During a recent appearance on Chris Jericho’s “Talk is Jericho” podcast, WWE referee Charles Robinson discussed his run as “Lil’ Naitch”, Vince McMahon being in his earpiece and more. Here are some highlights from the interview:
On his favorite matches he’s refereed: “Well, WrestleMania 19 was pretty good. It was Shawn Michaels against some Canadian [Jericho]. Yeah, I had my haircut real short. I’ll never do that again. That was the worst haircut ever. [Michaels’] hair was pretty bad too. [Jericho] had the best hair. But that was a great match. But that, [and] WrestleMania 24, Flair and Shawn Michaels when Flair retired. [It was] certainly the biggest honor, but who else could they’ve used though? Right? It was very nice of them to let me do it. I think we were crying about a minute into the match. But the last one, the last match that was big was Shawn Michaels against The Undertaker [at] WrestleMania 26, I believe. That’s where Shawn retired. So it’s Flair and Shawn, Undertaker and Shawn, and [Jericho] and Shawn. Huh, it’s Shawn. What a coincidence, so it means a lot that Shawn was in all three matches.”
On his favorite guys to work with: “I don’t have problems with really anybody, but some of the easier guys, I always loved working with Daniel Bryan. He was easy to work with. I don’t know. He’s just so laid back, so you don’t worry about it if you do mess up that you’re going to get chewed out or get in trouble. Dolph Ziggler, I love working with him. The energy that he has in the ring is just phenomenal. Of course, I like working with [Jericho]. Gosh, Seth Rollins, I can’t wait for him to get back and work with him.”
On if he ever gets instructions from Vince McMahon through his earpiece: “Thank God, no. People used to think that’s my hearing aid, but it’s not, guys!. There are times that I still get a little scared, like when I go out there for WrestleMania. That’s very nerve-racking. You have 70 [or] 80,000 people [and] this year, you have more than 100,000 people watching what you do, so that’s something hard to overcome, but that’s part of being a pro.”
On getting injured during his “Lil’ Naitch” run: “In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, I believe it was, Flair and I teamed up [and] took on Savage and Medusa. We had a tag match and it finished with the elbow drop onto me, Savage elbow drop, which I didn’t know how to position myself, whether to hold my chest or breathe. I just laid there and took it. And he landed in on me and put me in the hospital for two weeks. Yeah, collapsed lung.”
