While many of us XFL News Hub correspondents were live on The Markcast®, discussing the experience from the XFL Arizona Showcase we had and getting ready for the XFL’s massive weekend, the troubles across the country for former XFL creators and owners were continuing.
The first news about WWE Chairman Vince McMahon just a month ago reported that he was stepping down, and the CEO and Chairman of the board became more precise as Vince McMahon announced this past Friday that he was retiring from WWE. The statement he released on WWE.com.
“As I approach 77 years old, I feel it’s time for me to retire as Chairman and CEO of WWE. Throughout the years, it’s been a privilege to help WWE bring you joy, inspire you, thrill you, surprise you, and always entertain you. I would like to thank my family for mightily contributing to our success, and I would also like to thank all of our past and present Superstars and employees for their dedication and passion for our brand. Most importantly, I would like to thank our fans for allowing us into your homes every week and being your choice of entertainment. I hold the deepest appreciation and admiration for our generations of fans all over the world who have liked, currently like, and sometimes even love our form of Sports Entertainment.
Our global audience can take comfort in knowing WWE will continue to entertain you with the same fervor, dedication, and passion as always. I am extremely confident in the continued success of WWE, and I leave our company in the capable hands of an extraordinary group of Superstars, employees, and executives – in particular, both Chairwoman and Co-CEO Stephanie McMahon and Co-CEO Nick Khan. As the majority shareholder, I will continue to support WWE in any way I can. My personal thanks to our community and business partners, shareholders, and Board of Directors for their guidance and support through the years. Then. Now. Forever. Together.”
Vince McMahon
With Vince McMahon retiring due to the current scandal that is affecting everything, it makes it clear as day that if the pandemic did not happen. We were finishing season three of the XFL; It would have been assumed that Vince McMahon would be stepping down as the Owner and Founder of Alpha Entertainment, the parent company of the XFL.
On December 21st, 2017, when Vince McMahon sold over $100 million worth of WWE stock to fund Alpha Entertainment within a month, he had a press conference to bring back the XFL. He was preparing to invest as much as $500 million into the XFL. It is five times the amount he invested back in 2001.
Vince McMahon made it clear he would stay out of the spotlight of the XFL in 2020 and let the football people run the league, which is what happened. If the XFL had kept going, Vince McMahon would either be stepping down or selling off the company. When we take a step back and look at all that Vince McMahon has done throughout history, it would not be without doubt that this scandal would quickly affect the XFL.
We will never know what could have been, but we did know based on conversations with Dany Garcia and Dwayne Johnson over the past 48 hours at Texas Live! XFL Town Hall and the press conference yesterday morning at Choctaw Stadium in Arlington, TX, that Dany Garcia was trying to talk to Vince McMahon about buying the New York Guardians.
On the other hand, Dwayne yesterday mentioned during the Arlington Hub Announcement that both Dany and himself were both around during the first edition of the XFL in 2001 and were keenly aware that the challenges of spring football are a massive possibility regardless of co-owning the league currently.
With the current affairs of Vince McMahon and how he has had to retire due to the hush money scandals, Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia could have had roles in the XFL even under Vince McMahon and possibly took over the league for the 2023 season as we all know Vince McMahon prepared to fund half of a billion dollars of his own money into the XFL for three seasons.
Of course, without knowing the full details of what the WWE Board of Directors is still investigating, it has become known that there are over 20.9 million dollars in hush money reported by Joseph Staszewski today from the New York Post.
So, despite Vince McMahon retiring from the WWE and stepping down in full, even in a creative role he was staying in previously once the hush money scandal came out. It would be interesting to see if Vince McMahon would have been stepping away from XFL if it were successful and leading the charge for spring football in an alternate world where the pandemic did not hit.
What does the future hold for Vince McMahon? Nobody at this point knows, but at 77 years old, we all hope he stays retired and relaxes, a thing Vince McMahon does not even know; what relaxing is based on many stories we have all heard.
Could Vince, behind the scenes, invest in the XFL down the road? Could we see a turn on the XFL and Vince invest in the USFL? All of those are super hypothetical theories, but we all know the Vince McMahon that got us to where we are now has a passion and mindset for Professional Football.
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