McMahon to Kroneke: Enos Envy

The strange battle royale between Vince McMahon and his World Wrestling Entertainment empire; and E. Stan Kroneke, owner of the Denver Nuggets and their home Pepsi Center arena, got personal -- and physical -- on worldwide TV Monday.

Catch-up: McMahon booked Pepsi Center months ago for Memorial Day's live "Raw" telecast. Kroneke and his staff, apparently not understanding that the NBA Playoffs are played in May and June and that his Nuggets could legitimately be involved, signed the deal and promoted the USA Network wrestling broadcast for Monday, May 25. When the Nuggets made the Western Conference Finals, Game 4 was scheduled for Monday night in Denver. According to McMahon, neither Kroneke nor his staff contacted McMahon or his staff to work out a solution to a rare "double-booking" at Pepsi Center.

McMahon went public last week, pretty well burying Kroneke in every open media outlet the boisterous WWE Chairman could get on. By late week, McMahon announced that Raw would be moved from Denver to Staples Center in Los Angeles...home of Kroneke's Nuggets opponents in the Western finals.

Monday night, it went into the ring. On USA Network, a WWE performer dressed as Kroneke (complete with the worst wig ever seen on a man), hit the squared circle and, to a loud chorus of pro-WWE boos, slagged McMahon, wrestling, wrestling fans, the Lakers, and anyone else he could think of. All while "look-a-likes" of Jack Nicholson and NBA honcho David Stern watched from ringside.

And then, something amazing happened: "Mr. McMahon," Vince's evil in-ring alter ego, was welcomed to the ring with a standing ovation from the assembled at Staples. He revealed that he'd start a rival league that would fail miserably because McMahon would hire Kroneke and his staff to run it; proclaimed Kroneke's first name as "Enos" (with almost all the rhyming jokes you can do in a PG-rated show); and did what they do in WWE: knocked the competition on its ass.

Later in the evening, five WWE performers in Lakers gear and colors teamed up against five others in Nuggets gear for a ten-man tag match to close the show. The Lakers (John Cena, Dave Batista, Jerry "The King" Lawler, returning Ken "Mr." Kennedy, and MVP) -- the Good Guys -- won.

So did McMahon. This round. Stay tuned...my guess is that McMahon will litigate this issue with great fervor...notwithstanding his dislike of lawyers.