The foundation of the XFL in 2001
Back in 2001, the XFL football league was founded by the WWE and the television station NBC. The name did not stand for eXtreme Football League, as many fans believed at the time, but also for X Football League.
All eight teams were owned by an organizer and there were fights for points in two divisions. However, the interest of the fans in the league was rather low, which also a number of rule changes could not do anything. Among other things, this significantly increased the risk of injury and cameras were installed in the showers of the players and cheerleaders to increase the show effect. Nevertheless, the game was stopped again after six months, for which the sporting achievements were cited in particular.
But despite this failure, the owner of the world’s largest wrestling promotion seems to consider an alternative to the NFL to be a promising alternative to this day.
The rebirth of the X Football League
On January 25th, 2018 Vince McMahon dropped the bombshell and announced the rebirth of the X Football League, this time exclusively through his newly founded company Alpha Entertainment LLC and without the support of NBC. For the re-establishment of the football league, McMahon invested about 100 million US dollars and, when asked about his motivation, said he wanted to give the football back to the fans. For this reason, the X Football League season takes place during the off-season in the NFL and is to be broadcast on both streaming portals and television. But the X Football League differs from gaming in the NFL in other ways.
A league for football fans or Trump supporters? The X Football League caused discussions even in the run-up to the game. Not only should players with a criminal past be excluded from participating in gaming operations, but political actions or protests should also be severely sanctioned. Because of this announcement, the British newspaper “The Independent” even referred to the league as a league for Trump supporters. Subsequently, however, McMahon vehemently denied that this decision had anything to do with his relationship with the former US president and that it was made by him alone.
On the other hand, the fans took a more positive view of the idea that they could influence the games and thus the entire league through their own decisions. During the games, the fans can take part in various votes and thus decide, for example, whether the half-time break, a commercial break or the fair catch rule will be omitted and the fans in the X Football League also have a say in trades.
In the run-up to the first X Football League season, the league hosted a player draft, which took place in October 2019. Each team was allowed to trade 70 players who had all previously signed a contract with the league. Including former NFL pro Landry Jones, who was the first player to be drafted in the X Football League and has since been under contract with the Dallas Renegades.
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The first season of the X Football League started with eight teams on February 8th, 2020, exactly one week after the Super Bowl LIV. These were exclusively new franchises and not new editions of the teams from 2001. The games from the X Football League were broadcast by the channels FOX, ABC, ESPN and FOX Sports.
After the first five game days, however, the X Football League was caught freezing by the corona pandemic, which is why it was decided on March 13, 2020 to end the season early. Only shortly afterwards, on April 10th, 2020, the league announced the final cessation of gaming operations and Alpha Entertainment LLC went into bankruptcy. Thus the second attempt of the WWE managing director to establish an alternative football league was a crashing failure and very few fans would have expected to hear the name XFL again.
The X Football League returns under new leadership in 2022
Although Vince McMahon has already failed twice with his idea of establishing an alternative football league, he does not seem to be the only one who believes in the long-term success of the X Football League. Because in August 2020, the former WWE wrestler and current film star Dwayne The Rock Johnson announced that they had acquired the rights to the brand together with his ex-wife Dany Garcia. According to their own statements, Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia received the rights to the X Football League at a downright ridiculous price of just 15 million US dollars. Johnson and Garcia were able to win the investment company RedBird Capital as partners and together they want to venture a fresh start with the X Football League in 2022. It would be the third reboot of the football league with which Dwayne The Rock Johnson aims to create something special for everyone who loves the sport of football.
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The former wrestling star and current actor himself belongs to this group, because in his youth Dwayne Johnson didn’t want to play anything but football before he had to give up his dreams of a great career due to a knee injury. Instead, Dwayne Johnson became The Rock, making it one of the most famous and popular wrestlers of all time.
Since the end of his career as a full-time wrestler in 2006, Johnson has concentrated on his career as an actor and is now one of the big names in Hollywood. In 2015, Johnson slipped into the series Ballers for the first time in the role of Spencer Strasmore, a former football professional who tries his hand at financial management after his career.
So now Dwayne The Rock Johnson wants to add a new chapter to his career and is trying to make a return to the X Football League. And if anyone can make the league a success, it’s Dwayne Johnson.
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