Tim Donaghy playing the role of a referee, fixing a result so that one side wins over the other. This story has played out before.
Well, it played out once again earlier this week, except everyone was in on it.
Except for the fans.
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Donaghy, the Havertown, Delaware County native, was a 13-year NBA referee who was the subject of an FBI investigation alleging he deliberately called games one way or another to affect the point spread of those games. He resigned from the NBA, and went to prison for 15 months for wire fraud.
Donaghy’s new “role,” at least in this event, was as a referee for Major League Wrestling, officiating a Caribbean Strap Match between Richard Holliday and Savio Vega.
A Caribbean Strap match is one where the two wrestlers are tied together by a leather strap, and the first wrestler to touch all four turnbuckles is the winner. Vega touched three turnbuckles, but Donaghy blocked his path to the fourth, allowing Holliday to win.
NBA
“I think that [fans] are going to find that I’m part of the show, and not knowing what I’ll do to maybe help one guy or another," Donaghy said in an interview about his future in wrestling. “So I think you’ll always have that mindset that I’m going to help somebody out in the legal way or illegal way to give somebody the victory. It’s all part of the bag I’m going to carry with me forever from my NBA days.”