Anyone with a knowledge of US sports knows about the XFL - the one season American football league that has been derided as a failure. It did have many teething troubles - the games weren't so high scoring due to the smashmouth-oriented rules in the first few weeks, and it was difficult to take seriously. However, it got better attendances than the current UFL, and according was actually looking at adding two expansion teams - one in Detroit, the other in Washington DC.
In the end, NBC pulled the plug, and UPN were only willing to broadcast games if one if WWF Smackdown was trimmed from two hours to 90 minutes. So, what if either NBC didn't pull the plug, UPN didn't make the ultimatum or McMahon went for the shortened Smackdown?