15 Things WWE Wants You To Forget About Vince McMahon

2. XFL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YNoqJK4H8s Proving that he was determined to succeed in something other than wrestling, Vince launched the XFL aka the Extreme Football League in 2001. In Vince McMahon's eyes, it was probably a smart move. They figured that since American football is the most popular sport in that country and the NFL season ended in early February, that it would make sense to start up another league right after the NFL season ended. The quality of play wouldn't be as good because the best players were in the more established NFL, but if America was really thirsty for more football then perhaps they would buy into something like this. It really didn't work. The ratings were bad, fans weren't going to games in the cities they were in and money wasn't being made. The league only lasted one season. The reported loss for the XFL? $120 million. Since NBC took half of the loss due to their role as a WWE partner in the venture, the whole thing cost WWE around $60 million. Lucky for WWE, the wrestling business was still red-hot so the losses weren't as catastrophic as they could have been. You don't hear WWE people talking about the XFL. Why? Because out of all of WWE's extracurricular activities and business ventures, this was the worst one.