WWE News: Vince McMahon Files For ‘XFL’ Trademarks & Sells $100M Of WWE Stock
As of Thursday, WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon reportedly made more moves towards possibly bringing his former professional football league back. The failed “XFL” was a project of McMahon’s back in 2001 which lasted just that year. It now looks like he will attempt to resurrect that concept or build something new out of it, based on reports of trademarks and recently sold shares of WWE stock.
In a report from ESPN’s Darren Rovell, it’s noted that Vince McMahon sold off 3.34 million shares of his WWE stock. World Wrestling Entertainment reportedly filed the details with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission for the nearly-$100 million sale of stock. In the filing with the SEC, it’s noted that the sale of the stock was being used to fund a new company called Alpha Entertainment, LLC. As the filing mentions, that company was created “to explore investment opportunities across the sports and entertainment landscapes, including professional football.”
Rovell also tweeted that there were five “XFL” trademarks filed for by McMahon’s Alpha Entertainment entity. These trademarks were made to cover the XFL as a professional football league as well as merchandise related to the league. As Rovell mentioned in a reply to one of the Twitter comments he received, the filings were made back on December 16 and “just showed up in the trademark office filings.” The Alpha Entertainment company was said to have been formed back in September of this year.
XFL was originally founded back in 1999 and had its debut season in 2001. It was a joint venture between McMahon’s WWE and also NBC. While the XFL’s opening night had a strong debut, overall ratings dropped after that, causing the league to ultimately fold after one season. The attempted professional football league featured a total of eight teams with two divisions operating out of major cities such as Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York, and Orlando. The Los Angeles Xtreme ended up being the only champions in the league due to it being unable to last.
It should be interesting to see how far Vince McMahon’s latest experiment goes. World Wrestling Entertainment now has their own online network of 24/7 content which includes on-demand and original live streaming content, as well as WWE pay-per-view events, documentaries, and more. It could very well include XFL games although one would think McMahon has something bigger in mind.
