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The Pillow Fight League (PFL) is a Toronto-based semi-professional sports league centred on public pillow fights. The tongue in cheek women's sport is hosted in a fighting arena, much like a boxing or wrestling match. The League was founded by PFL Commissioner Stacey P. Case, and Honorary PFL Commissioner Craig Daniels in February 2004. The formal league launched at a Canadian goth bar called The Vatikan in downtown Toronto. Events since then have been hosted in both Montreal, Quebec and New York City, but the primary seat of the League remains in Toronto, Ontario. Fighter Abbie Roadkill, originally of British descent, recently speculated about a similar event in the United Kingdom.
Fights within the League now feature either two or three girls, the latter referred to as a damage à trois, and a codified set of rules. Fighters frequently incur cuts, scrapes and bruises. There have also been more serious injuries, including concussions, black eyes, lost teeth, split lips, torn muscles, and bruised kidneys.
The League grew out of a pair of live events held by performers from Canadian burlesque troupe “Skin Tight Outta Sight” at a performance of Mr. Case's band (named for tijuana bibles) at New Year's Eve 2004 and 2005. The latter featured the first instance of live tryouts for members of the audience. The events that followed in 2006 at the Vatikan launched the new League-sponsored series of events primarily focused around the pillow fighting bouts. A potential moneymaker for its founders, the League saw television rights snapped up in 2007 by reality television and sitcom producers Eddie October (executive producer of Tommy Lee Goes to College and The Roseanne Show) and Al Berman (executive producer of The Biggest Loser and Survivor).
Rules
- Women Fighters Only. No Exceptions.
- Fights have a five-minute time limit and are won via pinfall, surrender, or referee stoppage. If a fight ends at the time limit with no winner, a winner is declared by a three-judge committee.
- Punching, leg drops, clotheslines, submission holds, and other moves are allowed as long as a pillow is used to execute the attack.
- Preventing an opponents' pillow strike by holding her pillow results in a warning from the referee. Judges may choose to include these warnings as part of their judging criteria if a fight goes the distance.
- No eye-gouging, biting, scratching, hair pulling, or low blows.
- No rude, lewd, or suggestive behavior.
- Loading a pillow with a foreign object such as a brick is strictly forbidden.