Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson leads the charge in bringing back Xtreme Football League… for the Third Time

Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson along with Dany Garcia, and RedBird Capital purchased the XFL back in August for $15 million, and on October 1, Johnson announced on twitter that the XFL is scheduled to return in the spring of 2022.

The XFL, a professional football league, was originally founded in 2001 by professional wrestling promoter Vince McMahon. However, after just one season, the XFL failed due to viewership declining in part because of the league being more similar to wrestling than football, and because of the extreme violence that the game promoted and desired.

Despite being a failed football league back in 2001, over a decade later, Vince McMahon announced in 2018 that the XFL was returning with an eight-team league which was going to be led by Oliver Luck as the league commissioner and chief executive officer. Luck announced that the return of the XFL was to begin February 8, 2020 which was the first weekend after Super Bowl 54.

The reboot of the league was off to a good start as there were more than 3 million viewers who tuned in for the first week of game play. However, viewership dropped as the weeks went on, and what was scheduled to be a 10 game season played by each team, turned into a disappointing five week season

due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic that engulfed the entire nation caused the league to come to an end after week five, and just two months removed from opening weekend, the XFL filed for bankruptcy.

Now, as sports leagues have resumed play, with some leagues even crowing champions for the COVID-19 impacted season, the XFL announced that the league will return for the third time under new ownership highlighted by Dwayne Johnson.

Despite the fact that Johnson announced on twitter that the XFL will return in 2022, league executives are still in the process of working out league details.