We bring you an interview with Mike Chioda, the longest serving referee in WWE (& briefly for AEW), courtesy of Chris Deez and It’s My Wrestling Podcast. He shares memories of his favorite matches, time spent with Bobby Heenan & Gorilla Monsoon, thoughts on his WWE release, and his time working in AEW.
Mike Chioda talks being released after nearly 35 years:
“It was a shock you know, it was just a phone call, in middle April last year and it was just like, that’s it, it was just like wow. I moved to Tampa from Houston, and from New Jersey, and I was in Houston for about 13-14 years, and I moved to Tampa to get closer to the PC centre. It was before the COVID, WrestleMania is going to be in Tampa. The PC is down there. I was actually out in 2019 of August, had surgery in October 2019 on my rotator cuff and bicep surgery at the same time, had it done by the best doctor. I get a phone call April thinking it’s gonna be a pay cut more or less, but it was just like a see ya later and you know it’s unfortunate in the business of wrestling, and WWE it seems like when you’re there for 30 years plus you have no more longevity after that, there’s really not much going.
Not even the areas like training referees, down to PC and so forth, you got guys like X-Pac, Regal, and a lot of guys training wrestlers and stuff like that, I thought I’d be a part of maybe doing something down with the WWE. Tony Chimel, he was my long time ring crew partner for 27 years and we ran the trucks, drove all over the United States and Canada, we travelled all over the world and set shows up, and he got cut and released as well. So it’s kind of a shocker it’s like wow, what is it about the 30 year mark, is it a bad omen? So if they call me back to do something, call me back. If not it’s all good, it’s been a great run.”
Shane McMahon calling him after his release:
Criticism of AEW referees:
Working with Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan:
Mike Chioda’s instructions in the Kurt Angle v Shane McMahon match at KOTR:
Working with The Rock and Chris Jericho, tag match, hitting The People’s Elbow:
“I just walked in the building that day I remember we were doing ring crew, and I was doing stuff and the writers came up to me and said, hey you have a match tonight. I’m thinking I’m going to referee. They’re like, you’re going to be wrestling with Chris Jericho and The Rock, and it’ll be a six man tag with the Dudley’s and Nick Patrick. I’m like, what? I’m like, I don’t have any wrestling gear and they’re like, oh no, you’re gonna do it in your referee outfit. Oh shit, this ought to be interesting! But it was great to be a part of that man, I mean, I was wrestling there with two icons in the business.Tim White had the match and it was fun.
If you look at Chris Jericho, from 2001 to his main event in the skydome with Triple H, to where he’s at now and AEW, you see where The Rock was back then. All the way to here now, and I mean, I got to do that tag match. I don’t think any other referee has ever done that in the business. Y2J Chris Jericho and The Rock Dwayne Johnson… so it was just awesome to be a part of that match. I didn’t wanna screw the People’s elbow up, I knew I wasn’t gonna make it look great, which I didn’t, but I had to try and do my best and I didn’t wanna screw it and look stupid you know.”
Check out this video with Mike Chioda for more.
