Thread: Vince's XFL
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Old 05-22-2006, 04:23 PM   #13
Rob
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Quote:
Originally Posted by loopydate
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.

Quote:
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.
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