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| Volume 11, No. 19 |
February 3-9, 2010 |
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| | THE WWE INVADES LAS CRUCES | | By Steve Escajeda | |  The Pan American Center will be knee-deep in body slams, headlocks and pile-drivers this Friday when the World Wrestling Entertainment RAW SummerSlam series makes its first stop in Las Cruces in more than six years.
The star-studded evening of professional wrestling gets underway at 7:30 p.m.
The featured event on the card will be a battle for the WWE title – times three.
Three of the biggest names in the WWE will meet in a “triple-threat match” for the WWE Championship. John Cena, Triple H and Umaga will all be in the ring at the same time with the title going to the first wrestler to record a pin or submission.
But regardless of who takes this “every man for himself” championship match, the real winner of the evening is Las Cruces.
“Bringing the WWE to Las Cruces is quite a coup for the city,” said Bobbie Welch, Pan American Center booking & marketing director. “I hadn’t realized that we haven’t had the WWE here since April 7, 2002. Bringing in a large arena show like this one is always great for the city.”
There’s always a risk when the WWE decides to bring its “big -time” show to a small market, but the decision to come back to Las Cruces seems to be paying off handsomely.
“Back in 2002 we had almost 7,000 fans at the event,” said Welch. “But this year’s event is selling stupendously. We’ve already sold more than 8,000 tickets and we’re estimating that we’ll eventually sell around 9,000.”
The WWE event will bring Las Cruces fans some of the biggest names in professional wrestling. And the Cena-Triple H-Umaga trifecta will not be the only title up for grabs.
In a battle for the World Tag Team Championship, the team of Hardcore Holly and Cody Rhodes will take on Brian Kendrick and Paul London.
Also on the card is the very popular Shawn Michaels, who will take on Snitsky, while Jeff Hardy is scheduled to meet Paul Burchill.
Many other RAW stars are scheduled to make an appearance at the event, which almost never go to Las Cruces.
“It’s an impressive card they’re bringing here, but the truth is it’s a little difficult to book an event like this in Las Cruces,” Welch said. “This event was originally thought to be going to El Paso, but we pursued it heavily and got it.
“And the formula is a very simple one, as long as we sell tickets, they’ll return.”
By the look of things, the chances that the WWE won’t wait another six years to return to Las Cruces are very high.
“This event will not be televised, but the WWE executives are so pleased that they are already talking to us about the possibility of doing a future broadcasted event from the Pan Am Center,” Welch said.
The doors of the Pan American Center will open at 6:30 p.m. and the event is anticipated to go on until about 10 p.m.
“We are a smaller city and large events like these are very important to the economy and the perception we receive from other event coordinators,” Welch said. “We know we have to try harder to lure in events like these. But as long as we keep doing so, and prove that we can sell them, it will help us draw other major events in the future.”
Tickets for the event are priced at $60, $40, $30, $25 and $20. The card and scheduled wrestlers are subject to change.
Tickets are available at the Pan American Civic Center Box Office, online at ticketmaster.com, by phone at 575-532-2030 (New Mexico) or 915-544-8444 (Texas) and at all Ticketmaster outlets.
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