Since the day Vince McMahon announced that the XFL would be returning there has been speculation across the internet that he may take a lesser role with the WWE when the new league kicks off. The speculation, and in some cases hope, is that McMahon would hand control of the company to HHH/Stephanie and use his time to focus on his new football league.
So far, there’s been no concrete evidence that supports either position. But, today we wanted to look at what information is out there to see if we can come to a conclusion.
The WWE is McMahon’s baby, he took it from a regional product to a billion dollar global business. To this day, McMahon still attends all RAW and Smackdown tapings. So much so that it’s not uncommon to have script changes the day of the show; in some instances hours before. McMahon is engaged as he ever was, and with NXT reportedly coming to FOX, it seems like he may be taking a larger role there as well.
When McMahon announced that the XFL would be returning, he was well aware of the failures of the first iteration. This includes not creating a football company run by football people. This time around you can see a clear difference in the vision. McMahon’s first hire for the league was Oliver Luck, which has been given full control to shape the new league.
Since Luck has taken charge we’ve only seen McMahon on camera once for the XFL, and that was when they named the eight franchise cities. Since then he has been completely hands off, at least from an external standpoint. We’ve seen McMahon cash out WWE stocks on multiple occasions to fund the upcoming league; which is giving Luck the time he needs to build the league correctly.
The new XFL is run by football people. Football people with experience and skin in the game; and in some cases something to prove. This XFL is miles ahead of the original, and has a vision to be sustainable for multiple seasons. This is all without McMahon’s assistance. Couple that with the fact that McMahon may take a larger role in NXT, it seems doubtful that McMahon will step down from the WWE. Why would he? He knows why the original failed, and he wouldn’t reboot the league only to fail again.
There’s still a lot of time ahead of us, so anything can happen. With everything we know, it still seems unlikely that McMahon will ever fully leave the WWE. With the AEW around the corner, I think that he is more focused on dealing with that situation. As we’ve discussed, this time around McMahon seems to have the right people in the right places, there doesn’t seem to be a reason for him to focus on the XFL.
