WWE chairman Vince McMahon has just sold 3.34 million shares of the companies stock, hoping to relaunch the XFL — an alternative football league that only lasted for one season back in 2001.
That’s the rumor as to where the money is going, at least. The company’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) official filing states that it’s being used “to explore investment opportunities across the sports and entertainment landscapes, including professional football,” according to The Wrap.
The result is that McMahon’s WWE shares, which represent about 4.3% of WWE’s outstanding Class A and Class B shares, according to The Wrap, have been sold for $32 apiece, for a ground total of over $100 million.
“After the sale, Mr. McMahon beneficially owns 32,193,375 shares of the Company’s Class B common stock, which represents approximately 82.8% of the Company’s total voting power and approximately 41.8% of the Company’s total outstanding shares of common stock,” the official legalese from SEC reads.
That money is being delivered to Alpha Entertainment LLC — the company who has been working on the XFL reboot for some time now.
The XFL was originally shut down 16 years ago after it lost NBC millions of dollars. Speculation now turns to whether this is the right time for the XFL to return and if McMahon is about to lose even more money this time around.
The XFL also tried to combine the WWE and NFL, with mixed results. A total of eight teams (with names like Los Angeles Xtreme and Memphis Maniax, according to Bleeding Cool), the show failed to appeal to sports fanatics as they preferred to keep their wrestling and football separate.
Vince McMahon has not yet offered a statement about anything XFL related, but rumors from CBS Sports say that he might be making an announcement on the project as soon as Jan. 25, 2018.
Would you watch XFL if it made a return? Let us know in the comments below!