Let me quickly set the stage for you. WWE (then known as the WWF back in 2001) was riding high at the end of the Attitude era. The company had officially bought out their competition in WCW and ECW and then did an invasion angle which, well, happened. Stone Cold Steve Austin had briefly turned into a heel (a bad guy) at Wrestlemania 17, winning the WWF Championship. Then they realized this wasn’t a good idea and changed him back.
Within all this was the creation of the XFL – the brainchild of Vince McMahon for those who thirsted for a springtime option for football (and, weirdly, a go-between into the wrestling world). Honestly, that’s not a terrible idea in theory – so much so that the league has been resurrected for a third time to try this again this year.
I was one of the 14 million people who tuned into the first-ever XFL game between the NY/NJ Hitmen and Las Vegas Outlaws on Feb. 3rd, 2001. Admittedly, I dropped off shortly after that – the gimmicks and things implemented weren’t enough to cover up that there just wasn’t good football played. On the eve of the second resurrection of the XFL, I went back and watched the first game again – and yeah, it’s still not great. However, I just wanted to go over a few thoughts I had watching this again.
Here’s a full video of the first game, which you can also view at YouTube.
