Think back to the entry for the WBF, and the part about how it wasn't ranked all that high because it wasn't something that was going to directly compete with a worldwide entity. Well, the XFL is ranked pretty high because it was going to be a pro football league in North America... where the National Football League has a revenue number of $9 billion. The XFL wasn't directly competing on television, as their season was to start in February, while the NFL's season would end in January (at the time), but it was directly competing for talent. The NFL features all of the best professional football players on the planet, and the rest of the best play in the Canadian Football League. What does that leave the XFL? Third-rate, at best, players and coaches. Sounds like a thrilling prospect, doesn't it? The league lasted a total of one season. It was announced on February 3rd, 2000. It shut down on May 10th, 2001. That's a grand total of 15 months, and in that time span, the XFL lost a total of $70 million, with Vince and NBC both losing $35 million each. Like with the XFL, Vince just couldn't help himself and he inserted far too much wrestling into a non-wrestling product, with wrestlers making appearances on XFL broadcasts, and with one of the announce teams for the opening week being Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler and Jonathan Coachman (Lawler would be on the announce team for five weeks). He really should have known better, but he didn't. Now, "XFL" is synonymous with "failure", in and out of the wrestling world. It is one of the most notorious failures in sports history, which covers a lot of ground. When Vince McMahon ventures outside of wrestling, the results generally aren't very good. WWE Films (now known as WWE Studios) would have made the list, as well, with the terrible selection of movies featuring mostly wooden acting performances from various members of the WWE roster, but many of those movies made a profit, albeit barely, thanks to rentals and DVD sales. It should be a sign to the man, but his ego might not allow that. While we're on the subject of his ego...
Columnist/Podcaster/Director at LordsOfPain.net for nearly seven years, with nearly 2000 total columns written. Interviewed and/or involved in interviewing the likes of Tyler Black/Seth Rollins (twice), Diamond Dallas Page, Jimmy Jacobs, Christopher Daniels, Uhaa Nation and more.
