I saw this clip on YouTube of the 80s rapper Kool Moe Dee on a show called Rollergames. I think the TV show was created as a family friendly version of the Rollerball movie for Saturday afternoons. It ran for [one season](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/RollerGames) in 1989.

Plus anyone remember that women’s lingerie American Football league? It’s [still going](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_League_(women%27s_football) )!

What TV sports do you remember that never really worked?

10 comments
  1. American Gladiators. Was successful for a time, but didn’t have lasting power.

  2. The LFL rebranded a couple years ago and is much more serious about being a women’s football league. I dint know if it’ll ever get popular in its current format but who knows. As for sports created for TV that failed to catch fire. There are a lot. The History Channel I know has tried their hand at a couple.

  3. Arena Football has so much potential but is seems to sputter out each time they try.

  4. > I think the TV show was created as a family friendly version of the Rollerball movie for Saturday afternoons. It ran for one season in 1989.

    [Roller derby](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roller_derby), which was the inspiration for the movie and later the Rollergames show, dates back to the 1930s and was on TV in the 50s and 60s. I remember watching it as a kid. I don’t know why it died out. Perhaps the entertainment spectacle of professional wrestling, which was exaggerated to macho camp after my youth, beat it out. Roller derby is less amenable to the high jinks that professional wrestling uses.

  5. When roller blading took off the mid to late 90s there was a professional roller hockey league, Roller Hockey International, which was essentially created to give ESPN2 something to air during the summer and capitalize off the popularity of of the Mighty Ducks film series from 1992 – 1996. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdhBx__otoI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdhBx__otoI)

  6. I remember *Wide World of Sports* had a real try-on for jai alai back in the 70s.

  7. All TV sports are classed as Sports Entertainment and Reality TV e.g. WWE wrestling.

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