This Was The XFL - Behind The Titantron (Part 1) - Episode 28

this is purely a journalistic point of view nothing more has been said in this video other than that of which has been reported by various media sources and backed up with sources seen at the end of this video it's become known as one of the biggest debacles in television history but it began as an ambitious idea mixing Americans passion for football with the sports entertainment magic of the World Wrestling Federation what became known as the XFL started under the auspices of entertainment Vince McMahon and Dick Ebersol and featured a motley crew of football players each with their own amazing stories while the XFL failed miserably costing the WBF and NBC each a reported 35 million dollar loss its legacy is still felt today join us now as behind the titantron examines this was the XFL [Music] [Music] you [Music] the two men responsible for the XFL were medium Mavericks in their own right Vince McMahon with his revolutionary transformation of professional wrestling from a regional business to a national one and Dick Ebersol the wunderkind who co-created and developed Saturday Night Live with Lorne Michaels becoming NBC's youngest executive in 1985 Vince McMahon forged an unlikely business relationship with Airbus all with NBC optioning the WWF's late night wrestling special Saturday night's main event the show would air as an occasional substitute for Saturday Night Live Saturday night's main event became a hit for NBC with Ebersole benefiting from yet another successful project and the WEF learning much from episodes production standards McMahon and Ebersol became fast friends and the friendship would last even after episode became president of NBC Sports in 1989 divesting his interest in Saturday night's main event Eversole reportedly even named McMahon as the person he wanted to take care of his kids should he and his wife pass away interestingly enough both Vince McMahon and Dick Ebersol had toyed with the idea of getting into professional football in McMahon's case he'd saw ownership in the National Football League team the Minnesota Vikings only to be frozen out by the NFL's owners McMahon pursued the Washington Redskins next only to have Dan Schneider buy out the team when McMahon learned the Canadian Football League team the Toronto Argonauts was up for sale McMahon decided to buy the entire league he would change the league rules and run games in the United States and Canada however the CFL owners were concerned about McMahon changing these CFLs long-standing traditions consequently the CFL chose not to sell leaving McMahon to pursue something different Dick Ebersol too wanted football on NBC but not the extortionary prices the NFL were asking for in ebersol's view NBC heightened the sports popularity with the NFL profiting from NBC's efforts only to demand more money when rights came back up for renewal Eversole recognized the NFL's prestige but felt the bottom line was more important the NFL is a great sports property but there is no property we would go after that will lose at least a hundred and fifty million in a year while the NFL was out that didn't pollute Eversole from looking into other football historically there had been challenges to the NFL's dominance such as the world football league of the mid-70s and the United States Football League of the mid-80s Eversole explored a partnership with Ted Tanner where the two would form their own Football League and air games on tennis TNT network however cost issued proved troublesome particularly with WCW losing money during the Monday Night war with the NFL gone and NBC's MBA deal coming up for renewal in two years Eversole concluded he needed sports programming to replace the NFL before NBC Sports lost the prestige he'd spent his career building out meanwhile the CFL deal had fallen through but Vince McMahon was determined to bring his own football league the WB was branching out into more than just wrestling and McMahon perhaps felt he could take his Midas touch for wrestling and use it to promote football he held a press conference at wvf s new york restaurant in Times Square on the 3rd of February 2009 is new Football League the XFL McMahon ran down the NFL calling it the no fun league promising to bring back the heydays of Smash Mouth football and appeal to fans of old-school football when Dick Ebersol found out about the XFL he reached out to McMahon certain that two old friends could combine their mutual goal into another successful partnership based on their past business relationship and friendship Eversole felt McMahon's football league was a good fit for NBC as it will be limited cost NBC agreed to put up 50% of the cost and the program on Saturday nights and guarantee the product for two years the deal seemed like a win-win with McMahon getting a trusted partner and the prestige of the NBC network in addition McMahon negotiated with UPN and tienen to air XFL games on Sundays Eversole made sure to keep MBC's traditional sports broadcasters away from the XFL whether this was done surreptitiously to protect NBC sports image or just to further the xml's image as an outlaw football league Eversole reached out to other broadcast as nbc's top broadcaster bob costas was weary of the XFL everything about it screamed to me shock and crap everything that subsequently occurred validated that impression in fairness Dick Ebersol never asked me none of the announcers who were associated with NBC were going to be used on this experiment so there was never any danger of that instead Eversole hired Matt vasgersian who became a play-by-play announcer for the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team in 1997 at the age of 29 vas Jason was paired with Jesse the body Ventura on the main game but vest Jason was demoted to the B show after one week when he refused to follow Vince McMahon's orders to point out the ogling cheerleaders on camera he was then replaced by WWF announcer Jim Ross the XFL was hyped not long after McMahon announced its creation the XFL benefited from the man Dick Ebersol described as the best marketer and promoter in America and also benefited from NBC's advance marketing the XFL was promoted heavily as a return to Smash