Fierce Rugby Wrestling — A New Upgraded and Iterated Sport Benchmarked Against American Football

Introduction: A brand new sports IP "Intense Rugby-Wrestling" created by Chengdu Seven Bowls Sports has recently made its debut. This new "ball-free" sport, which integrates 70% of the framework of American football and 30% of the characteristics of ancient Chinese collective wrestling, is trying to solve the problem of viewing focus in ball-free events with "smart helmets", and tap into Douyin's entertainment ecosystem to explore commercial monetization.

1. Pain Points and Solutions: Retrieve the "Focus" with Smart Helmets After Removing the Ball

American football has an audience of over 120 million per game in North America, but it has always been difficult to popularize in China. Founder Zhang Zhongyi observed that the core pain points lie in the complicated rules that make Chinese audiences confused, the lack of Chinese sports cultural elements that make it hard to form public recognition, as well as aesthetic differences.

The solution for "Rugby-Wrestling" is the bold move of "removing the ball". It retains the regional advancement framework of American football (70%) and incorporates the standing grappling techniques of Chinese-style wrestling (30%). When the main wrestler of the attacking side is stopped, the wrestling session starts (3 points are scored). If the main wrestler avoids being stopped and runs into the touchdown wrestling zone, 6 points are scored.

However, this immediately brings a new problem: without a ball, what should the audience focus on? To this end, the team independently developed a visual identification system for smart helmets. Through the IoT venue control system, the main wrestler's helmet automatically lights up the LED logo (the secondary wrestler's helmet does not light up), allowing audiences unfamiliar with the rules to identify the core of offense and defense in one second. In the initial stage, to achieve rapid implementation at low cost, the team adopted "colorful logo headgear" as a transition solution; later, smart helmets will be fully mass-produced to form a software-hardware integrated barrier of "rules define roles, and helmets identify roles".

2. Business Model: Tap into the Douyin Platform to Build a "Time Killer" Integrating Sports and Entertainment

In terms of business path, Rugby-Wrestling avoids the old path of traditional events featuring heavy assets and long cycles, and directly enters Douyin's group live streaming ecosystem.

The target users are not hardcore sports fans, but the general public who pursue entertainment and kill time. Zhang Zhongyi pointed out that traditional singing live shows have serious homogenization, with nearly 50 million users swiping away per session. The differentiation of Rugby-Wrestling lies in the "integration of sports and entertainment": the event includes 60% Rugby-Wrestling confrontation and 40% singing, and the original "snatch the singer" mechanism is created.

Fans can not only give rewards out of the sense of pride in traditional culture (Chinese wrestling), but also give rewards to keep their favorite singers. This emotional operation is expected to support an online audience of over 100,000 per session. The monetization path is clear: at the C-end, traffic monetization is realized through a large number of 0.1-yuan votes, big spender rewards and sports peripheral goods sales; at the B-end, the visual needs of the audience will push event organizers to purchase the smart helmet system.

3. Team and Plan: First Battle Chengdu-Chongqing Derby, Plan for "Sports Spring Festival Gala"

At present, the project has obtained the copyright registration of "Rugby-Wrestling Competition Rules" (Registration No. Chuanzuodengzi-2025-A-00181550), which is protected by the Berne Convention. The core team has cross-border integration capabilities: Founder Zhang Zhongyi (Shenyang Normal University) leads the R&D of rules and hardware; Partner Zhou Rong (Southwestern University of Finance and Economics) is in charge of financial compliance; Partner He Guantian (Northeastern University) is responsible for event operation, media and public relations.

The project has a clear plan: the first battle will launch the "Chengdu-Chongqing Rugby-Wrestling Derby" in the form of Douyin group live streaming, and quickly gain followers relying on the natural regional topics in Sichuan and Chongqing. In the long run, a 12+12 city alliance tour across the eastern and western regions will be gradually planned, and the "China Rugby-Wrestling Bowl · Sports Spring Festival Gala" benchmarked against the Super Bowl will be held on New Year's Eve. For overseas markets, it is planned to hold the first World Rugby-Wrestling Grand Prix · Chengdu Station (tentatively scheduled for July-August 2027), attract international students to participate, and complete 1 market authorization in the United States.

Financing Requirements: The project is seeking an angel round financing of 5 million RMB, with 15% equity to be transferred. The funds will be used for the lightweight launch of the first phase (venue construction, live streaming system, 12-month salary for the 21-person team, event bonuses), the implementation of the Chengdu Station Grand Prix, as well as the industrial design and mass production preparation of the smart helmet system.