Trying for a third time to launch something that’s failed twice over and racked up combined losses in excess of over $100 million sounds doomed to fail from the start, but it’s not as if Dwayne Johnson has developed a reputation for being somebody who hears the word “no” all that often.
With that in mind, surely he wouldn’t have been surprised that the latest iteration of the XFL reportedly wound up $60 million in the red by the end of its first season, even if it does deserve credit for being the first version of the gridiron outfit to actually make it that far. Always a beacon of positivity, though, The Rock has been ignoring the elephant in the room.
The Forbes article in question is literally titled “Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson Says The XFL Will Succeed. Who Wants To Tell Him He’s Wrong?,” and doesn’t shy away from digging into the many reasons why the company could be staring disaster in the face yet again, but the actor and producer wasn’t having any of it when he celebrated the piece while outlining his desire to continue expanding.
Johnson is many things, but a quitter has never been one of them, unless you count the cancellation of Young Rock and his recent reintroduction to Fast & Furious after repeatedly blasting Vin Diesel for a number of years while stating he’d never be back, of course. On the plus side, that $60 million isn’t coming directly out of his own pocket, but profitability is a must next year or it might be game over for the XFL all over again.
