Slammin' Night

Do you know what the difference is between Vince McMahon, the head honcho of World Wrestling Entertainment, and David Stern? McMahon knows his sport is rigged. Stern, the NBA's mafia-like commish, keeps pretending his isn't. But this isn't really about the NBA and its crooked refs, its suspect match-ups and its abject hatred for Mark Cuban; this is about the preverse joy of watching a juiced-up meathead slam a metal folding chair into the skull of a grown man who calls himself something silly like the Undertaker, or the People's Champ, or the Big Show. That's entertainment, and thanks to the genius of McMahon, who once put his own daugther in the ring, we don't have to worry about whether or not it's real. It's Othello for the End Times, and it delivers night in and night out, from Cleveland to Spokane. Lucky for us, one of the biggest WWE shows of the year—Night of Champions—is coming to American Airlines Center on Sunday at 6:45 p.m. Tickets, available at ticketmaster.com, range from $25 to $250. Compared to an NBA Playoffs game, that's a bargain. And once these athletes step into the ring, there's no wondering who the good guys and the bad guys are.
Sun., June 29, 6:45 p.m., 2008