But seriously, it really sucks that the XFL was looking pretty good but has to fold over the pandemic.
Title: Re: Official XFL Discussion: Vince Mcmahon is the Man.
Post by: GK on April 10, 2020, 04:40:55 PM
And yet he kept Wrestlemania going when the smart thing would have been to delay that for now.
Title: Re: Official XFL Discussion: Vince Mcmahon is the Man.
Post by: nickmitch on April 10, 2020, 05:30:56 PM
Well, there's no way you can do football under social distancing guidelines. Each team has to field 11 guys and you're already over the limit. And even renting a football stadium with zero fans is insanely cost prohibitive.
With WrestleMania, at least he had the option to pretape the matches in multiple venues, which they did. And in most of the cases, you really don't need ten whole people to film a match between two guys.
Title: Re: Official XFL Discussion: Vince Mcmahon is the Man.
Post by: Ian Sane on April 11, 2020, 02:23:07 AM
I can't imagine how frustrating it must be to invest time and money into something that fails, try it again almost twenty years later having appeared to have learned from the mistakes of the first time... and have it fail due to some worldwide disaster that you could not possibly have foreseen or done anything to prevent. I'm sure Vince McMahon has thought about the XFL off and on for the last 19 years only to essentially get fucked and he doesn't have another 19 years.
And he's not the only one. There are probably many people that had some dream about starting a business and planned it out for years and then had it open mere months, weeks or even days before they were ordered to close indefinitely. McMahon is a millionaire with a legitimately successful company to his name. There are others for which this was their big risky venture and its failure could bankrupt them, and now it probably has due to no fault of their own.
Title: Re: Official XFL Discussion: Vince Mcmahon is the Man.
Post by: BlackNMild2k1 on April 11, 2020, 03:36:26 PM
He's starting Live WWE shows again aparently next week... gotta keep that income flow after all the sunk cost into the shuttered XFL
Title: Re: Official XFL Discussion: Vince Mcmahon is the Man.
Post by: nickmitch on April 11, 2020, 07:13:55 PM
They probably ran out of pre-taped content and decided there was too much ratings dip from playing classic content during the weekly shows. Going live seems really ambitious though. They should probably try front-loading some content again. I also have to question if the USA and FOX contracts required a fixed number of live/new shows that they're having trouble getting around. ESPN+ only recently cancelled UFC events, so there's not much telling how other things are being impacted.
Title: Re: Official XFL Discussion: Vince Mcmahon is the Man.
Post by: Adrock on April 11, 2020, 08:26:12 PM
AEW has been doing shows in empty venues (insert joke about no one watching AEW if you must). I saw a clip of Matt Hardy debuting. It’s just weird without the crowd.
Title: Re: Official XFL Discussion: Vince Mcmahon is the Man.
Post by: nickmitch on April 11, 2020, 09:11:06 PM
They've also done "secret locations" to keep fans from trying to sneak in. Unfortunately for them, they don't have any central locations they can film from just yet.
Title: Re: Official XFL Discussion: Vince Mcmahon is the Man.
Post by: Shaymin on April 12, 2020, 11:02:42 AM
There's also a limit to how many pretaped shows they can have in both their contracts (which they normally use for TV taped during European tours).
Still, Vince managed to outcarny Dana "We're going to buy an island and basically do Mortal Kombat" White.
Title: Re: Official XFL Discussion: Vince Mcmahon is the Man.
Post by: Ian Sane on April 13, 2020, 11:48:45 AM
A TV network voiding a contract over too many pre-taped shows under these circumstances would be ridiculous. But historically the WWF (I'm using the old name on purpose here) would draw strong enough ratings that the network would waive the pre-taped clause so as to keep them on the network. If they were doing big ratings another network would be waiting to grab them up.
But in these recent contracts the WWE basically took these networks for a ride. The ratings are falling but the WWE secured some big guaranteed money because the networks are desperate and think of wrestling as PVR-proof content, similar to live sports. But with the ratings being terrible before COVID-19 became an issue it was likely that FOX for example was looking for a way to get out of what they considered a bad deal. So if they can use a clause about pre-taped content to get out of it, they're going to, even though it is totally in bad faith.
Title: Re: Official XFL Discussion: Vince Mcmahon is the Man.
Post by: BlackNMild2k1 on April 14, 2020, 03:30:45 AM
Gov DeSanits of Florida, has OFFICIALLY named the WWE as an ESSENTIAL BUSINESS https://www.tmz.com/2020/04/13/wwe-named-essential-business-by-florida-governor/
I'm not gonna go into the reasons this is stupid and corrupt, or the whole reason behind it, but he short answer to everything involving this is MONEY.
Title: Re: Official XFL Discussion: Vince Mcmahon is the Man.
Post by: nickmitch on April 14, 2020, 05:31:09 PM
It should be noted that it isn't WWE-specific. Any "professional sport with a national audience" is now essential.
It should also be noted that almost certainly a deal was made to get the ruling from the governor. If true, it's pretty political, so I'll save that for the other thread.
Title: Re: Official XFL Discussion: Vince Mcmahon is the Man.
Post by: Ian Sane on April 14, 2020, 07:06:51 PM
