Ending out 2021, XFL co-owner Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson joined CNBC and said news was coming early in the year. He specifically mentioned new teams/cities as well broadcast partners. Clearly, this brought a lot of excitement to the fans online who had been waiting to hear something from the league.
After the league was purchased out of bankruptcy by Dany Garcia, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and RedBird Capital there wasn’t a lot of news coming out of the camp. That was until March of 2021 when it was revealed that the CFL and XFL were talking about a possible business partnership. After many months of speculation, ultimately the two decided to go their own ways for now.
This was also when the XFL officially postponed their return until 2023. Once again, news dried up and other than the few Instagram teases from Dany Garcia we didn’t hear anything until November.
But, that’s when the league really started ramping up. First we saw the first round of hires, then we learned the return timeline.
That brings us to where we are now. With Dwayne Johnson set to join the Manning brothers for Monday Night Football, and the XFL accounts sharing the announcement; many were hoping to hear some XFL news. Considering the Eli & Peyton alternative commentary takes place on ESPN 2, speculation began that maybe we’d hear news on the broadcast front.
ONE ROCK⚡️💪🏾
TWO MANNINGS 🏈💪🏼
THREE FANNY PACKS 🙋🏽♂️🙋🏻♂️🙋🏻♂️
Tune in to #MondayNightFootball with Peyton and Eli Manning.
THIS MONDAY at 8:45ET💯🏈@omahaprod#TheBiggestShowYet 💥 pic.twitter.com/I8FSTfkFW8
— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) January 16, 2022
The Rock was the second featured guest on the show, so fans didn’t have to wait long to find out. A little less than an hour after the show started, Johnson joined the Manning brothers with the Rams leading the Cardinals.
The conversation started out about his past in football. But, after the second segment, XFL fans got what they were waiting for. The Rock was asked about his part in the new XFL, and he went into detail on his passion for the game and giving more opportunities. He leaned on his experience not making it in the NFL, and wants to be able to give guys more chances to play.
Although we didn’t get any specifics, Johnson says that there’s XFL news coming in the next 2-3 weeks that you can look forward to. Seeing that this was on ESPN, it definitely gives more credence to the rumor that they will serve as a broadcast partner for the XFL in 2023.
You can watch the full clip of The Rock with Eli & Peyton below:
It happened! @TheRock talks #XFL on #MNF! pic.twitter.com/Vgvr3khcoi
— XFL Newsroom (@XFLNewsroom) January 18, 2022
Did you tune in to watch Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson join Eli & Peyton during Monday Night Football? Did you expect more XFL news? Let us know down in the comments below or join the conversation on Discord.
