In what almost seems like an episode of HBO’s Ballers, former WWE star and movie mogul Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has swept in, along with a financial group, to buy the XFL and all of its assets.
Johnson teamed up with Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird Capital to buy the league just hours before a planned auction was scheduled to begin. According to a report by Sportico, Johnson and Cardinale paid $15 million, splitting it evenly. Johnson’s business partner, Dany Garcia, will be a stakeholder as well.
The newest version of Vince McMahon’s Xtreme Football League was announced back in December of 2018 with plans to launch in 2020. Those plans were soon affected by the global COVID-19 pandemic and in April, filed for bankruptcy only after a few games in the rebooted season of the football league that plays during the NFL’s off-season.
Reviewing the portfolio during the bankruptcy filing, Alpha Entertainment, the XFL’s parent, listed the league with assets and liabilities in the range of about $10 million to $50 million.
It’s interesting to note that even though Johnson made his name in the WWE, he was a defensive tackle at the University of Miami, where he played for the 1991 National Championship team. While he didn’t play in the NFL after college, Johnson did make the cut for the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League on their practice squad as a linebacker. He was cut from the practice squad after two months, and five years later, made his debut in the then WWF.
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