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b"Vince McMahon's CEORater Profile: https://www.ceorater.com/ceo/412/399/Vince-McMahon\\n\\nYouTube version of this podcast episode: https://youtu.be/aO0lJLF51jo\\n\\nCEORater CEO of the Week April 11th 2020 Prepared Remarks:\\n\\nWelcome to the inaugural CEORater \\u201cCEO of the Week\\u201d. \\n\\nOur first \\u201cCEO of the Week\\u201d is WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon. This is as much a memorial as it is a celebration because Vince McMahon buried his XFL on Friday \\u2013 Good Friday no less. \\n\\nThis was version 2.0 of the XFL. It was killed not by poor ratings or fan indifference, rather by the Coronavirus. \\n\\nXFL 2.0 was funded entirely by Vince McMahon who sold approximately $270 million of WWE stock on March 27th 2019. \\n\\nAt the time, speculation was that McMahon was positioning himself to purchase the Carolina Panthers of the National Football League. The Panthers were sold to David Tepper, founder of hedge fund Appaloosa Management. \\n\\nMcMahon wasn\\u2019t interested in acquiring the Panthers however. McMahon took the world by surprise on January 25th 2018 when he held a press conference announcing the return of the XFL \\u2013 version 2.0. \\n\\nFor those who are not familiar, XFL v1.0\\u2019s inaugural season took place in 2001 after the conclusion of the NFL season. The original incarnation of the XFL was a partnership between the then WWF (now WWE) and NBC, which was then part of GE. \\n\\nVersion 1.0 of the XFL was sort of a cheesy production, it had a professional wrestling over-the-top promotional feel to it. Ratings dropped off each week before NBC pulled out of the partnership during the inaugural season. ESPN did a 30 for 30 on that initial season which we have linked to in show notes. \\n\\nXFL 2.0 was very different. It was a serious football league with a promotional strategy that focused on the game and on-field play rather than sensationalism. \\n\\nXFL 2020 was fairly popular from a ratings standpoint. The league was even more popular from a live gate standpoint. Game attendance grew each week. XFL 2020 also had some exciting in-game innovations. \\n\\nSo\\u2026 why is Vince McMahon worthy of being named CEORater \\u201cCEO of the Week\\u201d? After all, he presided over a \\u201cfailed\\u201d football league \\u2013 twice\\u2026 \\n\\nWell, McMahon is an entrepreneur and risk taker. If you follow us you know that CEORater celebrates entrepreneurs and risk takers. We respect their ingenuity, their resourcefulness, their toughness and grit. McMahon placed a material amount of skin in the game, he did not rely on Other People\\u2019s Money. \\n\\nTherefore, rather than poke fun at McMahon and the XFL, we choose to celebrate the spirit of an entrepreneur who was willing to revisit a past failure in an attempt to make it right. \\n\\nWere it not for the great destroyer of health and value known as the Coronavirus, McMahon very well may have led this latest incarnation of the XFL to the endzone. And for that, we declare Vince McMahon as CEORater\\u2019s first \\u201cCEO of the Week.\\u201d\\n\\n\\u201cThis Was the XFL\\u201d ESPN 30 for 30 link: https://youtu.be/MVTi1g1MTOg"