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NBA

Nuggets, WWE Are Double-Booked

Posted May 18, 2009 7:00PM By Matt Watson (RSS feed)

Filed Under: Lakers, Nuggets, Playoffs

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Vince McMahonWWE chairman Vince McMahon wasn't pleased to see the Lakers win on Sunday, and it's not because he's a closet Houston Rockets fan. (Although, when you think about it, Ron Artest could have a nice post-NBA career on the professional wrestling circuit ...)

Because the No. 1 seeded Lakers advanced to the conference finals, the No. 2 seeded Nuggets are now scheduled to host Game 4 on Monday, May 25 ... the same date the WWE reserved at the Pepsi Center for a televised Monday Night Raw episode. Had the fifth-seeded Rockets won, the Nuggets would be on the road that date.

"Even though the Denver Nuggets had a strong team this year and were projected to make the playoffs," McMahon said in a statement, "obviously Nuggets and Pepsi Center owner Stan Kroenke did not have enough faith in his own team to hold the May 25th date for a potential playoff game."

McMahon also states that the WWE reserved their date all the way back in August, which, if you recall, was when the Nuggets were still in full-fledged cost-cutting mode, having sent Marcus Camby to the Clippers while receiving nothing in return just weeks earlier.

The Nuggets eventually reversed their fortunes with the Chauncey Billups trade in November, but it's not a stretch to think the front office went through most of the summer expecting yet another first-round flameout. Obviously as the regular season progressed, the Nuggets started to think a lengthy playoff run was possible, right?

Actually, maybe not. According to WWE spokeman Robert Zimmerman, the Pepsi Center actually confirmed the May 25 date as recent as a month ago. From the AP:
Zimmerman said the Pepsi Center confirmed in March with the WWE that the organization wanted to keep the May 25 date, and sent a contract on April 15 - the final night of the regular season - which WWE signed and returned. Tickets went on sale April 11.
That's a little more difficult to justify, and it's justifiable for McMahon and Co. to be a little miffed (even if they're milking this annoyance for as much publicity as possible with inflammatory statements). Apparently as many as 10,000 tickets for Raw have already been sold, though a new date and/or venue for the event has yet to be determined.

Hat-tip: Darren Rovell

Tags: Vince+McMahon, VinceMcmahon

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