Sophomore Andrew Thaler, holding a paper coffee cup like a microphone, stood at the center of the circular lawn in front of the Marketplace and gathered a deep breath. “Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday! It’s the cole slaw main event of the week!” he bellowed. “Let’s get ready to rumble!”
Thaler acted as referee and emcee for an informal wrestling match between seniors Jenn Davis and Margaret Worthington in a kiddie pool filled with cole slaw. Dubbed the “Slaw Slam” by Davis and Worthington, who were its organizers, publicists and participants, the match is the culmination of a plan the pair originally hatched months ago.
“Apparently some radio station in Raleigh does it, and we had a history of fighting before so we decided to do it,” Davis said, adding that the entire spectacle only appeared impromptu. “We started to think about it in December.”
At 7 p.m., a small group of students strode out to the center of the lawn, placed a kiddie pool on the rain-soaked grass and filled it with bags of cole slaw and bottles of water. After a few moments of trash-talk and strutting, the two competitors stripped down to Spandex shorts and sports bras. Thaler explained the rules—first to pin the other twice would win—and the combatants stepped into the pool.
Davis took the first round handily, pinning Worthington in roughly one minute. Worthington took the next match, a bitter battle during which the contestants seemed to be the only ones not laughing. Davis prevailed again in the final frame and both women arose from the pool, covered in the popular side dish.
During the match, the number of spectators increased from the dozen or so who had known about the event in advance to about 60 onlookers, mostly freshmen coming from dinner at the Marketplace. All stood transfixed by the sight.
The reaction of the crowd ranged from “That smells foul,” to “Can I go next?” and from “I’m getting out of here,” to “Throw slaw in her eye!” Many of the audience members were aligned with one side or the other, vocally supporting their favorite fighter.
“Everyone was either 100 percent for Jenn or 100 percent for Margaret,” said junior Farokh Irani, a Worthington supporter. “It broke my heart to see her lose.”
After the two original wrestlers had left, William Lynam, Trinity ’04, and sophomore Laura Pyatt jumped into the pool, now devoid of most of its contents, and commenced to grapple with each other for several minutes. Although the wrestling stopped before 7:30 p.m., Davis and Worthington said they hope such highly visible fights will become a fixture on campus.
“We’re taking recommendations for [substances] we can wrestle in,” Worthington said.
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