Six months before the revived XFL begins play — but only three days before official team-branded merchandise is available for purchase — the league unveiled all eight of its team’s names and logos in a livestreamed event Wednesday morning.

Introducing the Los Angeles Wildcats, the Dallas Renegades, the Houston Roughnecks, the New York Guardians, the St. Louis BattleHawks, the Seattle Dragons, the Tampa Bay Vipers and the DC Defenders.

The names and logos were revealed in brief but macho videos. An example from the L.A. Wildcats offering: “This is prime time meets primal instinct. This is showtime with a snarl.” You get the idea.

So about those team names and logos — there are some very strong ones and a couple on the weak side. Here’s our ranking of all eight, from best to worst:


1. New York Guardians

New York Guardians (XFL)

2. Dallas Renegades

Dallas Renegades (XFL)

3. Seattle Dragons

Seattle Dragons (XFL)

The top three are very close — all fantastic names with incredible logos to match. The Guardians get the top spot based on originality — “sentries carved of stone, watchdogs over the metropolis” as the introductory video describes them.


Plus the fierce creature depicted in the logo has red eyes and red teeth, which makes it slightly cooler than the Renegades character with only red eyes. The Seattle logo is awesome too, but we might have a slight bias against dragons (blame “Game of Thrones”).



4. Tampa Bay Vipers

Tampa Bay Vipers (XFL)

5. Los Angeles Wildcats

Los Angeles Wildcats logo. (XFL)

Two good-looking logos incorporating attractive color combinations. The Vipers get the edge as far as team name is concerned — do we really need another sports team named the Wildcats?


6. Houston Roughnecks

Houston Roughnecks (XFL)

Great team name but a lackluster logo, although it does get some bonus points for being somewhat of a throwback to the old Houston Oilers of the NFL.



7. St. Louis BattleHawks

St. Louis BattleHawks (XFL)

8. D.C. Defenders

St. Louis BattleHawks (XFL)


Yawn. BattleHawks is a better name than Defenders.