After early August's semi-finals, one wing-eater from each of the four Seattle area Wing Domes including West Seattle, Greenwood, Kent and Kirkland battled to be 'Lord of the Wings'. After a tie between the Kent and Kirkland participants, they went into overtime and Kent's Christopher Johnson won, pictured. Click on photo for slideshow.
Click on photo for SLIDESHOW
Amid a melodramatic atmosphere evocative of a boxing match, the Wing Dome in the Alaska Junction tonight hosted the "2011 Lord of the Wings Road to Buffalo CHAMPIONSHIP WING OFF." If you think that's a mouthful, you should have seen the contest.
The center table was set up for four hungry, revved-up finalists, each representing one Seattle area Wing Dome where they'd won the semifinal round. Two uniformed "referees/hosts" kept a close on the quickly-consuming contestants to make sure they left no meat on the bones as they gnarled on the hot, 4-alarm wings. The winner would receive a $1,000 airline voucher and $25 Wing Dome gift card.
Referees included Q13's Lily Jang and former West Seattleite, Phil Warchol, Director of Operations for all WIng Domes.
"This is a manly men's contest, and we love manly men," said Jang. "And this is about grubbing, and we love it."
While it was not required, the winner is encouraged to use the voucher to compete in Buffalo, New York's Wing King competition over Labor Day weekend. Last year nearly 100,000 attended the Buffalo Chicken Wing Festival from over 35 countries to eat and compete in various wing-related activities.
Representing the West Seattle Wing Dome was Rob Evans, a former West Seattle resident now living in Burien. Patrick Strafer competed from Greenwood, Aaron Bussiere from Kirkland, and Christopher Johnson from Kent.
In the first round, Johnson and Bussiere tied with 19 wings in five minutes. Strafer ate 18 while Evans consumed 17. Because of the tie, an additional 3-minute round was set and Johnson ate 11 wings, three more than Bussiere. In fact, Johnson revealed that he ate a chicken wing after the first round while waiting for the second round to begin. He was hungry.
"I lived in Buffalo, New York, for a year and a half," said Johnson, the champ. "They make the wings great here. But in Buffalo it's huge. It's the buffalo wing capital of the world. When I was 9 years old I was instantly in love with chicken wings."
He works for Frontier Airlines and drives a bus for King County Metro, including a route through Burien. Following the contest he was handed a to-go box of wings that he said he will snack on later tonight.
