Controversies Of Past XFL Cheerleaders That Led To Why The First XFL Failed

Despite the first XFL having it’s fair share of success, it is no secret that they only had one season and that they eventually met their demise. There are a lot of reasons and factors that led to the first XFL eventually closing it’s doors after only one season. The most obvious reason that the league eventually closed down after one season was that they were relying too heavily on sports entertainment gimmicks similar to the WWE. This included emphasizing violence, the lack of high-level talent among its players and using cheerleaders as a source of sex appeal. Despite strong ratings for its first games, viewership eventually nosedived and that is what made Vince McMahon and the other executives resort to using cheerleaders that promoted sex on worldwide television. But unfortunately, the league folded after the conclusion of the inaugural season.

In the face of declining ratings, WWE and NBC aggressively came up with a plan to promote the XFL in week 6 and they eventually came up with the idea to feature a behind-the-scenes visit into the locker room of the Rage’s cheerleaders at halftime. They heavily promoted the event and they even categorized it as a publicity stunt. During this time that the ratings were plummeting to earth, primary announcer Matt Vasgersian was demoted by McMahon personally for expressing his problems with exploitation of cheerleaders on air. The day went as follows: Instead of showing an entry into the room, viewers instead saw a sketch in which the cameraman knocked himself unconscious by running into the locker room door, followed by a dream sequence with little implied nudity, various fetish-related scenes, and a surprise cameo from Rodney Dangerfield. The New York Daily News even reported that the scene would likely be the last salacious WWF-style stunt for the rest of the season, even citing internal sources indicating that NBC wished to pivot the telecasts back towards a football-oriented product, including hiring NFL alumni as analysts, and reinstating Vasgersian as the lead commentator.

They even had a commercial that featured the XFL Cheerleaders & Vince McMahon. That commercial was said to heavily promote nudity and sex. The XFL figured that if they pushed the envelope on its cheerleaders, they would eventually draw in some viewers and having sexy cheerleaders that promoted nudity and sex was one of their major selling points. These cheerleaders were even described as scantily-clad cheerleaders and they were even encouraged to date the players because during that time this was what the XFL was all about.

Since 2001 a lot of things have changed and using tactics such as getting a camera into the cheerleaders’ locker room wouldn’t be seen in very high regard and it wouldn’t sit well with the media as well as the spectators. Even though this was used to boost the XFL’s ratings back in the day, it wouldn’t be much of use during this day and time. Because according to Vince McMahon himself, there will be no cheerleaders when the new XFL relaunches as they are not part of the game anymore. So it would be pretty interesting to see what tactics Vince McMahon will use to boost the ratings of the new XFL as he promised that it will be pure football and it will be totally different from the first XFL and that it will have no connection to professional wrestling.