Shane McMahon & John Cena talk about WWE @ The STAPLES Center (HQ)

Massive Raw Main Event from The STAPLES Center and Vince ready to file Lawsuit?

The following is from WWE.com: Live on Raw from Los Angeles' STAPLES Center, WWE presents its answer to the Lakers vs. the Denver Nuggets. WWE Champion Randy Orton, Legacy, The Miz & Big Show face U.S. Champion MVP, Batista, John Cena, Jerry Lawler & a fifth "player."

WWE issued the following statement on their website announcing the Raw in Los Angeles for this Monday: STAMFORD, Conn. – World Wrestling Entertainment has made arrangements, given innumerable logistical challenges and obstacles, to move its internationally televised broadcast, WWE Monday Night Raw to Los Angeles' STAPLES Center. The live televised event, which was scheduled to take place at the Pepsi Center in Denver this Monday, May 25th, will take place live at the STAPLES Center at 5:30 p.m. PT. Tickets for Monday Night Raw in Los Angeles will become available tonight at 8 p.m. ET. WWE was forced to seek alternative arrangements due to the Pepsi Center's double-booking of May 25 for both WWE Monday Night Raw and Game 4 of the NBA Western Conference Finals. The event will now take place live from the home of the Denver Nuggets' opponents, the Los Angeles Lakers. Denver fans wishing to receive a refund for their tickets to the originally scheduled Pepsi Center event must return tickets to the original point of purchase. Vince McMahon spoke to 9News and once again seems to be considering legal action against Denver Nuggets and Pepsi Center owner Stan Kroenke. McMahon said: "It's really unfortunate because if he were just a regular business man and picked up the phone and said, 'Vince, you know, we're throwing you out but I want to make it right, what can we do?' I never heard from Kroenke, I don't know if anyone else has either, by the way, he's somewhat of a Howard Hughes guy I understand. I think our company has been damaged severely from a financial standpoint and from a psychological standpoint as well. You don't treat people the way Kroenke's management treated us. I'm not a litigious kind of guy, but quite frankly when we have a contract and we have over 10,000 tickets sold and you just say: we're out, and we're not going to do anything for you, you know we're not going to make any restitution. We may pay for your additional expenses, that's it. There could very well be a lawsuit down the road." In related news, TMZ.com has picked up the news that Raw is moving to Los Angeles and writes, "Vince isn't moving out of the kindness of his heart, he and the Nuggets struck a settlement -- but the terms of that deal haven't been made public yet."

WWE vs NBA Media Coverage Continues

The tentative plan for next Monday's Raw taping is to do the show at the World Arena in Colorado Springs. This was one of the backup plans discussed yesterday, and WWE has tried booking more than 100 hotel rooms for Sunday night in Colorado Springs. After a scheduling debacle has left next week's WWE RAW without a host arena, WWE.com says that that New York's Madison Square Garden and Los Angeles's Staples Center have both offered to host the show. While WWE claims they still have not determined where the show will be held, the show will most likely be held in Colorado Springs, where the following night's SmackDown/ECW tapings will take place. This morning on ESPN, there was a segment called "Blog Buzz" where ESPN determined that the WWE-NBA story is capturing more sports fan interest than the actual NBA or NHL playoffs. To watch a video of the segment, visit ESPN.com. Yahoo! Sports is joining in on the "Pepsi Center fiasco" with a tongue-in-cheek article about what would happen if Monday Night Raw and Game 4 of the NBA Western Conference finals took place simultaneously in the same arena. The article includes mock play-by-play commentary of a WWE vs. Lakers vs. Nuggets showdown. To read their list of gems that include Undertaker being called for after clotheslining Kobe Bryant, click here.

MSG/Staples Center coming to the Rescue of Raw?

From WWE.com: STAMFORD, Conn. — The Denver debacle that has jeopardized this coming Monday’s edition of Raw in Denver’s Pepsi Center has yielded an outpouring by some of the biggest arenas in the world who have opportunistically offered to host Monday Night Raw live on Memorial Day. While working to resolve the scheduling conflict between Raw and the Denver Nuggets’ NBA Western Conference Semifinals game against the Los Angeles Lakers, WWE officials have received proposals from numerous venues including Madison Square Garden and, ironically, the STAPLES Center – the home of the Nuggets’ Monday night opponents, the Lakers. In addition to numerous other venues, these major-capacity metropolitan arenas proposed to have WWE’s flagship program emanate from their locations instead of Denver’s double-booked Pepsi Center this coming Monday. As reported by WWE.com and countless media outlets, officials from both WWE and the Denver Nuggets are still attempting to determine a resolution for the scheduling calamity in Colorado’s capital.

WWE Brag that People what them instead of Denver Nuggets NBA Playoff

From WWE.com: As revealed via multiple television and online polls, both the general public and sports fans in particular have sided with WWE in the recent scheduling nightmare with the Denver Nuggets.

As the WWE Universe is well aware, there is an ongoing conflict with this Monday night’s sold-out Raw, as despite WWE’s earlier claim on Denver’s Pepsi Center, the arena was double-booked with a Denver Nuggets playoff game. In a poll seen on CNN Headline News, viewers texted in to vote in favor of WWE’s claim in what has become the “Denver debacle.” Elsewhere, even dedicated sports fans on the Yahoo Sports website spoke out in support of Monday Night Raw’s preexisting claim to a sold-out show at the Pepsi Center. Though the people have made it clear that they believe the WWE Universe should be filling the Denver arena on Monday night, the outcome of this situation is still in question.

