The fight for the Pepsi Center in Denver is over. WWE is going to air Monday Night Raw live from the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California next week. Lance Pugmire of the LA Times reported just a few minutes ago:

 

Kobe Bryant and Carmelo Anthony will be able to resume their tussling in Denver on Monday without a steel cage on the floor for Game 4 of the Lakers-Nuggets series.

That's because World Wrestling Entertainment Chairman Vince McMahon, Denver Nuggets owner Stan Kroenke and AEG struck a settlement of the high-profile scheduling conflict that had the Nuggets, Lakers and WWE stars poised to appear at the same time Monday at Pepsi Center in Denver.

Now the WWE event "Monday Night Raw" is coming to Staples Center on Monday. So are Tuesday night's ECW and "Smackdown" shows.

McMahon is scheduled to announce the settlement this afternoon, several sources connected to the deal told The Times earlier today.

Before the agreement, McMahon had gone on national television to criticize Kroenke and his ownership of the Pepsi Center, telling the Associated Press the conflict was "ineptness" because last August WWE had booked the Denver arena for Memorial Day.

"The fans in Denver had a lot more faith in making the playoffs than the owner," McMahon later said.

The Nuggets, who lost Game 1 to the Lakers on Tuesday as Bryant and Denver's Anthony engaged in a scoring showdown at Staples Center, are making their first Western Conference finals appearance since 1985.

On its website, WWE officials seized on the potential of scheduling issues in Denver, referring to the double-booking as the "Denver debacle" and the "calamity in Colorado's capital."

McMahon said on ESPN that Kroenke "should be arrested for impersonating a good businessman because he's not." The Nuggets said they worked to find a solution amicably.

Madison Square Garden and other arenas also offered to host the Monday show, the WWE reported.

By landing at Staples Center, WWE returns to a venue where it has staged a Wrestlemania event.

Before the settlement, McMahon cracked the best way to broker the deal was to let him and Kroenke go at it in a steel-cage match.

 

Here is the link to Pugmire's story: http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-wwe-lakers21-2009may21,0,1051987.story