The Rock has been cooking… cooking up a recipe to save the XFL from a bankruptcy auction.
According to Sportico Hollywood star and former WWE star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is part of a group that purchased the football league for $15 million dollars just hours before it was set to go to auction. Included in the new ownership group aside from The Rock include Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird Capital as well as The Rock’s ex-wife Dany Garcia who is also listed as a stakeholder.
Johnson, an actor and producer who played college football at the University of Miami, teamed up with Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird Capital to buy the league just hours before a planned auction was scheduled to begin.
They paid $15 million, splitting it evenly. Johnson’s business partner, Dany Garcia, who is also his ex-wife, will be a stakeholder as well.
The transaction is subject to bankruptcy court approval at a hearing this Friday, August 7 and, assuming that closing conditions are satisfied, is expected to close on or shortly after August 21.
RedBird has made a litany of sports-related investments, including some with ties to the National Football League and its players.
With The Rock’s involvement in the new ownership group, the XFL keeps its ties to the pro wrestling business after Vince McMahon’s initial founding back in the early 2000’s then reviving the League in 2018 before the COVID-19 pandemic forced another shutdown and eventual bankruptcy.
However, prior to its second demise, the XFL seemed to have been holding its own to some extent. The League drew three-million viewers in week one and although viewership was down 50 percent in the weekend leading up to the shutdown, there seemed to be plenty of promise with the relaunch which included a much more serious approach to the game that consisted of less gimmick and more genuine innovation that you could absolutely see being adopted by the NFL.
As far as the League itself goes now headed by The Rock, you can only assume that it’ll be back in some fashion, I mean why would he spend $15 million on a League that has seen just a season and a half of play — which includes its first year of play almost two decades ago? With that in mind, the question shouldn’t be if The Rock brings the XFL back but more like when will he bring it back?
