WWE Are Not Alone

The Denver Nuggets were expected to host the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 4 of the NBA Western Conference finals May 25 despite an event originally scheduled at the Pepsi Center that evening. That’s not unheard of but, when the event is World Wrestling Entertainment, everybody hears about it.

Most venues that anchor professional sports teams have rental agreements that recognize that a team event can and will override the agreement in the unlikely event of postseason play. Or, in the case of the Denver Nuggets, the very unlikely event of postseason play.

The Pepsi Center signed an agreement with WWE in August for the popular “Monday Night Raw” extravaganza to pay a visit to Denver in May. Chances were strong the night would belong to WWE chief Vince McMahon, considering the sad story of the Nuggets, which have been booted out in the first round of playoffs for five years straight and last reached the finals in 1985.

A similar conflict, as noted in the Los Angeles Times, was a double-booking between the Edmonton Oilers and “Dora the Explorer Live” in June 2006 at Rexall Place, when the Oilers were in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Dora had to come back at a later time. That same year, Staples Center had Madonna booked for a night that the Clippers could have been in a playoff game against the Phoenix Suns. But the Suns took the Clippers out of contention.

Such is the way of event booking. But WWE’s McMahon knows how to sell events and, in this case, has shown how to sell a canceled one. He mocked Nuggets owner Stan Kroenke for not having faith in his team, challenged him to a steel cage match and said Kroenke should be “arrested for impersonating a good businessman.”

McMahon said more than 10,000 tickets were purchased for the event, with a sellout expected. At press time, he wasn’t saying what his buyout price was but few expected it would be cheap. The WWE trucks were heading toward Denver and he would, if needed, stage the show “in a parking lot somewhere.” (Update: Staples Center in Los Angeles announced May 21 it would host Monday Night Raw and Smackdown May 25 with tickets going on sale immediately.)

“I don’t think he’s putting on an act here,” entertainment industry analyst Jeffrey Thomison told sports columnist Jim Litke May 20. “He genuinely is upset.”

The WWE recently took in $52 million for “WrestleMania 25” in Houston, making it the highest-grossing one-day entertainment event this year.