Jun 5, 2016 4 min read

Bill Townsend’s template for success started early.

“My parents taught me never to be afraid of failure, but to embrace it and learn from it,” he said in an email Thursday.

New Stanton businessman Ed Smalis, founder of Smalis Conveyor Co., reinforced that mindset years later.

“He told me the worst someone can say to you is ‘No,’ and that doesn’t hurt at all.”

Embracing those philosophies, Townsend has gone on to series of smashing successes. The native Washington Countian has helped build global companies, including Lycos, a Carnegie Mellon University-affiliated search engine; the social networking site sixdegrees.com, whose technology was sold to LinkedIn; and GeoCities, which was sold to Yahoo!

He is a high-tech entrepreneur with a high-level LinkedIn profile – check it out. Now he is linked into an ambitious initiative that excites him.

Townsend is president and CEO of RevolutionSports, a live-events TV production company based in Las Vegas. It focuses on combat sports such as professional wrestling, boxing and sword fighting. RevolutionSports is a virtual reality venture, with a goal of providing true competition, not staged events, to more than 3 billion enthusiasts worldwide.

Townsend and pro wrestling champion Shane Douglas co-founded RevolutionSports in December 2014. The Las Vegas-based firm’s first production is Classic Wrestling Revolution, which the two expect to launch in late summer.

RevolutionSports is attempting to raise $16 million in convertible preferred stock to qualified investors.

The plans are grand, and are outlined by Townsend on a three-minute, 10-second video: https://youtu.be/YJxZSBRt14c.

Townsend, a 1982 Chartiers-Houston graduate, is focusing on wrestling first. An eclectic collection of ring legends is boosting him in this endeavor. They include multiple world champion Shane Douglas, of New Brighton, Townsend’s partner, and color commentator Jake “The Snake” Roberts,

The fabled Rowdy Roddy Piper also was a partner until he died July 31 from a cardiopulmonary issue at 61.

Pro wrestling traditionally has had a reputation of being scripted, accentuating the entertainment aspect. Classic Wrestling Revolution is stressing “real competition and athleticism,” mixing elements of Olympic, collegiate and pro wrestling that result in, according to Townsend, “a whole new combat sport.”

The company plans to eventually present 345 live wrestling and six boxing shows a year, from Caesar Entertainment Corp.’s Rio Hotel and Casino Las Vegas. It plans to initially serve TV audiences in the U.S., China, Japan and Spanish-language markets.

Townsend envisions the events being full sensory experiences for audiences at home.

“We are working in virtual and augmented reality, so that in the future, fans will not only see and hear our matches, but feel them through our patented ‘acousto-heptic’ vests,” he wrote in the email. “You will feel the action.”

He added that viewers will “be able to instantly move in and out of the ring as if they were watching a match from 2 feet away. The other element … is to create content that looks just as good on a smartphone or tablet as it does on a television. This requires a new way of filming and we are taking advantage of robotic cameras in ways that have never been done before.”

His company plans to do “the same for boxing, Muay Thai, Shaolin Karate, Swordfighting and Drone Wars, creating new takes on sports that in some cases are centuries old.”

Townsend, 51, has had an interesting life to be sure. His LinkedIn profile shows he has been a major figure or board member of 18 companies and organizations. Townsend also speaks Mandarin and secured a bachelor’s degree from the College of Wooster and a master’s in global business at Baylor University.

In 1992, Townsend was the Republican candidate who lost in his bid to unseat U.S. Rep. Austin J. Murphy.

He lived on East Beau Street in South Strabane Township until fifth grade, when his father built a house in Meadow Lands – on the farm owned by Bill Townsend’s celebrated uncle, Delvin Miller.

Now Townsend is embroiled in a venture that energizes him, that may be on the edge of where entertainment may be headed.

“I am so excited about RevolutionSports,” he said. “It’s probably the most fun I’ve had since my Lycos days.”