I see a fair amount of stories/blogs with wrestling characters, there's a ton of mud/gunge wrestling videos that producers have made over the years, and of course, there have even been some messy skits incorporated into wrestling shows.

So I've been thinking: what is it about professional wrestling (I'm talking WWE, AEW, etc.) that holds such crossover appeal to wam?

Is it the usual stuff that appeals to all wrestling fans? The exceptionally fit, oiled up bodies, the skintight outfits, the larger than life characters, the good guy/bad guy dynamic that makes you root for someone to succeed, and someone to get their just desserts?

Or is there something wam-related? Like one character "publicly humiliating" another (particularly in a squash match), or maybe the dom/sub dynamic?

Hi! Former (semi) professional wrestler who frequently got messy here:

Wrestling is basically a slapstick carny vaudeville act with a healthy dose of unexamined homoerotic BDSM thrown in for funsies. Hell, the win condition is literally topping your opponent.

But I think most WAM situations in wrestling is just a slapstick humiliation thing. It's fun to watch bad things happen to people who have it coming. I was a heel and was frequently getting slimed/pied/watered/chokeslammed into cakes as comeuppance. I just so happened to enjoy it more than the vast majority of my peers.

I agree with the humiliation aspect, especially in big league companies where a wrestler getting pied is watched by many million people live.

Another thing I would point out is that the people receiving the mess usually are very well trained and therefore have a generally higher attractiveness which increases the arousement even more when we see them getting messy, especially since they don't wear too many clothes anyway.

As a wrestling fan basically for life and a hetero male, my personal view is that I adore WAM when it happens to hot women's wrestlers. And especially in WWE when there is a cake scene, you know that someone will wear it by the end of the show. For me, that's high appeal. Unfortunately though, it's usually men that get messed up in the last few years because if a woman would be messed up, they would get critisized of a low female role played on TV and such.

There was an amazing segment a few years ago where WWE divas were getting unexpected pies in the face while speaking into the camera. They were spectacular!

I will second the theatrical vaudeville nature of it all. Everything in professional wrestling is heightened and exaggerated, so it's more like dance, theater, or opera than contemporary sports. Because there's already the exaggerated physical nature to both the action/violence and the comedy, it makes sense that there are similarly exaggerated vaudeville slapstick bits at times.

Brother you can do another finish if you want. Submission, count out, DQ, no contest. You kids need to learn to work a goddamn hold.

Honestly as a wrestling fan, I don't initially associate it with WAM. It is kinda like the movies. Is there a chance you will see a messy scene or a scene that ventures into a kink that someone might like? Of course. Do you watch it because of that? Of course not. You either like wrestling, or you don't. If Liv Morgan takes a pie or finds herself in a mudpit in the course of her career, it is simply an added bonus but for now people seem to be more intrigued with how long they have to wait until Rhea comes back so they can kick off this feud.


There is a certain degree of satisfaction when the heel gets their comeuppance. It's as old as the business itself. The slapstick portion of the idea is mostly to present a more family friendly version of events as opposed to, for example, watching Rakishi getting choke slammed from the top of Hell in a Cell or seeing HHH getting busted open with a barbwire bat by Cactus Jack. We all wanna see the bad guy/girl get theirs but some of us fans are parents and wanna see the outcome that doesn't leave us trying to seek a counselor for our children afterwards.

Looking back, I think Sunny getting slopped was one of the first instances that would mark a turn in how these mediums were used in the Attitude era of the WWE. Shortly after, we would see our first Bra and Panties match and then the first Mud Match with Miss Kitty and Ivory. The schtick would appear a few more times before fizzling out a little bit into the Ruthless Aggression era I think. Some of these spots were cleverly used while others was more or less Vince Russo living out his fantasies. Other times it was just a cheap way to grab or retain their audience because outside maybe Ivory, Chyna, and Jackie, they didn't really have a stock of female wrestlers who could actually wrestle at the time. It pops up here or there in the form of a pie or something silly but I don't think near enough to point to a correlation. I mean, I am sure there were some wet look fans going crazy during Stone Cold's "Beer bath" spot. The rest of us were mostly cheering because they did an amazing job at having us hate Vince McMahon. lol

In the meantime, it will always continue to appear in the form of slapstick because as long as they have valets who are too green to take a bump, they have to figure something out to get the audience engaged with their fave babyfaces and because WWE had this whole PG thing going on, they have to do something other than shock value.

We are starting to see a slight shift with the WWE starting to venture into more mature themes and programming again though, so who knows what will happen next. I would not complain about a potential mud scene involving Alexa Bliss and Iyo Sky. Just saying

Plausibility. Mud and messy wrestling has been a thing for years, so situations are plausible. That plausibility cannot be underestimated in wam scenarios, it's why mainstream wam (gameshows, pantos, circuses) get so much more discussion than the mountains of produced wam, which is technically better wam, but rarely plausible!

I'm 6'10 and basically a wall of meat. Technical wrestling was never gonna be in the cards for me lmao

I do a pretty decent kneebar though

Would lovw to see Liv Morgan pied.

There has been some real disappointing wam scenes ovee the year Mandy Rose one should have been brilliant but they completely botched that one up. I think there was a few with Anna Jay and Penelope Ford that was also botched.

I think the most recent one was Zelina Vega getting pied then misted in face but camera work was pretty bad so you couldn't really see it unfortunately.

Here is hoping for more in next few years.

Bear hug, camel clutch, Canadian backbreaker, torture rack! I'm just kidding lol

I mean, I have seen guys that size move pretty well in BJJ. You would be surprised. My buddy isn't too far from that and he actually has an impressive (and dangerous) rubber guard and his sprawl is faster than most men half his size. He often takes me by surprise when we roll. Lol!

Mandy's was so frustrating. She looked amazing, they had the cake right there and boom, she blocked it. True shame. Zelina's was bad too cause she was gonna get pied last December but a production assistant screwed up and used a pumpkin pie instead of a cream one.

Penelope Ford got pushed into a cake that was dryer than the Sahara. Nothing more than a few crumbs on her face. Don't recall a miss with Anna Jay, that would be a true tragedy.

yes the layla el Kelly kelly thanksgiving food fight is one of my favorites. I love Laylas outfit and her reaction is great too. https://www.wwe.com/videos/layla-and-kelly-kelly-have-a-food-fight-ecw-november-20-2007

I think quite a big part of it is that Vince McMahon was/is almost certainly someone with the kink, I can't think of anyone more obvious about it than him.

Yeah, even the DOJ is looking into Vince's kinks now.

What is hilarious is I know of fetish wrestling producers who literally contacted some up and coming pro wrestlers for shoots and their reply was always "mat wrestling is porn" or "I am trying to get into a larger promotion like WWE". The irony LOL

About as obvious as Quentin's foot obsession in all his films

Seth Rollins as Tyler Black was in some of those

Me too. Along with Chelsea Green, Tiffany Stratton, and Bayley

Chelsea's been sorta pied in a video, and got caked at a GCW show. Also been watered a few times, as has Liv. Bayley (and Sasha/Mercedes) still remain the two unmessed Horsewomen. Becky's eggnog bath and Charlotte's pieing stand alone in that regard.

I wont go into any further detail regarding a possible Tiffany (and Zelina again) escape due to site rules, but it looks it happened and it sucks.