Ever since WWE's Vince McMahon announced an XFL comeback in 2020, there have been rumors about what teams would participate and if there would be any ties to WWE. During the initial announcement of the reboot league, McMahon and company seemed to make it seem that XFL might be a separate entity from the professional Wrestling company. However, there's new information that has arrived which seems to indicate differently.

WWE's XFL agreement

In a new report that arrived this past week, MLive said that the Security and Exchange Commission filings indicate that the WWE is, in fact, a minority stake owner in the XFL.

Originally, the XFL seemed like it was only under Vince McMahon's Alpha Entertainment LLC, but as of April 3, the WWE has a minority stake after entering into an agreement. Under this new agreement, WWE is giving the rights to the rebooted XFL to use the league name and any of the pre-existing trademarks from the previous installment.

Back in 2001 the original XFL arrived but was short-lived, sticking around for just one season. It had a much bigger connection with WWE's brand of sports entertainment including cheerleaders, rules very different from the NFL's rules, and even some of the WWE's commentators or personalities getting involved in coverage of games. The league also lost $70 million for that initial run.

While no crossover was expected between WWE and the new XFL, it's also been reported that the WWE production team is working on XFL material. Additionally, ads for the XFL have run on the WWE Network to promote the new league.

Under this recently-reported agreement, the WWE will not receive any payments or have a financial obligation as far as the new league goes.

The new update to the SEC filing also tells sports fans what they already knew, that the XFL is planning to come back in early 2020. It was previously announced that there will be eight teams with 40 players per roster.

What's next?

There's still roughly a year and a half until the newest version of the XFL Football league emerges.

Fans are hoping to see a better product than they might already be getting from the NFL, without politics or other agendas being mixed into it. So far there has been no official announcement regarding what cities will host teams, or about where the first players will arrive from. However, one rumor has suggested a team will return to Orlando, where the previous league featured the Rage. Camping World Sports has been mentioned as a potential venue for a team.

There are other cities with fans trying to start up their own efforts to get an XFL team.

Columbus, Ohio is amongst those cities, as a campaign has been started out with fans signing a petition to bring them a football team. That could present an interesting dynamic as the Cleveland Browns continue to try to turn the corner from a losing team to a contender.

No matter which teams end up where, there are plenty of football fans rooting for the new Vince McMahon XFL product to succeed, and hoping that there really won't be any WWE antics involved.
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