Wrestling Blogs - Jim Harshaw

Innovation in Wrestling

Innovation. If our sport is to thrive we need to innovate. Sure, I can hear some saying “Why change? We’ve done it this way for a long time and there is nothing wrong with that.” Consider this. We innovate on the mat. In matches we find ways to win even if it’s not a textbook move. In the bigger picture we innovate technique. The sport evolves. New techniques are developed. Ever learned technique from Zeke Jones? He innovates, adapts, and moves the sport forward. We talk about the life lessons we learn from wrestling… discipline, toughness, hard work. Innovation is another lesson we should pay attention to and adapt to the real world.

So how does that apply to wrestling in general? It means moving outside of the box. It means creating the event like J Robinson has done at Minnesota with smoking tunnels, pre-match interviews, and engaging event programs. It means connecting to our base through mobile marketing, through blogging, through contacting the media with interesting story lines. That’s not innovation you say… it’s been done before. Well, so has posting videos on the internet but Flo does it with wrestling in a unique format. Selling products cheap has been done before but Wal-mart’s taken it to a new level with an innovative business plan. Google created a search engine like many others but they are innovative in their approach to the status quo.

Take tools and solutions that work elsewhere, modify them and apply them to a new problem… that’s innovation.