Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and his business partners are officially owners of the XFL.
U.S. District Judge Laurie Silverstein allowed the transaction after the XFL resolved a dispute over the $15 million sale price with the court’s unsecured creditors’ committee. Johnson, along with business partners Dany Garcia and RedBird Capital Partners, will officially assume control of the league from former owner Vince McMahon later this month.
Garcia will have an executive position with the XFL and said that both she and Johnson will have a hands-on approach to running the league. Asked about hiring other executive-level leaders, she said: “We’ve been in close discussion with the current XFL management team.”
“There are a lot of excellent people in that team,” Garcia said. “While it’s not 100 percent just turning the lights on, there is still a tremendous amount of infrastructure and relationships that you can actually call people back, pull people back. We saw the work that they were doing for this year, and there was some excellent, excellent work. There is a team there.”
What will be fascinating is how this plays out with Commissioner Oliver Luck, who is currently suing XFL founder Vince McMahon after being fired from his position when the league folded after five weeks earlier this year.
Luck is an innovative and creative mind and the XFL would do well to have his thought process at the top. However, the suit against the WWE boss could complicate matters.