Vince's XFL

[Ministry9006]

I never got into the whole XFL thing when Vince introduced it. What caused it to expire?

[starfox8500]

Pretty much because peeps got bored of it, in a John Cena sorta' way. You know, ok at the beginning, but... well look at John Cena

[Jesus Shuttlesworth]

It was just a dumb concept, much like a lot of the non-wrestling stuff McMahon tries to do.

[Rob]

I never got into the whole XFL thing when Vince introduced it. What caused it to expire?

Losing millions upon millions of dollars in one year and absolutely nobody watching it on one of the biggest networks in the States in prime time.

[BCWWF]

It was minor league football with color commentary

[Nervous Ferret]

lol I remember there big selling point was like "no fair catches"

[loopydate]

I never got into the whole XFL thing when Vince introduced it. What caused it to expire?

A bunch of factors, but here are the main ones:

1) Bad TV Ratings. The opening weekend of games drew really big ratings, but then they slipped week by week. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, doesn't an XFL broadcast still hold the record for lowest-rated network program ever?

2) Bad Football. The league was made up of players who couldn't make it in the NFL, and most of them weren't good enough for the Canadian Football League or NFL Europe, either. There were a couple of exceptions (Tommy Maddox and "He Hate Me" both went on to play in the NFL), but for the most part the players just weren't very good.

3) Bad Marketing. The XFL was supposed to be a whole lot rougher than the NFL, with the aforementioned "No Fair Catch" rule. However, the hype didn't match the product as there was a rule preventing tacklers from being within a certain distance of the return man until after he'd fielded the ball. So, technically, there were no fair catches, but it wasn't like you could just plow the guy over and pick up the loose ball.

Also, they advertised that they would go "inside the cheerleaders' locker room." Of course, they couldn't actually do anything salacious on network television, so it was all lame backstage sketches with bimbo cheerleaders with little personality.

4) Bad Production. XFL did introduce the mainstream (if you can call it that) to the hanging camera that ESPN now uses, but that's about the only innovative thing they did. The commentary in particular was abysmal (whose brilliant idea was it to put JIM ROSS on commentary? He can't even call two wrestlers by their right names, let alone 22 no-name football players!).

An alternative to the NFL sounded like a good idea, but the execution was really bad, and the league failed. Spectacularly.

[Crimson]

Funny how Vince just has these delusions and actually goes thru with them sometimes. Suppose that's how he got where he is now though.

[Evil Vito]

<font color=goldenrod>Loopy pretty much hit the nail on the head.

The only other marketing thing was that players had to compete for first possession, no coin flip or anything. Basically one guy from each team sprinted to the football, whoever got it first had possession. It was retarded.

One other example to the lack of talent in that league: Jose Cortez was the best kicker in the league</font>

[Nervous Ferret]

ROFL The coin toss :love:

Didn't some guy get injured on the coin toss on opening day :love:

Yeah I remember the locker room thing. It was like a reallt really bad WWE backstage segment

[Jesus Shuttlesworth]

No fair catches was so stupid because their was a like a 5 yard halo rule. Not allowing fair catches is the most retarded thing ever though, because if they didn't enforce the halo then there would be no point to catch the punt. Punt returners would literally be getting destoried.

[Savio]

I heard the rating were still better then the NHL. UPN and TNN still wanted it for a second season :roll:

[Rob]

3) Bad Marketing. The XFL was supposed to be a whole lot rougher than the NFL, with the aforementioned "No Fair Catch" rule. However, the hype didn't match the product as there was a rule preventing tacklers from being within a certain distance of the return man until after he'd fielded the ball. So, technically, there were no fair catches, but it wasn't like you could just plow the guy over and pick up the loose ball.

The marketing was fine. They opened with over a 10.0 rating for their debut. It was once people saw the product that they turned off.


4) Bad Production. XFL did introduce the mainstream (if you can call it that) to the hanging camera that ESPN now uses, but that's about the only innovative thing they did. The commentary in particular was abysmal (whose brilliant idea was it to put JIM ROSS on commentary? He can't even call two wrestlers by their right names, let alone 22 no-name football players!).


Jim Ross has previous football announcing experience both college and NFL. It was his regular job for years during his pro wrestling career. The abysmal announcing had everything to do with the other three (Lawler, Ventura and Matt whatever his name is). I don't recall anyone outside NBC knocking JR the first week. They took him off the main games early and put him back so they must have seen it too.

[Jesus Shuttlesworth]

The players in it weren't any different from what you see in the CFL or AFL really - a lot of guys from the XFL are in the those leagues, and a few are serving as back ups in the NFL right now. The CFL and AFL seem to be doing just fine, where as the XFL failed after one week. I think all the stupid "new" rules where the downfall, like they tried to make it so much different then the NFL it just made it retarded. The Arena Football league is a bit different than the NFL (well obviously it is always inside, shorter field, the hockey boards, playing balls of the net etc) but they changed those rules to have some type of effect on scoring. The XFL changes to the game where just stupid, like the coin toss thing was probably the dumbest thing ever. The XFL could have been great, especially being associated with NBC Sports because in my opinion NBC Sports has the best coverage/graphics/overall apperance of all the major networks in America.

[mrslackalack]

I heard the final nail in a coffin was when NBC was looking forward to big ratings for a big SNL with JLO hosting but got delayed when an low rating XFL game went into OT.

[mrslackalack]

The first weeks ratings was HUGE. But when week 2 came it appeared that it was just curisoity and most didnt care for it as they plummeted then and each week afterwards.

[YOUR Hero]

Who else remembers Vince coming out on Monday Night Raw after the first week of the XFL? - He was grinning ear to ear. His first week rating was huge and I'm sure he thought he was king Midas.

He had a really good idea, the XFL could have worked, as Stima stated.

Look, it was on after the NFL season was over. It didn't compete with the NFL at all, it was there to give you (Americans) football during the NFL's off season.

[Jesus Shuttlesworth]

If he didn't try to change so much, it would have worked. Instead the Arena Football League came in and swept up the opportunity.

[Boondock Saint]

If it was more like NFL Blitz, it would have been nasty.

Didn't they put mics in the players helmets too? I'm not big into football so I dunno if NFL does this now, but I remember it being one of those "innovative" things they promised. All you could hear during huddles was like "YOUDIHSEUITRHIWAT".

Good times, good times.