The sports world has been buzzing about the NBA Western Conference finals, but the rivalry isn’t even about who will win between the Lakers and the Nuggets, it’s about who will win between Nuggets management and Vince McMahon’s World Wrestling Entertainment.
In this video on ESPN.com McMahon sat down with his old employee Jonathan “The Coach” Coachman, who now works as an anchor for ESPN, to discuss the situation. He reiterates that he thinks that Stan Kroenke, owner of the Nuggets, is a bad business and proposed a steel cage match to settle things tounge-in-cheekly (I think.) During his appearance he even held up a #24 Kobe jersey to show his support for who he thinks will win. Do I smell a run-in from the WWE Chairman in the works?
The media furor has rose so much that arena powerhouses like Madison Square Garden and LA’s Staples Center (where the Lakers of course play their home games) have offered to host WWE Monday Night RAW in place of the overbooked Pepsi Center.
The big sports guys like Mike & Mike in the Morning and ESPN’s First Take weighed in on the situation and threw their support behind Vince and WWE. Mike and Mike looked back fondly on their own pro wrestling memories and had fun with callers and audio clips. Talking heads on First Take Skip Bayless, Doug Stewart and Ryan Stewart debated the situation with Bayless and Doug Stewart empathizing with WWE’s situation while Doug Stewart called an accidental double booking that has received too much attention and defended Kroenke.
Internal talk within WWE that RAW may be moved to Colorado Springs, but so far the company has not made any official announcement regarding the show.
Expect plenty of snarky comments from RAW’s broadcast team and “hilarious” skits detailing the situation. Regardless of what actually happens on the Memorial Day edition of RAW I expect it receive a television ratings bump from its usual Memorial Day rating. After all Vince McMahon is the king of “any publicity is good publicity.”
Perhaps they can settle things with a triple threat match between Chauncey Billups versus Kobe Bryant versus John Cena, center court, with the winner moving on to game five. Or the Nuggets and the Lakers can play half court ball and they can set up the wrestling ring on other half.
Either way I smell a sitcom in the works.
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