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THE ROCK ANNOUNCES WHEN THE XFL WILL RETURN

The XFL released a video this morning narrated by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson announcing the football league will return in 2022:

In 2018, McMahon launched a new company, Alpha Entertainment, to pursue a number of potential entertainment endeavors as well as a potental relaunch of the XFL.   The original XFL launched in 2001 as a joint venture between NBC and WWE, existing for one season. 

An ESPN 30For30 documentary about the rise and fall of the league, "This Was The XFL" included footage of McMahon and NBC Executive Dick Ebersol discussing their memories of their partnership in the league over dinner and the idea of launching it today.  During those discussions, McMahon admitted that he had "recently" had talks with Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones about the idea of a "minor league NFL." 

The Director of that documentary was Charlie Ebersol, Dick's son, who later approached McMahon with the idea of purchasing the XFL rights and resurrecting the league.  Instead, McMalhon did it himself while Ebersol went on to form the Alliance of American Football (AAF), which launched after the 2019 Super Bowl and folded within months.   The AAF launched in February 2019, one year before the XFL's planned 2020 kickoff.    Despite having a broadcast agreement with CBS, the AAF League almost immediately ran into cash flow difficulties, requiring a new $250 million investment, which made Tom Dundon the new majority owner.  Dundon later made the decision to shut down the league, leaving the XFL's goal of becoming a new alternative football league unemcumbered while also showing the dangers of such a business launch.

While the XFL launched as scheduled earlier this year, the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic in March led to the league shutting down for the season and then eventually filing for bankruptcy.  Just hours before an auction for the league was scheduled to commence in August, Dwayne Johnson, his long-time business partner Dany Garcia and Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird Capital swooped in and purchased the league under a new company titled The Garcia Companies and Redbird Capital Partners Management LLC.  At the time, The United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware noted they were the only "qualified bidder" that came to the table, the auction for the XFL today was canceled.

Dwayne Johnson has teased actually playing on the field when the league returns.

Thanks to Paul Jordan.

 

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