Having been initially launched back in 2001, the XFL made its third attempt to take flight over the weekend.
The XFL, an American Football league designed to fill the void of spring football in the US following the end of the regular NFL season, had new live breathed into it back in late 2020 when RedBird Capital Partners, the 11 per cent stakeholders in Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group, partnered with Hollywood star Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson and his business partner and ex-wife Dany Garcia to purchase the rights for the league out of bankruptcy for $15m.
The revamped XFL sought to learn from the mistakes of the two previous attempts to launch the league, which has been done so previously with some razzmatazz and focused on challenging the behemoth that was the NFL, with the former XFL attempts having been led by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) supremo Vince McMahon and former NBC TV executive Dick Ebersol.