The XFL just might not be dead yet.
World Wrestling Entertainment chairman Vince McMahon revealed on Tuesday that he is not looking to reacquire the XFL despite recent reports to the contrary. McMahon described accusations that he using Chapter 11 process as a means to cheaply retain the XFL as “inflammatory” and “unsubstantiated.”
“I don’t know why that’s out there, making me out to be the bad guy, [that] I’m going to buy the XFL back for pennies on the dollar, basically,” McMahon said. “That helped me move into the direction of, ‘I’m not going to be a bidder, not going to have anything to do with it.’ I do hope that someone will pay a lot of money for it, and I do hope that it will survive.”
In April, the XFL filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection shortly after the start-up league suspended operations due to the coronavirus pandemic.
According to The Athletic, “dozens of bidders are looking over the league’s financials and interested in relaunching it next February.”
“The Debtor’s investment banker, Houlihan Lokey, is currently in active discussions with dozens of potential purchasers, and substantially all potential purchasers have indicated that the potential for an XFL season in spring 2021 is important to them.”
XFL President, Jeffery Pollack also commented as part of today’s court filing:
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“[I]f we are to resume playing in 2021, we would need to be in a go mode ideally by August 1st of this year, and I think there is the chance for us to be in a position to play next year, and so doing would, I think, be good for the business on an ongoing basis.”
Since the premature end of the reboot of the XFL, former XFL commissioner Oliver Luck has sued McMahon, the spring season American football league’s majority owner, for alleged wrongful dismissal, a lawsuit McMahon is fighting.
