More Details On Vince McMahon Reviving The XFL Including Possible New Name & Rumored Ties To Donald Trump

As previously reported, Vince McMahon is reportedly working on some type of football project that may be an XFL revival of sorts. Brad Shepard started the buzz by tweeting that McMahon was looking to bring back the XFL and would possibly announce its return on January 25th, 2018. David Bixenspan of Deadspin asked WWE about the reports and they responded with a non-denial.

“Vince McMahon has established and is personally funding a separate entity from WWE, Alpha Entertainment, to explore investment opportunities across the sports and entertainment landscapes, including professional football. Mr. McMahon has nothing further to announce at this time.”

FOX News is reporting some additional details on the potential blockbuster news, noting that the reporter who broke the story, Brad Shepard, is a right-wing political source. This has sparked speculation that the league may somehow have ties to President Donald Trump, who has made it one of his major causes to criticize the NFL and even urge fans to boycott the league over many NFL players kneeling during the National Anthem. It’s worth noting that Trump once owned a USFL team in the mid-1980s, the USFL being another football league that tried to challenge the NFL and failed. Trump was extremely critical of the NFL then as well and urged the USFL to compete directly with the NFL in an aggressive way, a move that largely ended up being blamed for the league failing (the league changed plans from running their games in the spring to instead run them head to head with the NFL in the fall partly due to Trump pushing them to do so). Linda McMahon currently works for the Trump administration. Trump’s ties to Vince McMahon go back decades and are well documented.

In addition to WWE extending and filing for XFL trademarks this year, Vince McMahon himself has trademarked “URFL,” “United Football League,” “UFL,” and “For the love of football.”

The rumored January 25th, 2018 date that is being mentioned as the date McMahon will announce the revival of the XFL (or the launch of a new football league) would be the Thursday after the 25th anniversary edition of RAW.

WrestlingInc also notes that a Twitter user responded to Shepard’s tweet saying he knows players who played in the XFL and that McMahon broke promises to them and “burned” them. That likely had to do with the XFL promising many players that the league would last at least two seasons, then abruptly closing down after one season.

The XFL was a spectacular failure in 2001, opening to a giant media blitz and strong opening day ratings, but ended up losing $138 million and shut down after just one season. Despite this, both Vince McMahon and Dick Ebersol teased an XFL revival at the end of the recent ESPN 30 for 30 documentary on the league.