's why.

The original Wing Bowl was created in Philadelphia in 1993 by the Morning Guys (Angelo Cataldi and Al Morganti) on SportsRadio 610 WIP. It was done to honor the Buffalo Bills, who back then were going to Super Bowl after Super Bowl and losing them all. Since the Eagles weren't doing anything back then, they decided to hold this contest on Superbowl Friday, i.e. two days before the event was scheduled.

However, not anybody could get into Wing Bowl. To become a contestant, you have to partake in an eating stunt live on the show. This generally means anything from eating large amounts of food to eating disgusting food, and even eating large amounts of disgusting food. One contestant a couple years ago, a postal worker nicknamed The Package, ate a sheet cake from the Melrose Diner that was meant for 52 people. Yes, he made it. For those with weak stomachs or contestants writing checks that their ass couldn't cash, there is always a Wing-Off the week of Wing Bowl to round out the field of contestants.

During this time, a plethora of Wingettes are calling in as well. While many of them come from local strip clubs in Philly, quite a few happen to be bored housewives whose husbands or boyfriends think they'd look hot doing it. The wingettes are there for the purpose of walking with the contestant around the arena during the introductions, counting wings, refilling plates, and to just look hot.

At the Wing Bowl itself, currently calling the First Union Center home, things pretty much go like this:

  • Gates open at about 5:45 in the morning
  • There are 10,000 people in the building by 6:00
  • Contestant Introductions
  • The First Wing (a ceremonial chicken carried in by Big Daddy Graham, another personality at 610 WIP
  • The WingBowl
  • The Ms. Wingbowl competition

The contestant introductions are a ritual of sorts. Contestants have entourages, managers, and very creative getups. Check the source for photos to understand what I'm talking about.

The structure of the contest itself is like this: The contestants are seated based on odds (handicapped by Al Morganti that Thursday). Once the competition starts, anything that goes down must stay down, or you are outta here! Contestants are given plates of 15 wings each. When the plate is finished, they must be looked over by a Judge, and counted. Then, they are given another plate. There have been arguments and even shoving matches over these scores. These people take their wings seriously. So, after the first round, over half the field is eliminated, and the second round happens. After that, even more are eliminated for the Lightning Round. All in all, the contestants are eating wings for 30 minutes. A winner is declared, he gets his crown, his ring, and a trip to Aruba for a week. Then comes the Ms. Wingette competition, in which the top 10 hottest Wingettes are judged, and one gets the prize. Then the afterparties.

Now as you can imagine, this lasts into about 10-11AM, meaning it's a great reason to be late for school. I myself am a veteran of Wing Bowl X and VIII. It's a great father-son activity, especially when the Wingettes are flashing the crowd and you remembered to bring the binoculars.

The first Wing Bowl was held at the Wyndham Franklin Plaza hotel, and brought a crowd of about 100 guys. The winner was Carmen "The Beast From the East" Cordero, with 100 wings. And it all went downhill from there...

Those things between the Year and Winner are the venues that the Wing Bowl was held at for that year.

1994: Wing Bowl II
The Main Event
Kevin "Heavy Keavy" O'Donnell 127 wings

1995: Wing Bowl III
Club Egypt
Kevin "Heavy Keavy" O'Donnell 133 wings

1996: Wing Bowl IV
The Electric Factory
Glen "Fluffmaster" Garrison 155 wings

1997: Wing Bowl V
The Electric Factory
Eric "Gentleman E" Biehl 120 wings

1998: Wing Bowl VI
The Spectrum
Mark "Big Rig" Vogeding 164 wings

1999: Wing Bowl VII
The Spectrum
Bill "El Wingador" Simmons 106 wings

2000: Wing Bowl VIII
The First Union Center
"Tollman Joe" Paul 90 wings

2001: Wing Bowl IX
The First Union Center
Bill "El Wingador" Simmons 137 wings

2002: Wing Bowl X
The First Union Center
Bill "El Wingador" Simmons 143 wings

Wing Bowl X was special not only because it was the Friday of the Eagles/Rams NFC Championship Game (this was the first time in Wing Bowl history that the Eagles actually had a chance to make it to the Super Bowl), but because it was the Tournament of Champions. Every past Wing Bowl winner had an automatic bid, except for Carmen, who, sadly, had died of a heart attack.

2003: Wing Bowl XI
The First Union Center
Bill "El Wingador" Simmons 154 wings

Although I was in Montreal at the time, I can imagine that this Wing Bowl was a bittersweet one, as it came the Friday after the loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the 2003 .NFC Championship Game.

Source: www.morningguys.com, my memory as a WIP listener

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.