Even More WWE vs NBA Media Coverage

This morning on ESPN's First Take, during the 1st and 10 segment, Skip Bayless, Doug Stewart and Ryan Stewart debated the hot topic of the WWE vs. the NBA. They played clips of Vince McMahon discussing Stan Kroenke as a bad businessman, and then started discussion. Skip Bayless said that the Nuggets, specifically Stan Kroenke could have changed this back in April before the contract was signed and says the players should be offended by their owner because of his lack of faith in the team. Doug Stewart agreed with this and agrees with Vince that Stan Kroenke is a bad businessman. Ryan Stewart said that it is an accidental double booking and that no one could have seen this coming, and that it was an accident that is getting too much attention. Doug Stewart and Skip Bayless disagree, and point out that multi-million dollar organizations do not make "accidental" booking mistakes, or that they shouldn't. Ryan Stewart tried to defend Stan Kroenke, while Skip Bayless and Doug Stewart said that this never should have happened. Sportscentre on TSN in Canada this morning covered the "WWE vs. NBA" situation. It was a short piece, where the sports journalists didn't mock wrestling, and basically was there to get non-wrestling fans up to speed on the situation.

More Media Coverage on WWE vs NBA

ESPN's Mike and Mike on ESPN 2, and they discussed the WWE vs. the NBA deal this morning on their show. They played sound bites of Vince McMahon's interview on ESPN news from last night, and joked that Vince is taking full advantage of the publicity and that he is a sound bite machine. Mike and Mike both agreed that WWE was in the right in this situation, as they booked the venue in August and were given the go by Stan Kroenke to begin selling tickets in April. The guys then put over the success of the WWE and discussed their favorite wrestlers, mostly guys from the 1980s, played "Real American" and read tons of favorite wrestling names that the fans mailed in. They were both having a really good time. They also played an audio clip, proposing that they play the basketball game and Raw at the same time, which ended with HHH taking out Kobe Bryant, distracting the referee and the Undertaker pinning Kobe. Overall this was a very positive piece for WWE, as both guys supported their position and spoke positively about WWE and wrestling as a whole.

The Associated Press has a story up on the WWE/Denver Nuggets conflict. According to the story, the NBA has left it up to WWE and the Pepsi Center to settle the issue. The article also features Vince McMahon criticizing Denver Nuggets owner Kroenke Sports. Vince also promises to send WWE's trucks to Denver on Monday and assuming RAW will happen at the Pepsi Center, even if the Nuggets keep their game scheduled for the same time. He says he will hold the show in the parking lot if he has to. MGH-TV in Denver interviewed Vince McMahon over the issue with the Denver Nuggets and the Pepsi Center. During the interview, McMahon held up Lakers gear and said that's what he thinks of Denver Nuggets owner Stan Kroenke. McMahon said that Denver is a great city but that WWE is being thrown out. "Even though the Denver Nuggets had a strong team this year and were projected to make the playoffs, 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 said.

Denver Nuggets vs Monday Night Raw

From ESPN.com Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers are scheduled to be at the Pepsi Center in Denver next Monday night. Problem is, so are John Cena and a bunch of wrestlers -- and they called it first. World Wrestling Entertainment said it is booked at the arena for an episode of Monday Night Raw, the same night the Nuggets are slated to host the Lakers in Game 4 of the Western Conference finals. WWE chairman Vince McMahon told The Associated Press he doesn't believe there was "any malice, just ineptness," on the part of Kroenke Sports, which owns the team and the building, but can't tolerate the company "just simply throwing us out on our ear." Without a quick resolution, McMahon plans to send his trucks to Denver. "That's what we intend to do," he said. "We're going to show up." Pepsi Center officials told the ABC television affiliate in Denver that the Nuggets game will be played as scheduled and that they are working with the WWE to reschedule or move its event. Paul Andrews, executive vice president of Kroenke Sports Enterprises, issued a statement Monday night concerning the scheduling conflict, saying: "We are working with the WWE to resolve the situation amicably." WWE spokesman Robert Zimmerman said the organization secured the Pepsi Center last Aug. 15 and has already sold more than 10,000 tickets for the event. He says the organization expects a sellout, with tickets ranging from $20 to $70. McMahon blamed Kroenke for not believing his team was good enough to still be playing in mid-May. "The fans in Denver had a lot more faith in making the playoffs than the owner," he said in a phone interview from Louisville, where Raw was taking place later Monday night. Denver is usually done with basketball by now. The Nuggets had lost in the first round five straight years, but as the No. 2 seed in the West are in the conference finals for the first time since 1985. The league, which handles scheduling during the playoffs, is leaving it up to the team and the WWE to figure things out. "The Nuggets and the WWE understand that the date of Game 4 of the Western Conference finals cannot be changed," NBA senior vice president Mike Bass said. "We are confident that the Pepsi Center and the WWE will resolve their scheduling conflict." 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. The conflict didn't arise until Sunday, when the Lakers beat the Houston Rockets in Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals. Had the Rockets won, Denver would have had home-court advantage in the next round, hosting Games 1 and 2 and putting the May 25 game in Houston. As of Monday afternoon, the schedule on the Pepsi Center's Web site listed WWE for 6:30 p.m. local time and Western Conference finals Game 4 at 7 p.m. Tickets for the wrestling event could still be purchased online. McMahon said he couldn't guess how much he would make from the show, but that canceling wasn't easy because of how much is involved in moving his equipment, plus filling its obligated time slot on USA Network. Litigation is likely -- but he plans to be putting on a card. "When you do have a date, you plan everything around it," he said, adding, "we may be holding an event in a parking lot somewhere."