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What’s Going On Smells What The Rock is Cooking

Titles of posts don’t get much more obvious than this. The Rock now owns the XFL. Sort of. The Rock is one of three owners along with his ex-wife Dany Garcia and Gerry Cardinale of Redbird Capital. The goal is to provide another avenue for players to be able to play and, in addition, explore a reality TV component akin to Hard Knocks. The first iteration of Vince McMahon’s XFL was a terrible idea that lost a ton of money. His second one was much more well thought-out, but never got the TV deal he was hoping for and then once the coronavirus pandemic hit, that was it. Vince being who he is, he attempted to fire commissioner Oliver Luck for cause in an attempt to avoid paying out his contract. Luck is currently suing McMahon and is a strong bet to win. This third iteration should fare better because there won’t be egos like McMahon’s involved, right? Not so fast my friend. Garcia is reportedly upset that The Rock got the majority of the headlines. Dave Meltzer of F4WOnline.com:

“Of all the things, I don’t know if this is concerning or not, but she got mad because all the headlines said Dwayne Johnson and she said she put up the same amount of money as he did, she’s got the same ownership stake as he did, and she’s going to be making just as many decisions as he is and she’s not in any headline, every headline is about him. I’m like if you’re already worried about that then that’s not a good first day to me.”

The Rock is more interesting than people who are not The Rock. While the fact that Garcia is the first female owner of a sports league, which The Rock posted on Instagram, the headline is always going to include The Rock. If notoriety is more important that making this iteration of the league work, you’re running the risk of ending up just like the first two.

CFL cancelled for 2020. After multiple attempts to make some sort of return to play, including a bubble in Winnipeg and asking the Canadian government for an interest-free loan, didn’t work out, the CFL has pulled the plug on 2020 altogether. While the loss of ticket revenue will create problems for the NFL, the problems in question are things like a lower salary cap next season rather than the league not being able to function. The CFL’s problems fall into the latter group as it is still a gate league. The league hopes to play in 2021 and does not appear in danger of folding entirely.

Heavyweights. Alexander Povetkin defeated Dillian Whyte Saturday in grand fashion:

Let’s take a look at where the division stands now. Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury are due to meet in December for a third fight between the two for the WBC Championship. Anthony Joshua has mandatory defenses for the WBO title against Oleksander Usyk and for the IBF title against Kubrat Pulev. Usyk is allowing Joshua to make the defense against Pulev first, keeping the hopes of a fight to crown an undisputed heavyweight champion alive. In the interim, Usyk will fight Dereck Chisora. Whyte is exercising a rematch clause against Povetkin. The simplest route to a title unification fight is probably:

Fall/Winter 2020: Usyk d. Chisora, Fury (c) d. Wilder (WBC), Povetkin (c) d. Whyte (WBC Interim), Joshua d. Pulev (IBF)

Spring/Summer 2021: Fury d. Povetkin (WBC), Joshua (c) d. Usyk (WBO)

Fall/Winter 2021: Joshua vs. Fury (WBA, WBO, IBF, WBC)

Should Wilder beat Fury, the picture gets a little more complicated. This space predicts that the WBC would declare the winner of Povetkin vs. Whyte II the mandatory for Wilder, meaning Wilder vs. Fury IV gets bumped to later in 2021. Joshua still fights Pulev and then Usyk and then, looking for something to do in the winter of 2021, maybe takes a third fight with Andy Ruiz. Otto Wallin could be another potential opponent.

Complicating all of this further is the coronavirus pandemic. Joshua-Fury is going to be a huge money fight, especially in the UK and I have a hard time imagining that fight taking place before an arena can be packed to witness it. Hopefully, that’s not an issue by this time next year.

Programming note. Posting here will be light for the next week or so as your author prepares the Chicago Bears season preview. This site has also launched the Big Shoulders Podcast featuring your author and Mike Anderson discussing Chicago sports. The debut episode will be out later this week. You can follow the show on Twitter @BigShouldersQEM.

Here it is, your moment of zen.

Twitter: @KSchroeder_312

 

 

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