Posted in: Movies, Sports, TV, WWE | Tagged: Carolina Panthers, jonathan coachman, nfl, Vince McMahon, wrasslin, wrestling, wwe, xfl

Jonathan Coachman Would "Answer the Phone" if Vince McMahon Called for XFL Reboot

ESPN host and former WWE Raw commentator Jonathan Coachman would apparently be interested in joining Vince McMahon's reboot of the failed XFL.

"Best believe Vince has been doing some kind of research behind the scenes because he's not going to come out and blow 50 or 100 million dollars on something that he has already tried," Coachman said of the venture in an interview with TMZ transcribed by Wrestlezone. "If he calls me, because I am the only person in the history of the world to be the voice of Monday Night RAW and be on ESPN SportsCenter for 10 years, if Vince calls for someone who knows both sides of the fence you're damn right I am going to pick up the phone!"

With eight teams (all owned by the XFL) with names that would make Rob Liefeld proud, such as the Los Angeles Xtreme and the Memphis Maniax, players such as "He Hate Me," announcers like Jesse "The Body" Ventura and "Good Ol'" Jim Ross, scantily clad cheerleaders, and pre-show hosts New York City shock jocks Opie and Anthony, it was pretty much everything you would expect from Vince McMahon's version of a football league. Ultimately, football fans decided that they preferred to keep their wrestling and their football separate, but McMahon apparently sees a new opportunity to revive the brand.

Rumors kicked into high gear earlier this month that McMahon was looking at rebooting the league, and WWE officially responded by admitting that McMahon had started a new business entity called Alpha Entertainment with the purpose of investment opportunities in sports and entertainment, notably including pro football. Alpha Entertainment also registered several trademarks for the XFL, both as a professional football league and to sell XFL merchandise. McMahon sold $100 million in WWE stock in order to fund the venture, which means that if it all goes down the drain, McMahon could lose up to three times what he lost on the XFL the first time.

Coachman thinks it would be a piece of cake for WWE to get an XFL reboot up and running in just a matter of months.

"Only Vince and the crew that works for him can put together a football league in a matter of months," he told TMZ. "I would say that is a crazy thought but I would like to say that I was in the room last time and two months later they were having games. I think that's one of the things you have to think about. When do you want to do the league? How much time do you want to give the players to get in shape? What kind of players are you going to go after?"

That being said, Coachman believes that all of the XFL hullaballoo could be a smokescreen for a different opportunity.

"Just because he is talking about getting back into football let's remember where Vince's home base is… North Carolina," said Coachman, suggesting that McMahon could actually buy the Carolina Panthers. "He has a restaurant in North Carolina. Hell, Triple H's bachelor party was in Raleigh, NC!"

Coachman thinks the NFL owners, who need to approve a new owner by a 24 of 34 majority, would be more accepting of Donald Trump ally McMahon than of another potential owner, Puff Daddy.

"All this came out the last couple of days that P Diddy is trying to get together a group," Coachman said. "Again, the old crotchity owners wouldn't want P Diddy and his crew in there which I think that would be a mistake by the owners. Vince has legitimate money. He's a billionaire. He could come up with the funds and he's also at the age where the other owners would respect that. I am not saying that he would but I think that is a second possibility that people aren't tossing out there because they want to believe the he would start his own entity."

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