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Apologies if this seems semi off-topic................

 

But I was wondering, would you agree that the reason the XFL failed was because it was run by Vince McMahon, which people would automatically associate with wrestling and "fake"?

 

To get to a point, this is not about the XFL, but can the WWE and Vince McMahon ever successfully venture outside of wrestling without it being labelled fake just because of wrestlings affiliation with it?

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I'll cut to the chase. No. Anything Vince does outside of WWE will be regarded as a joke, and poked fun at by the media.

 

I mean, look at the Video Games industry. The WWE Smackdown! series has sold incredibly well, but everytime I see an article on a website or in a magazine, they writer spends most of their time making fun of wrestling rather than concentrating on the game. There are very few things writen about wrestling in the UK that don't start with something along the lines of "When you think of wrestling, you think of Giant Haystacks and Big Daddy, but the new generation are a cross between actors and bodybuilders...".

 

Part of this is Vince's fault though. He uses WWE to promote his outside activities, so it's no surprise that things like the XFL and WBF have conetations to wrestling. Things like having JR do play by play, having XFL cheerleaders dance about on Raw and the wrestling angle between Ventura and Butkis are obviously going to get the media saying "Oh, it's run by the guy who does the wrestling, it'll be fake and unsuccessful".

 

But then again, one of the reasons that the XFL failed wasn't because of Vince, wrestling or anything like that. The whole concept was pretty dodgy. Can you imagine if in the UK, FWA made up a football league to be played between May and August, with a bunch of players who weren't good enough to play in the lower divisions? Do you think the media would give that league a chance?

 

The XFL won't be the last time that Vince tries to branch out to new levels of entertainment. Hopefully though, the amount of money he lost on it will make him consider his next venture a bit more carefully.

Can't add much to what Russ said, he basically got it in one...

 

The XFL was just a bad idea period, and I don't think its association with wrestling had a major influence on its failure.

 

But isn't the world a better place if Vince can't venture out of the wrestling industry? Doesn't that make you feel a bit safer? I know I do :)

In addition to the WBF and XFL - Vince McMahon also promoted a Boxing Pay Per View card once in the late 1980's - suffice to say, it bombed :)
what was the wbf?

World Bodybuilding Federation or something to that effect.

 

Basically, a bunch of bodybuilders would show off and compete and stuff. Had it's own TV slot and magazine and everything.

 

Then it bombed ;)

Originally posted by draVen

World Bodybuilding Federation or something to that effect.

 

Basically, a bunch of bodybuilders would show off and compete and stuff. Had it's own TV slot and magazine and everything.

 

Then it bombed ;)

 

Firstly, draVen is correct with the WBF name "World BodyBuilding Federation".

 

Anyone remember when WBF was on in 1992, it had a slot on Sky One and had a range of tapes on Silver Vision?

 

Glory Old Days indeed :D

 

On the subject of XFL - I must point out that the film "The 6th Day" starring Arnold Schwarzenegger had a game of XFL on in the opening scene.

Edited by Peter K

Yeah, I remember it being on Sky One, after Superstars on Saturday tea time if I remember rightly.

 

Lex Luger presented it along with Vince and some hot lady whos name escapes me. It was pretty bad, I remember seeing highlights of the PPV on WWF TV, they even crowned a WBF Champion.

 

On the subject of XFL, although the media never caught on, and the football was apparently awful, it was credited with coming up with groundbreaking TV production for sporting events.

I thought XFL was, at it's basest, a good idea: simply and off-season football league for those few months the NFL's not running regular games.

 

But, it's Vince and it had to be "sexed-up" (like all the best dossiers:D ) which was not the best of ideas. Mind you, trying to get brand new teams based in cities with their own established franchises a fanbase was going to be nigh-on impossible in the short time the XFL was given.

actually it was tv ratings, not lack of fans in the stadium, that really got to the xfl
Also, didn't they assign wrestling nicknames etc, like the LA Outlaws, Hitmen etc.
anybody remember the simpsons episodes that took the mick out of XFL :D
Originally posted by Tajiri_san

actually it was tv ratings, not lack of fans in the stadium, that really got to the xfl

 

You're making the same point as I was: the TV ratings will be low for a new sports-franchise put straight on TV. The teams will need time to gain a following. If Vince was a little more long-term in his outlook he'd have not even gone to mass-market TV straight away but produced it as a real alternative to no-football off-season boredom, rather than as "footbal entertainment".

Originally posted by AC1D CHR1ST

You're making the same point as I was: the TV ratings will be low for a new sports-franchise put straight on TV. The teams will need time to gain a following. If Vince was a little more long-term in his outlook he'd have not even gone to mass-market TV straight away but produced it as a real alternative to no-football off-season boredom, rather than as "footbal entertainment".

 

Errrrrrr............No!

 

The first ever XFL match to be aired on TV got a damn impressive rating of 8.1 then the next game the ratings went down dramatically to 1.0 and lower ball park!

Then, the XFL was a HUGE money loser so it made common and financial sense to stop XFL.

It won't matter how much seasons Vince would have done with the XFL, it'll still bomb and take a fair amount of money away from WWE's money bank.

Originally posted by PK (WCW + ECW Fan)

Errrrrrr............No!

 

The first ever XFL match to be aired on TV got a damn impressive rating of 8.1 then the next game the ratings went down dramatically to 1.0 and lower ball park!

Then, the XFL was a HUGE money loser so it made common and financial sense to stop XFL.

It won't matter how much seasons Vince would have done with the XFL, it'll still bomb and take a fair amount of money away from WWE's money bank.

 

Again, I don't see that I disagree, but the possible inference I'd take from that is that a lot of wrestling fans would tune in the first week expecting something other than normal football with different production values. The show didn't deliver on that premise and as a league with no history, the football-watchers would need time to get to know the players/teams etc.

 

Leagues like the NFL, NBA, European football leagues etc have a long and storied history and so have a fanbase that's been built over somewhere in the region of 100 years. Newer "extreme" sports, in the main, started with the kids as atrend that caught on and got a "fanbase" (or, more accurately, a "user-base", since most of the "fans" took part) before going to TV.

 

Vince, however, just put this brand-new league, without many brand-new ideas, straight on TV and expected it to be a hit immediately. It was never going to happen. People will say "Yeah, but the XFL just had players that weren't good enough for the NFL," but that doesn't explain the popularity of College football in the US - they're not as good as the NFL lot and not a huge number of their players make it into the Major league. What college football, and all the other popular televised sports have in common is fans. And with network TV being the way it is in the US, the XFL was doomed from the start.

But could anyone see Vince trying to start the XFL up from the bottom and work at it.

 

Nope, too much hard work, just chuck money at it, stick it on prime time TV and it's bound to be a success right? Wrong.

 

A lot of new ideas were incorporated into XFL, as it wasn't shown in the UK I can only go on what I heard.

 

Apparently cameras filmed inside the dressing rooms, so that team talks were shown on live TV and there was a lot of behind the scenes footage, also they had the players doing "wrestling style" interviews/promos, which obviously would force genuine football fans to switch off. They spent more time filming the cheerleaders than the games, probably because the games were so poor.

 

I agree with Acid Christ that in theory XFL was a good idea, however Vince went about it the wrong way.

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