Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia took the stage at Disney’s upfronts presentation to announce a carriage deal for all 43 of the XFL’s games when the spring pro football league returns in 2023.
“We have entered into an exclusive multi-year deal with our partners, the Walt Disney Company, to produce and distribute all of our games,” Garcia said. ABC, ESPN and FX will all air games, the duo said.
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Johnson called the XFL “the league of passion, the league of pride, the league of culture.”
Johnson and Garcia acquired the XFL with other investors after the league went through a bankruptcy proceeding. WWE founder and CEO Vince McMahon bankrolled the return of the league, which was resurrected after a 20-year absence but soon ran into the buzzsaw of Covid.
The league’s revival “is going to be perfectly timed for football fans who want the thrill of more touchdowns following the end of the college and the NFL season,” Garcia said.