WWE News: Jonathan Coachman on Vince McMahon and the rumored XFL return

Will the XFL work?
Will the XFL work?

What’s the story?

Amidst reports of Vince McMahon filing trademarks for the “XFL,” former WWE announcer Jonathan Coachman said that McMahon would do it better this time around during an interview with TMZ.

In case you didn’t know...

The XFL was a football league founded by both the WWF and NBC in 2000. The league was comprised of eight teams and had their first and only season in 2001 before the league was closed.

The heart of the matter

Coachman said that he believed the idea of another football league was a “crazy thought process” when he heard about in 2000, but that it was only McMahon and his crew that could make the league work.

McMahon lost $35 million from his $100 million investment in the XFL, but Coachman said that McMahon would improve from his mistakes with his initial XFL run.

“Best believe that Vince has been doing some research behind the scenes. He isn’t going to come out and blow $50 or $100 million dollars on something he has already tried.”

Coachman also discussed the possibility of McMahon buying the Carolina Panthers who are currently up for sale. Coachman said that Carolina was McMahon’s home base, but people weren’t considering that possibility because they’re too focused on the potential XFL revival.

“He’s a billionaire, he could come up with the funds, and he’s also at the age where other owners would respect that. So I’m not saying that he would, but I would think that’s a second possibility that people aren’t kinda tossing out there because they want to believe that he would start his own entity.”

What’s next?

McMahon sold $100 million of his WWE stock to fund Alpha Entertainment - the company that he created weeks ago that filed the XFL trademarks.

All signs indicate that McMahon is determined to try his hand at an XFL revival but whether it could work remains to be seen.

Author’s take

Despite Coachman’s optimism, bringing back the XFL has far greater odds of failure than success.

Quick Links