In women’s professional wrestling, in Japan and the US alike, competitors often attack their opponents’ faces, pulling and contorting them into painful grimaces, pulling upward on the nose or getting a finger into the victim’s mouth and pulling on the side of the mouth. Besides being obviously painful, above all, this move is supposed to humiliate by exposing the victim’s vulnerability. Indeed there are few things more unpleasant for a woman who takes great care of her face and who wears makeup to the ring, than having her face mangled by an overzealous opponent. A while ago I talked to someone from Japan and the popularity of this move in Joshi Puroresu somehow came up. Back then I didn’t quite understand why Japanese female wrestlers were so fond of this move but I was told that turning a proud and powerful female warrior into a caricature of herself – against her will - was supposed to express domination while in the same time humiliating the victim.

The opponent can apply the move from a variety of positions. One of the situations that seem to be begging for a face mauling is the camel clutch. With her opponent’s face so handily exposed, the attacker will often resort to some face mangling, to add further discomfort to an already formidable submission hold.

I’m not sure whether the move is legal or illegal, I do have a strong suspicion though that the referee will count the attacker out if she doesn’t break it up.

Possible escape: if you’re in a camel clutch with your arms locked, you won’t be able to do anything against a facial attack. If your hands are free just use them to protect your face.

Rating: the face attack is a malicious humiliation move. It causes pain but it doesn’t inflict any sort of damage of any significance in the economy of the bout.