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Wing Bowl Returns in 2026, with One Caveat
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Philadelphia’s Wing Bowl was shut down in 2018 after 26 years of assorted debauchery and jackassery. It was a brilliant radio promotion that started as a small bit and evolved into a perennial behemoth, raising a lot of money for charity while introducing us to inimitable individuals like Bill “El Wingador” Simmons and “Heavy Kevy” O’Donnell.
My lone Wing Bowl experience involved Coolio performing at Cheerleaders at eight in the morning, then an unnamed CBS Radio executive fell asleep in the VIP section of Delilah’s. Afterward, we took a limousine (??) to Tony Luke’s with an African guy named “Vladimir,” someone puked up a calzone, and we all went home. It was snowing at the time.
But now, Wing Bowl is back! Technically. It’s returning, but not to Philadelphia.
Here’s the information:
The Plaza Hotel & Casino is bringing to Las Vegas the iconic “Wing Bowl,” the premier chicken wing-eating competition that was founded in Philadelphia in 1993. The main event, Wing Bowl 2026®, will take place on Feb. 7, 2026, and the first qualifying “Wing Off” event will take place at Carousel Bar at 6 p.m. on Friday, July 4, and it is free to the public to attend.
The first and second place eaters in the July 4 qualifying event will move on to the February contest. The Plaza will also award $1,000 to the person who eats the most Buffalo wings in 10 minutes on July 4. The July 4th qualifying event is one of several that will be held in Las Vegas and Philadelphia in the coming months to compete in the Feb. 7 event at the Plaza.
The main event on Feb. 7 will host a live audience of hundreds of attendees in the Plaza showroom and reach an even wider audience through online broadcasting. With a $5,000 cash prize at stake, 20 competitors will battle it out in three rounds of intense wing-eating action. This competition will feature both amateur and competitive eaters.
The February event will also feature the Wingettes, the cheerleaders of Wing Bowl who escort contestants on stage and bring energy, glamour, and charisma to the event. They will be selected through an exclusive online and live audition process later this year.
Sponsorship opportunities are available by contacting WingBowl@plazahotelcasino.com.
Make no mistake, this is the Wing Bowl, just in a different spot. Audacy is leasing the trademark and that’s why you have the official branding being used for the competition.
You’ll recall that Wing Bowl ended in Philadelphia right around the height of the #MeToo movement, when people were starting to look at the event through a different lens. The genesis of Wing Bowl, by the way, was to give Eagles fans something to celebrate in February since the team never won the Super Bowl. So when the Birds finally broke through in 2017, it made sense to end Wing Bowl, since the original premise for its introduction was no longer valid.
In the time since, the various Philly strip clubs and bars have done spin off versions of the event. There’s been a “Wing Pole,” a “Super Hole,” and a “Wieners and Wingettes” event that took place in May of this year. The clubs made a ton of money from Wing Bowl, and obviously wanted to try to keep that gravy train going in some capacity, hence the launch of these side events.
This one, however, in Vegas, is the closest thing we’ll have to the original. It will be broadcasted online and on local TV out there. They’re doing the qualifying events and they’ve got the Wingettes and all of that. So they’re really running it in a way that’s true to the brand and similar to what the event was between 1993 and 2018.
Here’s a link with more information. We’ll share whatever other news comes down the pike.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com