The Charlottesville Lady Arm Wrestlers returned in style after a three-year hiatus. Just before Halloween 2022, the collective that combines cosplay, competition, and charity into a raucous show of bulging biceps clashed at Champion Brewing Company. Each event raises money for a women-led organization or business, and this one honored the Blue Ridge Abortion Fund.
“I came to win tonight, but the real winner is BRAF,” said wrestler Zsa Zsa Gabortion. That night’s CLAWing It Back event raked in nearly $14,000—the most ever for a CLAW show. “All funds raised will support people from or traveling to Virginia for their abortion care,” says Deborah Arenstein, BRAF director of development.
Zsa Zsa Gabortion was the champion of the night, but she was just one member of a colorful cast of outrageous characters locking arms for a chance at glory. Like Sally Williamson, who plays her own mashup of Zsa Zsa Gabor and an abortion rights activist, many women in CLAW don familiar personas or create whole new characters for each performance. And they come from all walks of life, from a wide age range, to take on roles like the dolled-up flapper ChiCLAWgo—portrayed by Amy Hill, a graphic designer and marketing professional, and Fist of Furiosa, a Mad Max-style warrior played by Lucy Fitzgerald, a Ph.D. candidate at UVA.
“We’re just regular people,” says ref Tightship McLeod. “But we do it all—we know how to have fun, and we help the community. That’s what happens when women run the show.”