The XFL Won`t Last
Mick Cornett
Sunday February 11, 2001
After one weekend of action, I`m here to proclaim that the XFL is not going to fly.
McMahon is something of a mad-scientist. He pulls out a beaker of violence, tosses in a handful of sex, and simply looks for a vehicle to attach his chemical compound. It`s worked wonderfully in the semi-sport of pro-wrestling where entertainment stars are created and destroyed far more effectively than Hollywood ever dreamed.
Have you watched the hard-core wrestling fans? They care! They care who wins and they care who loses. The sex and violence, mixed in with the made-up storylines, are one-act soap-operas which follow a well conceived script. It works very well.
But now, McMahon is trying to attach his marketing techniques to football. McMahon is smart enough to realize that he can`t control the outcome of the game because football fans would never put up with it. But McMahon also thinks that sex and violence are the reason people watch football. It`s not. They watch because they care who wins. Sure, the NFL is violent and, yes, the cheerleaders are chosen largely on sex-appeal. But more violence and sex are not going to make up for the apathy that exists in the XFL when it comes to winning and losing.
There are lots of movies with more sex and violence than you could possibly squeeze onto a network telecast of the XFL. The main problem is that the fans don`t even know the players names, they simply know they are not as talented as the players in the NFL. McMahon`s wrestling league is the NFL of its sport. His football league is all minor-league glitz.
It`s not going to work. My guess is that eventually McMahon will get desperate and start adding some soap-opera plot-lines to the game on the field. That will work, on a short-term basis, until the real football fans realize that the outcome is, to some extent, predetermined. Then they won`t watch either.
Bottom-line-There`s no shortage of sex and violence on TV. And for that matter, there`s no shortage of football. Vince McMahon doesn`t really have anything new to offer.
Mick Cornett was a writer for ArenaFan Online from 2000 to 2001.
