Less than a week ago a report made its way onto Twitter that said Vince McMahon has/had intentions to bring the XFL back. And while it's perfectly okay to be skeptical about seemingly out of nowhere news like that, a WWE spokesperson threw some fuel on that fire by admitting that McMahon does have interest in investing in personally funded professional football:
Then, after that exciting announcement, things just kind of got stale and went away (which, if you remember how it went last time, is actually a pretty good metaphor for the XFL).
However, that changed on Thursday, as ESPN's Darren Rovell reported that McMahon was selling 3.34 million shares of WWE, which would give him roughly $100 million cash. According to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, McMahon acquired that cash pile "primarily to fund a separate entity from the Company, Alpha Entertainment LLC, which Mr. McMahon established to explore investment opportunities across the sports and entertainment landscapes, including professional football."
Six days ago, five XFL-related trademarks were filed for, which was necessary because the old ones were abandoned at various points between 2002 and 2005. As noted by ESPN, those filings intend to trademark the XFL as a pro football league, while also trademarking XFL-related merchandise. McMahon's Alpha Entertainment is also trying to trademark the acronym "URFL," though we have no clue what the fuck that stands for at this time.
Previously, back in 2001 (the only year of the XFL's existence), the WWE and NBC lost around $35 million apiece on the bust of a product. One would think that shrewd business minds would not take another run at that unless they had a serious plan for improvement.
So, we guess, stay tuned.