Mouth football the rules would be different and the players wouldn't be high paid millionaires with bad attitudes instead players will be paid four thousand a game with a bonus of three thousand three hundred dollars for winning while there was considerable height there was no stadium agreements no teams no coaches and no players signed the XFL had little to present to advertisers get other than the XFL logo and the concept the XFL was slow in building up the infrastructure for a successful football organization in hindsight this was arguably the XFL x' biggest mistake the XFL decided to get additional publicity during a 6 January 2001 playoff game between the Oakland Raiders and Miami Dolphins in what many saw was an omen the XFL blimp crashed days later during a practice run flying into a seafood restaurant only the beginning of the XFL 's notoriety [Music] the XFL ended up comprising an Eastern Division consisting of four teams the Orlando rage the Chicago and forces the New York New Jersey hitman and the Birmingham Thunderbolts with also Western Division consisting of four teams the Los Angeles extreme the San Francisco demons the Memphis maniacs and the Las Vegas outlaws the eight teams will compete with the top teams battling to see which two teams would compete in the season-ending finale which eventually became known as the million-dollar game the XFL featured rule changes designed to make for a more exciting and aggressive game instead of a coin toss to determine possession of the ball the XFL held an opening scramble where a player from each team raced to see who could gain possession of the ball first the XFL had no fair catch rule and extra points were based on rushing or passing rather than kicking an extra point unfortunately some of the rules such as the opening scrambled proved dangerous in fact the first XFL injury occurred during an opening scramble with Orlando free safety Hassan shamsid-deen suffering an injury that sidelined him for the entire season off the field the XFL featured rules designed to make their game more like a reality show while McMann clarified the XFL would not be scripted he and Ebersol hoped to capitalize on the wave of popular reality shows such as survivor by mixing sports with entertainment for example XFL cheerleaders were encouraged to date XFL players whereas the NFL ban cheerleaders from dating players reportedly hoping to create romantic storylines the XFL also was aggressive with sideline reporters taking two players following big plays and filming events in players locker room during halftime the league also allowed players to put nicknames on the back of their jerseys rather than their given names with player Rod Smart gaining fame thanks to his nickname he hate me [Music] with a year's worth of hype fans and the industry insiders wondered how the new football league would do in its opening game the XFL z' debut game proved a while rating success as the Hitman took on the outlaws in a nineteen and oat blowout the ratings would double what the XFL predicted were needed to be a success with the XFL earning a 9.5 rating over twice the four-point-five rating the XFL had guaranteed advertisers in spite of the first week success there was a troubling sign the ratings dropped from an opening high of 11 point 7 to a pronounced low rating of 8 in effect the game had lost a third of its audience by the end of the night the first game had not featured the level of football seen in the NFL but viewers seemed willing to give the product a chance the question was would they return for the next week any rating surge was killed a following week in one of the biggest disasters in sports television history things started spectacularly with the rock introducing the game and the fans being treated to an exciting game between the Los Angeles extreme and the Chicago enforcers then 13 minutes into the game things went black for nearly two minutes NBC aired a police standby slide as the XFL x' production team scrambled to discover why the power had gone out NBC switched to a game between orlando and san francisco as technicians ran test after test failing to restore power despite the presence of backup generators 27 minutes later the LA game resumed after technicians realized no one had bothered to fill the generators with gasoline I wanted to break someone's neck Vince McMahon recalled years later not only had the game been delayed by the power outage but an injury to tackle Octavius Bishop kept him on the field another 15 minutes while medical officials tended to him the delays resulted in NBC delaying the airing of a much hype new episode of Saturday Night Live with guest host Jennifer Lopez the episode did not air until midnight reportedly enraging SNL's Luna Michel however that was only the beginning of the XFL woes the ratings for week 2 had plunged to 4.6 a drop of over half the audience the new car smell was already off the XFL and view as quickly realized they'd bought a lemon over the next few weeks the ratings continued to slide before long the XFL was heading into record-breaking territory but it wasn't anything one wanted to be known for the XFL was on what seemed to be inevitable course as the lowest rated sports program in network history with the XFL facing sinking ratings could Vince McMahon worked the same magic he'd used to save the WEF during the Monday Night war well guys y'all have to tune in for tomorrow's part two but in the meantime guys please drop a like or a dislike subscribe if you haven't already turn notifications on drop a comment down below and I'll see you next time with some more wrestling content

Channel: Wrestlelamia

Views: 255,540

Keywords: Behind The Titantron, XFL, XFL Fail, XFL Review, Story of the XFL, NFL, WWE XFL, WWF XFL, Wrestling Documentary, WWE, wrestling facts, wrestling, world wrestling entertainment, WWE Documentary, American Football, XFL NBC, wrestler, wrestle, XFL Vince McMahon, Vince McMahon Failures, WWE Fails, Financial Fails, World Wrestling Federation, XFL Retrospective, The Rock XFL, Bob Costas Vince McMahon, 30 for 30 documentary xfl, XFL Documentary, Why Did the XFL Fail, XFL 2020

Id: _A6qJWg-dkc

Length: 12min 44sec (764 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 25 2017