Dave Meltzer from the Wrestling Observer comments on the 30 for 30 show.
Dave says he used to watch the CFL, and the goal of the XFL was to destroy the CFL because the league would not sell to Vince McMahon. Meltzer notes that the XFL could have lasted another year if the WWF was willing to forgo 1 hour of Smackdown on UPN in exchange for the network airing league games. He also mentioned that McMahon had a crazy idea to make everybody on offense an eligible receiver, but the coaches were against this and reminded Vince of his promise to them of "real football".
While the documentary portrayed the power outage/SNL delay along with poor play of Week #1 as the reasons the league failed, Meltzer says it was doomed from the start as there is no market for a spring secondary football league in the U.S.. At the end, the brand was tainted so badly that there was no hope for survival. He goes on by saying that McMahon is so wrapped up in his own world of professional wrestling that Vince knows little of anything else. Vince did not follow the NFL.
I will not agree with Meltzer stating there is no market for Spring football.
IMO, there is a market and need for spring football.
Often when we fail, we need to come up with excuses . That would be an easy one.
I remember watching the XFL.
The problem was not the product, as they had good attendance .
Problem was the group that was running it ( WWE ), that was reflected in the ratings.
Football purists would not buy into a wrasslin company operating a football league.
You're right. It was a credibility problem from the start. The XFL was tainted by the spectre of scripted matches and predetermined outcomes `a la professional wrestling. At least that was impression with McMahon in charge.
They really shot themselves in the foot from the start with using rasslin guys to do the broadcasts and having wrestlers up on the jumbo screen running their mouths.
They got they the " I told you so " backfire from media and fans.
By the time they figured it out and what not to do, the damage had been done.
Myself, I hated the side show antics, but thought the quality of play was very good.
I have yet to see this documentary , so I am looking fwd to it.