The screech of rubber on hardwood floors echoes in the background as packs of women resembling Vikings on roller skates battle for points during a roller derby bout.

Replace the barbaric horns, fur and weapons with short shorts, little skirts, fishnet stockings and roller skates and you have a pure warrior, a Dixie Derby Girl.

The Huntsville-based Dixie Derby Girls are part of the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association, founded in 2004. The association is part of a revival of the old roller derby team, made popular in the 1970s and dating back even to the early 1900s. The roller derby carries a reputation of being a theatrical production of fights and staged interludes between players, but the WFTDA is different.

The WFTDA incorporates referees, league rules and even penalty boxes for players who intentionally get too rough with one another.

“We play the game to play the game,” Michelle Neilson said. “This is throw up, sweat and blood. This is real, 100 percent real.”

Nielson, 25, of Huntsville also is known by her derby name, Asian Invasion. The bartender is in her second season with the roller derby.

“I just thought it would be really fun,” Nielson said. “It’s kind of for the underdogs. It’s not your typical sport for girls.”

The only theatrical aspect to the league may be the players’ names and attire.

Part of the fun of the games is coming up with a stage name for each player of the game, Nielson said. Her name “Asian Invasion” comes from her Korean heritage.

“Your personality should be played up in your name,” she said.

Their skater outfits are staples distinctive of the derby girl style.

“Either you dress this way because of derby, or you like the derby because you dress this way,” Ebbin Flow said.

Ebbin Flow, also known as Cori Smith, 26 of Huntsville, is in her third season on the team.

“If we can’t ‘clothesline’ girls at least we can let [the audience] see our skirts flying up in the air,” Smith laughed. “Clothesline” is a term from old-style days for taking out another skater by putting out an arm at neck height.

The referees also have derby aliases. Jaison Mirandy, or Grand Master Smashed as he’s called on the rink, became a referee because his girlfriend, Smith, was on the team. She would come home covered in bruises and banged up and he wanted to see want it was all about, he said.