Vince McMahon's XFL relaunch lasted five weeks before bankruptcy

Determined to fix what broke in 2001, Vince McMahon relaunched the XFL through a separate company, Alpha Entertainment, saying he was prepared to invest as much as $500 million — five times his stake in the original league — funded by selling $100 million of WWE stock in December 2017 and another $270 million in March 2019. The eight-team single-entity league kicked off on 8 February 2020, and the first week drew an average of 3.1 million viewers.

The audience slid — 1.5 million by week five — but the pandemic landed the killing blow. Games were cancelled on 12 March 2020, and on 10 April the league suspended operations and laid off its staff: without game revenue the financial commitments were unsustainable. On 13 April 2020 Alpha Entertainment filed Chapter 11 in Delaware, listing assets and liabilities of $10 million to $50 million and blaming the pandemic for 'tens of millions of dollars' in lost revenue. Seven of the eight head coaches were among the top unsecured creditors, led by Bob Stoops, owed $1.08 million.

The bankruptcy ended McMahon's second XFL in ten weeks of games and five weeks of play. On 3 August 2020 a consortium led by Dwayne Johnson, Dany Garcia and RedBird Capital's Gerry Cardinale bought the league out of court for $15 million — court-approved four days later — a fraction of what had been put in.