As perfectly shown in the videos above, one of many reasons the XFL failed the first time around was Vince tried to shoehorn in the WWF - from the commentators (Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler, Jesse Ventura) to stupid backstage skits, pyro, the wrestlers and "Mr. McMahon" himself...it really was the WWF does NFL. On the field, the actual football was substandard too.
I'm interested as to who the XFL 2 will appeal to (I bet Donald Trump's been in his ear) and in what form it's going to come in and how it will differentiate itself from College Football and the NFL. I'm presuming it will be much faster paced. If 'NFL via the Attitude Era' didn't work at the height of the WWF's popularity in 2000/01 though I'm not sure how it's going to work now. And is there enough of an audience that still wants to see players risking concussions and injury? There are those who think the NFL now has too many games, is too long, and has gotten dull with its many rules, regulations, and elongated length. Meanwhile the younger generation is moving towards playing other safer sports like soccer, which also has the benefit of only taking 90 minutes and lacks commercial breaks. NFL by comparison takes 3 hours of TV time.
I guess we can expect Triple H and Stephanie McMahon to have an even more hands on role in the coming months; there's no way Vince will be able to keep as much focus on the WWE. At the same time, I look forward to the XFL promotion clogging up WWE programming again in late 2019/2020.
At least we in the UK will be able to watch it this time though.
Interesting press conference. Not a lot given away but I don’t think they were hiding anything I think they genuinely haven’t thought everything through yet which is why it’s not launching for two years.
Interesting to note that Vince McMahon said he’ll be taking a backseat throughout with the XFL and still focussing on the WWE, instead opting to “hire professionals”.
Adamant there would be no crossover between the two brands either.
He said players will have to stand for the National Anthem, while at the same time saying he doesn’t want this to be political.
Well surely the common sense approach would be just to dump the National Anthem entirely. Despite what he said, most sporting events and leagues around the world don’t play their country’s anthems. We don’t play God Save The Queen before every Premier League game.
KK wrote:He said players will have to stand for the National Anthem, while at the same time saying he doesn’t want this to be political.
Well surely the common sense approach would be just to dump the National Anthem entirely. Despite what he said, most sporting events and leagues around the world don’t play their country’s anthems. We don’t play God Save The Queen before every Premier League game.
Well he is American. They play the national anthem before everything and seem to assume that it’s normal throughout the world.
My initial thought was just don’t play it but that would actually cause even more of a fuss than some players refusing to stand.
KK wrote:Great news everyone - the Royal Rumble is another 6 hour marathon, with 3 matches added to the Kick Off Show from 10pm.
I like the Pre shows when I don't stay up for the event. I will often watch the Pre show and then turn off and watch the ppv the next day. But if I fancy staying up then it's a hard old slog.
KK wrote:I'm guessing the women's Rumble will kick off the main show?
I honestly don't see the point. Each show has about five women on it so everyone is getting a title shot eventually, and most of them will be champion.
I preferred Royal Rumbles back in the day because I had no idea how big the WWF's roster was. Even the guy's Rumble today seems bleh since there are two main titles, and you could end up being in the third match at Mania.
I’ve always felt that the brand split is bad for the rumble. Some would argue that it makes it more exciting as it increases the options on who may win but for me it just throws up a smaller number of certs. So this year I can only see Nakamura or Reigns winning. Although there are the rumours about Bryan doing the rounds, I’m ignoring them at the moment.
