February 3rd 2001, a new era of football was dawning in Las Vegas. The monolithic empire of the National Football League was in full effect. One man decided to create an alternative to the gridiron giant and he just happened to be one of the greatest villains in pro wrestling. The owner of World Wrestling Entertainment, Vince McMahon, who declared the opening of the new league with a throat burning growl of “WELCOME TO THE XFL” and a pre-football game appearance from one of the biggest wrestling stars of all time The Rock. The XFL was born but on the shoulders of a different type of sport.

The XFL’s first attempt to shatter the grip the NFL had on football ended with a whimper as ratings slumped and interest waned. The fall in audiences foreshadowed what would happen to Vince McMahon’s largest enterprise after the year 2001. The WWE was losing stars fast, correlating with a decline in sales and interest, as Vince’s vision of Pro Wrestling being raw and edgy was slowly ending and called back to the ending of Vince’s raw and edgy football league.

The raw and edgy wrestling formula was one that just didn’t mesh well with football, the entertainment side of wrestling works because it’s entertainment. But, in 2001 the raw and edgy wrestling product manifested itself with over the top storylines and shock content.

An example that was used in the XFL was the extreme sexualisation of women on the show. WWE at the time of the XFL’s inaugural season featured women’s wrestling matches where to win, one female wrestler had to strip the other to their underwear or even wrestle in a bowl of pudding. McMahon believed that this appealed to their demographic of males ages 18-30.

There wasn’t a group of burly football players all running around in bra’s slapping each other. Instead, the XFL decided to market the cheerleaders as a large part of their show, even running pre-season commercials talking about how the cheerleaders would “lift” the “spirits” of the audience and even promoting something the 2020 version of the XFL does, with a twist.

However, a halftime look in the locker room of the cheerleaders which all but promised many attractive women wearing very little but ended up being a wrestling style vignette of a cameraman passing out whilst Vince McMahon shouted at him. A look in the cameraman’s lust-addled mind showing the cheerleaders playing twister in skimpy attires and ending with Vince McMahon, not as the chairman of the XFL but his wrestling character Mr McMahon dumping water on the cameraman. As much as I would pay money to see NFL Commissioner Rodger Goodell act in such a way, it made the XFL feel less of a sporting event and more as Vince McMahon trying to make a sports entertainment football league.

McMahon announced the XFL would be returning to our screens on the 25th of January 2018, with one key phrase “without gimmicks”. McMahon’s use of the term gimmick was no mistake, a word that has different meanings when coming from someone with a wrestling background, a gimmick in wrestling is what makes a character, what makes someone stand out from the crowd. For example, The Rock is a gimmick for Dwayne Johnson. McMahon using the term gimmick showed that he was ready to depart the XFL from its spandex-clad cousin and with the creation of Alpha Entertainment, a parent company in which Vince placed the money from selling shares in WWE to help fund the XFL, Vince created decisive line between the WWE and the XFL.

But there are still similarities within the new XFL and the WWE, as neither are the raunchy or a counterculture sports brand that they were 19 years previous. WWE took steps to become a more respectable and marketable product, less vulgarity and objectification of women to clean-cut superstars and giving women a chance to main event their biggest show, Wrestlemania. Wrestling was clean now, well-produced, and while Vince McMahon still owns and runs the company, he very rarely shows up to do something like humiliating a cameraman.

Compare that cleanliness to the new XFL, there are no custom player jerseys with “He Hate Me” pasted on the back, no almost semi-pornographic dance routine and no promise of watching those cheerleaders undress.

“For The Love Of Football” is the tagline for the new XFL and my god is that what this league was created for. It’s fresh ideas for interviews on the sideline and having the coach’s mic’d up so their plays can be heard brings the fans closer than ever before to the game. Much like the skycam that the XFL innovated back in 2001, the NFL may look to adopt this level of access for the fans watching at home.

As we approach the new XFL’s fourth week, the drive for it to succeed is still there, teams are breaking out and there are drama-filled games, such as when the top-ranked DC Defenders lost their winning streak to the then winless L.A. Wildcats and fun moments of sentimentality such as the trading of a game ball for some GirlScout cookies at the recent Battlehawks game. The 2020 XFL doesn’t feel like it is battling against something like it’s a counterculture movement. Its athletes and spectators are taking part for one thing.

The Love of Football.