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Vince McMahon forms and funds Alpha Entertainment: Possible XFL Revival


zep81

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2 minutes ago, garynysmon said:

The whole idea of launching it now is baffling to me. The WWE is obviously being used as the launching pad, but this will fail.

The XFL was launched when the WWF was hot and arguably the coolest its ever been. God knows what they’re expecting now the fanbase has regressed to basically the most hardcore who idolise indy starlets. Mad.

This is Vince's reaction to the NFL players using their platform to protest against police brutality. He knows there's a large market of redneck/alt-right/whatever football fans who don't want that hippy, commie, police hating crap on their screens.

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1 hour ago, Your Fight Site said:

It’s already plastered over their social media. But they’re completely separate entities. Honest. Nothing to do with WWE. But WWE will be promoting us every minute of every day. But still. Separate.

I think it's more important that there is no wrestling on the football. WWE will always promote his external nonsense but it'll be a turn off if people tune in to watch Amercian Football and Roman Reigns is taking the kick off or something.

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1 hour ago, Your Fight Site said:

It’s already plastered over their social media. But they’re completely separate entities. Honest. Nothing to do with WWE. But WWE will be promoting us every minute of every day. But still. Separate.

If it carries on like that and WWE is used as free advertising for it then surely some of the shareholders should be asking how much is the XFL going to be paying WWE for the advertising

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Is there any particular reason why he's decided to call it XFL again? At a guess, think it's a lame attempt at Vince trying to rewrite history so that his big failure becomes a success.

Everything associated with that name is bad, it's not like anyone is looking back on the original incarnation fondly. Be like me setting up a pension company and calling it Maxwell's.

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3 minutes ago, Gus Mears said:

Is there any particular reason why he's decided to call it XFL again? At a guess, think it's a lame attempt at Vince trying to rewrite history so that his big failure becomes a success.

I think maybe that's part of it - Vince can sell it as a comeback story. But also, it may have been easier for him to secure trademarks on a name that had already been his the first time around, and ultimately the name's probably largely a non-issue to most people anyway.

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Yeah, trademarking logistics does make sense. It's just such a poor name for a variety of reasons. Horribly dated, and in no way chimes with this 'family values' shite that theoretically is one of the unique selling points of this endeavour.

I'm thinking way too much about it though. It's Vince's latest wanky attempt to get into an industry he knows fuck-all about, and I probably ought to see everything through that prism. 

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I would hazard a guess also that it's simply a case of Vince refusing to accept defeat or failure, and being determined to prove his vision works. "It was the XFL! It was the XFL all along!"

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41 minutes ago, garynysmon said:

God knows what they’re expecting now the fanbase has regressed to basically the most hardcore who idolise indy starlets. Mad.

Whilst not addressing whether this is a bad idea or not (I really have no idea either way), I do think you are underestimating the size of WWE's fanbase at the moment. TV ratings may be low, but that isn't the same barometer for popularity as it once was. WWE are a much bigger animal than many people realise. They have 21m subscribers for their YouTube channel. That's a mental number and makes them the 21st most subscribed channel on YouTube. They have a huge social media presence and always occupy many of the top trending spots on Twitter whenever they have a show on. Are they as big as they were around 98-2000? That's bloody hard to determine, but the game has changed massively.

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Simply going on the basis of how communications and broadcasting has changed so drastically over the past twenty years, and the fact that the world's population has increased, I don't think it would be a stretch to say that WWE's overall audience is probably the biggest it's ever been. As to the company being bigger, that's a different thing - how that audience translates into revenue for a company is no doubt an incredibly diverse and complex formula to calculate.

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16 minutes ago, PunkStep said:

Whilst not addressing whether this is a bad idea or not (I really have no idea either way), I do think you are underestimating the size of WWE's fanbase at the moment. TV ratings may be low, but that isn't the same barometer for popularity as it once was. WWE are a much bigger animal than many people realise. They have 21m subscribers for their YouTube channel. That's a mental number and makes them the 21st most subscribed channel on YouTube. They have a huge social media presence and always occupy many of the top trending spots on Twitter whenever they have a show on. Are they as big as they were around 98-2000? That's bloody hard to determine, but the game has changed massively.

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.

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Is Vince hoping for more backing by 2020, as $100m wont stretch far and he has no NBC on board this time either. The whole thing baffles me. How can he realistically compete with the NFL?, or will VKM run games in their off period after the Superbowl til the NFL returns in the Autumn time. That is one thing which would make sense, be an addition to the NFL instead of competing against it, also a franchise based in Oakland as by then I think the Raiders will be moving to Vegas. The camera angles gimmick have been snapped up by the NFL, they wouldn't do the cheerleaders locker room gimmick now unless by 2020 they've gone Attitude Era-esque again. Oakland are apparently interested in Colin Kaepernick, so only really Johnny Manziel would be a prize catch for them. But by 2020 who knows what state he'll be in as he's into the party lifestyle. I think Vince is playing down the gimmicky aspect too so what realistically do fans have to tune in for?. I'd imagine it'll appeal for to the 40+ year demographic and be more Football orientated, but hes cutting 3hr games into 2hr so again that can't be the focus. Interest in football is down because of the protests, but forcing players stand for the anthem instead of having the right to protest makes it seem very draconian and subservient. Why Vince can't focus on improving his core product I don't know, since that would be a better investment of his time and money. 

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14 minutes ago, Really Big Shoe said:

Is Vince hoping for more backing by 2020, as $100m wont stretch far and he has no NBC on board this time either. The whole thing baffles me. How can he realistically compete with the NFL?, or will VKM run games in their off period after the Superbowl til the NFL returns in the Autumn time. That is one thing which would make sense, be an addition to the NFL instead of competing against it, also a franchise based in Oakland as by then I think the Raiders will be moving to Vegas. The camera angles gimmick have been snapped up by the NFL, they wouldn't do the cheerleaders locker room gimmick now unless by 2020 they've gone Attitude Era-esque again. Oakland are apparently interested in Colin Kaepernick, so only really Johnny Manziel would be a prize catch for them. But by 2020 who knows what state he'll be in as he's into the party lifestyle. I think Vince is playing down the gimmicky aspect too so what realistically do fans have to tune in for?. I'd imagine it'll appeal for to the 40+ year demographic and be more Football orientated, but hes cutting 3hr games into 2hr so again that can't be the focus. Interest in football is down because of the protests, but forcing players stand for the anthem instead of having the right to protest makes it seem very draconian and subservient. Why Vince can't focus on improving his core product I don't know, since that would be a better investment of his time and money. 

 

Vince said no to anyone with a criminal record so presumably no Manziel. No protesting would probably rule out Kaepernick. Tim Tebow would be a good get for a face of the league QB.  I can see him giving up baseball to do this. 

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18 minutes ago, Really Big Shoe said:

Interest in football is down because of the protests, but forcing players stand for the anthem instead of having the right to protest makes it seem very draconian and subservient. 

This shouldn't come as a surprise. Everything we've seen and heard about Vince in terms of business practices, not to mention all the things we know in general about American corporations, tells us he's exactly the kind of businessman who would implement such restrictions. He's an old-style yellow-dog capitalist: workers don't get rights, the employer has all the power, no unions, no representation, no legal remedy against any evil shit the management might pull.

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