Vince McMahon claims he does not plan to buy back the XFL

“I don’t know why that’s out there, making me out to be the bad guy” ~ McMahon

After the XFL was shuttered and then placed into bankruptcy due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been rumored that Vince McMahon was planning to buy back the league from bankruptcy.

Today, as part of the bankruptcy filing, McMahon cleared the air in his deposition.

“I don’t know why that’s out there, making me out to be the bad guy, [that] I’m going to buy the XFL back for pennies on the dollar, basically,” McMahon said in the deposition.

“That helped me move into the direction of, ‘I’m not going to be a bidder, not going to have anything to do with it.’ I do hope that someone will pay a lot of money for it, and I do hope that it will survive.”

McMahon originally launched the XFL in 2001 and rebooted the league in 2019. McMahon owned 80% of the league through his management company Alpha Entertainment and 20% through the WWE.

The brokerage firm Houlihan Lokey has been hired to handle the sale of the league. Letters of intent are due June 12 from interested parties. Final bids are due July 6, subject to approval by the bankruptcy court, in hopes of putting potential new owners in position to get the XFL back on the field.