I had a roommate who used to tell us Yinzers how much better everything was in Philadelphia. He would go on and on about the excesses of Wing Bowl and I’d think, “Who could live through such a thing?”

Now I have my answer.

From villain Damaging Doug to the vomiting of Matt “Sloth” Dutton, champion “El Wingador and unlikely winner Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas, this takes you inside the Wing Bowl, from the first small event to the gigantic ones at the end, moments of overeating, too much drinking and out of control behavior, like Mize, who would smash beer cans into his head.

From 1993 to 2018, this was the Super Bowl for Philly, until days after the twenty-sixth year in the Wells Fargo Center, the Eagles won their first championship. Before that happened, people would regular eat 500 wings, often getting nauseous, as fistfights in the crowd and nudity would fill the day, which started at 6 A.M.

Suggested by WIP-FM Philadelphia show host Angelo Cataldi, this gets nearly every major celebrity — of sorts — into this, interviewing them and showing them in action. Sure, WIP didn’t share footage, but did you expect them to? This was like Roman circuses and even the stories told by my old roommate can’t compare to the reality.

Here’s hoping this doc gets wide release.

No One Died: The Wing Bowl Story screens as part of the 2025 Calgary Underground Film Festival, which runs April 17–27. For more information, visit https://www.calgaryundergroundfilm.org/.