Vince McMahon, the irascible owner of World Wrestling Entertainment, never backs down from a fight and it appears that he’s immersed in a new one with the Denver Nuggets.
In a scheduling snafu, the NBA title-contending Nuggets are scheduled to play Game Four of the Western Conference Finals this coming Monday, May 25, at Denver’s Pepsi Center against the Los Angeles Lakers. But, the same night the WWE is scheduled to be in the arena for its wildly popular live wrestling telecast of “WWE Raw.”
According to ESPN and the WWE, the wrestling organization booked the arena for that date back in August of 2008, and confirmed the date in April just as the basketball regular season concluded. More than 10,000 tickets have already been sold to the WWE (See the images below; click on the top image to enlarge it), and tickets were still on sale today. In addition, the wrestling match is also still listed for 6:30pm MST at the Center, and the NBA playoff game is slated for 7pm MST.
Since no one can predict how far a team will advance in the playoffs, it would be difficult to know in advance that a team will have a playoff game on a specific date. Yet, the problem appears to be that the Nuggets apparently did not properly notify the National Basketball Association of the potential conflict, which McMahon attributes to Nuggets ownership “not believing” that the team would go as far in the playoffs. See the video below.
Fans visiting the Pepsi Center Web site today looking for WWE tickets were greeted with the following message:
“The Denver Nuggets are scheduled to play on Monday May 25th @ 7:00pm. The Pepsi Center is working closely with the WWE and hopes to have information regarding the WWE event at the Pepsi Center soon. Both the Pepsi Center and TM will post information as soon as it is available. NO REFUNDS are available at this time.”
What will happen with the two events is unknown, but the WWE may end up holding its match in another facility that night. In a statement to ESPN, Paul Andrews, executive vice president of Kroenke Sports Enterprises, which owns the Nuggets, said, “We are working with the WWE to resolve the situation amicably.”
