Vince
McMahon has that football urge again after selling $100 million of WWE stock to
set up Alpha Entertainment. Alpha is a separate company from the WWE and it will
begin preparation for the new incarnation of the XFL. On 1/25 Vince told
reporters that the new XFL will kick off in 2020. This version will have eight
teams, 40-man rosters, a 10-game regular season, and a postseason with two
semifinals and a championship game. No cities have been announced yet for the
league. The season would begin after the 2020 Super Bowl. He didn’t announce
what network the games would air on but claimed there was interest out there.
Since it is a separate company the games will not run on the WWE Network or have
any WWE connections at all. As far as who would play for the new league anyone
signed cannot have a criminal record or even a DUI. The players will not be
allowed to talk about their political opinions and must stand for the national
anthem. The XFL will hire experienced football executives and McMahon won't be
the public face of the league. Some of the ideas Vince mentioned were
eliminating halftime, have fewer commercials and simplifying the rules so that
each game would only run two hours. The original XFL ran for one season in 2001
and I don’t think this one will last longer than that. It sounds like minor
league football with players who couldn’t make the NFL which is what the XFL
was. By saying a player can’t have even a DUI on their record you need robots,
not human beings and telling them they can’t express their opinions means the
league will be full of bland semi-pro types. |