What do you get when you cross a street brawl with armwrestling? No, not armbrawling. You get XARM! The newest full-contact sport is heading your way on Ripe TV.
Created by Art Davie, who also co-created the UFC, this marvel of mayhem takes arm wrestling and adds a twist: you can punch your opponent till he’s unconscious, taps out or the ref steps in.
Andrew “Cobra” Rhodes is the head trainer of the combatants. Many of the participants are familiar with the grappling game, but few have actually armwrestled. Rhodes, a former world champion armwrestler, makes sure the participants understand the arm wrestling side of things. It's not an easy job, especially considering that a win can come from either a pin or a knockout.
The challengers are harnessed to the armwrestling table, and their hands are wrapped and taped together. There’s no way to escape. You either go hard or go home. This new sport has been getting mixed reviews. Some seem to think it’s the next big contact sport, while others consider XARM a joke.
Why This Trend Is Growing
- Full-contact Armwrestling
- The trend of combining arm wrestling with full-contact fighting presents disruptive innovation opportunities for combat sports and entertainment industries.
- Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) Evolution
- The growth of full-contact hybrid sports like XARM represents opportunities for the MMA industry to expand beyond traditional formats.
- Sport-entertainment Convergence
- The convergence of sports and entertainment in full-contact hybrid sports like XARM presents opportunities for companies to create new forms of media and fan engagement.
Industries Being Reshaped
- Combat Sports
- XARM represents a disruptive innovation for the combat sports industry, offering a unique and exciting new format of full-contact hybrid competition.
- Entertainment
- The convergence of sports and entertainment in XARM presents disruptive innovation opportunities for the entertainment industry, including production, media, and distribution channels.
- Technology
- Advances in technology can be leveraged in XARM to create new forms of fan engagement, streaming capabilities, and smart equipment for measuring performance.
