New report offers details of Vince McMahon’s XFL plans

UPDATE: It happened. Watch the announcement here, and read the details about the 2020 return of the XFL here.

According to Sports Illustrated, Vince McMahon’s football plans were a hot topic while WWE was in New York this week for Raw 25. A report from PWInsider a short time ago has details of what might have been being discussed, as their sources say McMahon could be prepping to announce his relaunch of the XFL.

To recap what got us here, word that WWE’s Chairman was interested in restarting the league he ran for one season with NBC back in 2001 came via Twitter on Dec. 15, 2017. When WWE commented on the report, they didn’t deny it, instead revealing Vince was personally funding a separate venture to explore possible sports and entertainment opportunities.

Subsequent reports indicated McMahon sold off $100 million dollars of WWE stock to fund his new business, Alpha Entertainment, and that Alpha filed trademarks for XFL branding.

Things have proceeded since then - possibly not fast enough to hit Twitter user Brad Sheppard’s original Jan. 25 announce date, but... PWInsider says “WWE’s Production team has been working on video material geared towards promoting the impending return of the XFL of late.”

Unlike the league’s first go-round when they held their first game exactly one year after forming, McMahon and Alpha will apparently take at least twice that long to launch XFL 2.0. Sources told PWInsider that in order to build infrastructure, hire personnel and identify players, the target is a 2020 launch.

Sports Illustrated said they heard talk of a pre-Super Bowl announcement. The big game is on Feb. 4 this year, a little more than a week away.

We’ll stay tuned for more details - and to hear how WWE shareholders react if it’s true McMahon is using the company’s production team to work on a non-WWE project - and keep you posted.