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Vince McMahon forms and funds Alpha Entertainment: Possible XFL Revival


zep81

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1 hour ago, garynysmon said:

I'm not disagreeing with what you're saying, but WWE isn't pop culture like it was in 99-2001. I'm not too sure you can discount TV ratings though, anyone who was a fan in the 80's may subscribe to the youtube channel for some of the classic content, but not having watched an episode of Raw in 15 years. 

Remember, the cost cutting over recent years has been quite dramatic, cutting out pyro, using the same set for everything etc. This would not be the actions of a company that's in rude financial health. Ticking along certainly, but I'd find it hard to fathom that the company is of a similar size nor has anywhere near as many eyes on the product as its peak.

You're probably right, but there's a massive difference between that and saying their fanbase has 'regressed to basically the most hardcore who idolise indy starlets'.

I think carbomb might be right with his assumption that WWE's global audience has never been bigger. One thing to note as well is the venues at TV shows and PPVs have have changed over the years to venues with larger capacities. Raw and Smackdown are running 1990s WrestleMania venues and it seems they're starting to move towards stadiums for non-Wrestlemania big events too (next year will be the 2nd Rumble in 3 years at a stadium).

The cost cutting isn't reflective of their global audience, they're cutting costs to offset the way their business has changed and how different the revenue streams are these days. The industry constantly changes. In the 80s it was very much a house show revenue driven business, in the 90s it was TV and PPV and today it is TV (albeit a decreasing medium) and subs, with other ventures to make major money becoming more important than ever.

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This could go in so many different directions. Firstly, it might not even happen. They've been a bit smarter in not rushing the start of the league but they've had to do this to try and find investment. I can see there being a lot of potential 'donors' to the league, but its still a long way to go to secure contracts, stadia and whatever media deals they are going to go with. From Vince's comments, I can see him going right out there as far as TV distribution. He might even forego TV altogether if he has some kind of Facebook deal in the offing. They want to launch into Sports Broadcasting but its so damn expensive now. IF he can secure something with a company like that, it could work and be very profitable for them. No doubt in his head, he sees this working and sees the league as expanding over the year. 

With regards to still using the XFL name, they had no choice really. They could have called it whatever they wanted and people would still call it 'that XFL revival thing' or similar.

What is mad though, is that this is really old school Vince. He had become almost this reclusive type public figure compared to his heyday or sticking his middle finger up to everyone and doing whatever the hell he wanted to try and mould pop culture. At 72, its amazing to think he still has that ambition to launch something and show everyone hes not the mad old wrestling promoter. He did say this could be his only public thing with regards tot he XFL though and I can believe that. There's no way hes running this January - April, slap bang in the middle of Wrestlemania season whilst still sitting in Gorilla at every fucking show. And its clear he has no want to stop doing that anytime soon.

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I'd venture a guess that he might be banking on getting investment from a load of rich alt-rightists and "good ol' boys" who've switched off from the NFL because of Kaepernick and the subsequent protests since. Perhaps he's looking to make the XFL the NASCAR of American football.

As to the name, he'd been reported as having registered "UFL", hadn't he? Perhaps he decided against that against the possibility that people might think the UFC had decided to branch out, or that he might be looking to fuse American football with MMA.

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Re cost cutting, for every pyro cut from the main production they still have clever entrances (extended titantron on the ramp) so think its more changing with the times than cost cutting. I do miss pyros at the start of Raw though, I do think it used to add an edge to the fans at the start of the show, nowadays they keep all that for the big events.

Speaking of which, whats the odds on XFL being the WrestleMania sponsor in a couple years? 

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Given the right-leaning tendency this whole thing will have, maybe he'll arrange a deal with Fox Sports. Either that or Sinclair Broadcasting Systems (I know they have RoH, but as long as he's not advertising WWE on XFL programming, I guess that could happen).

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Fox Sports have no TV/Movie studio when the Disney deal goes through, so they willbe relying on more news and sports content (apparently after Raw &  Smackdown) I watched the small potatoes 30 for 30, Trump who was an owner tried to get a them to go head to head with the NFL as he was looking for a merger.

They will never compete with the NFL head to head but millions watch the 64 teams in the power 5 college conferences, who's to say they won't find a nieche, not NFL numbers but even NBA season games.

Outside the NFL, can you even make any money outside the Canadian league.

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