THE sound of thighs slapping violently against taut leather echoes across a Moston bar as two athletic women, wearing fishnet tights, fluorescent Lycra mini-dresses and cowboy boots throw each other, breathlessly, across a sports ring.

Yelps ring out. One begs the other to relent as her face and arms are contorted into a strange shape, later revealed to be a "Boston crab".

No, this is not your typical night out in Moston - but rather a bruising introduction to the world of women's professional wrestling, thanks to top north west wrestlers, Pippa L'Vinn and Shelby Beach.

The nation is about to see much more of the world of women's wrestling, when a new primetime ITV show pits celebrities against each other in the ring.

The programme hits our screens later this month, with the likes of TV presenter Jenny Powell, model Victoria Silvstedt and Liberty X singer, Michelle Heaton, tackling the grapple game.

It is set to expose the sport to the popular consciousness, and, for female wrestlers like Pippa and Shelby, it has been a long time coming. They hope the new series will follow in the footsteps of BBC's Strictly Come Dancing in igniting public interest.

As female wrestlers, they have had to face enormous sexism, stereotypes and sometimes quite appalling abuse during their six years touring the professional circuit at home and abroad. They train for hours each week to perfect the scary techniques and hundreds of moves involved in wrestling.

The vice-like grips of the wrestler are used in moves like the "body slam" that can "really knock the wind out of you", Pippa says, while other moves like "the fly", "body scissors", "crucifix" and "camel clutch" go some way to describe how the wrestlers' legs and arms contort in all manner of ways in a bid to restrict an opponent as much as possible.

From my own experience of a headlock, in Pippa's sturdy grip, the simple twist of a wrist can leave you completely, and rather pathetically, at your competitor's mercy.

Top wrestlers can either opt for the mat-based circuit, focusing more on the sports side, or the professional circuit, where the emphasis is on entertainment, with wrestling moves played out longer and more dramatically for an audience.

Rochdale

Pippa, originally from Rochdale but living in Blackpool, had a background in the martial arts of tae kwon do and judo before deciding to give wrestling a try. She has never looked back, and is the Professional Girl Wrestlers' Association world champion.

She, and fellow wrestler Shelby, 28, from Wigan, tour the country, taking part in bouts, that can be anywhere from 10 to 40 minutes long, with around eight bouts per show.

Pippa has her own wrestling ring that she keeps in storage, but she is hoping to find a permanent venue for it in a bar or club in the north west, and has been trying out the Lightbowne Club, Moston, to see what interest people have in the sport. She wants to develop new female wrestling talent.

Pippa, a mum of one, hopes that ITV's Celebrity Wrestling will be just the boost the sport needs. "The TV show gets females in the public eye involved in wrestling and, if it's showed in a positive way, then girls will come on board and want to get involved in it, and the more the merrier ," she says.

"All I know about the show is that we've worked with one of the guys who has been training the celebrities, Joe Legend, and he's one of the best. I also know a lot of the stars have been injured, which shows you've got to be tough to stick at it."

Pippa and Shelby have survived the bumps, bruises and fractures of the ring, and say they are stronger for it. "It's not for everybody. It does hurt, it really does," Pippa says. "If you hit the ropes, one could snap, and you could fall and injure your neck or back. When you get an injury, it knocks your confidence, but then you get back into it, although it's not easy.

"People think it's a glamourous type of thing, but it's hard graft. The guys work hard, but women have got to work twice as hard to get accepted."

Shelby agrees. She says: "When we first started, everyone thought, 'Oh, a couple of girls, we'll give 'em a try'. But we'd been training for nearly a year before our first show, so we were half-way decent. Yet it's that kind of attitude everywhere you go, as girls on the circuit. It's not too bad now, but, at the start, it was tough."

Shelby, a care assistant by day, is following in a family tradition as her great-grandfather was a wrestler. Her husband, Stuart, is supportive, as is Pippa's partner, Andy, but the girls have had to endure abuse from fans.

The entertainment side of the sport means the girls dress up for their bouts, and Pippa has more than 40 costumes, including a Xena Warrior Princess get-up and PVC catsuits.

But that has meant some audiences have got the wrong impression of why the girls are in the ring. "Some people expect us to rip each other's clothes off," says Shelby. "They can get carried away with it."

Pippa is organising an all-women's wrestling event on Saturday (April 23), Information on www.pippalvinn.co.uk .