Posted on 8/28/125 by Colin Vassallo
Former WWE referee Mike Chioda sat down with Chris Van Vliet
in Tampa, Florida to discuss being the official for some of
the biggest matches in WWE history, Shane McMahon’s scary
bumps in his match with Kurt Angle, the Brock Lesnar
shooting star press, saving Triple H and Steve Austin from a
fan attack, the worst ref bump he took, advice for aspiring
referees, and more!
On referees being named again in WWE:
“I like that. I’ve been seeing that lately on TV and stuff.
So that’s awesome. I think the referee should be recognized.
I mean, come on, everybody has a name, and there’s nothing
wrong with that. If you don’t want to say all the referees’
name, at least say the major players, Charles Robinson, Chad
Patton, Shawn Bennett and certain guys, or whatever. They’ve
been around for quite a minute. I don’t know. I mean, I
think all referees, you know, women and men, should be
mentioned or recognized.”
On the worst bump he took:
“I’d have to say in Tampa, Florida. It was Triple H and
Ahmed Johnson. Ahmed had to throw me over the top rope, and
he was blown up, man. He was in the center of the ring. When
he lifted me up, I looked how far I was, and he started
going towards the rope. He couldn’t really get me over the
top, and I remember hitting the top rope, boom, boom,
hitting the end of the apron, the hardest part, and hitting
the floor. I couldn’t feel anything from the neck down. It
was a stinger. I remember Triple H in my face. He was like,
‘Oh, my God, we’re going to get the paramedics here right
away. Hang tight Chioda, Hang tight. We’re getting some
help.’ And it was I want to say, about an hour or so later,
30 minutes later, it started coming back, and everything,
some kind of stinger I took, so kind of just numbed me out
for a little while. Big time stressed, because the nerves
take a little while to come back.”WWE Live event tickets
On refereeing Mick Foley vs. Randy Orton at Backlash:
“So that match, hardcore match all the way. Randy’s kind of
been in the business for a while, so he’s got this big match
with Mick Foley. I don’t think Randy, at that time, has
never done those type of matches, like those straight out
hardcore matches. So we’re just full-blown. I remember all
the thumbtacks and Randy’s back. It was like, 50 or 75 maybe
100 thumbtacks in his back.”
On Chioda getting tacks in his hand:
“I had one or two thumbtacks and it stung like a son of a,
because I count really hard, right? I remember, boom. I was
like, oh sh*t. I’m thinking Orton has got like 75 of these
things in his back, I can’t be complaining here.”
On receiving a bonus for taking a ref bump.
“[The biggest was] $2500. Yeah, it was a chair shot that
Stone Cold gave me [at WrestleMania 15]. Because I started
the match for the first 5-10 minutes, and I take the chair
shot and I get knocked out. Yeah, my head rang for like
three days, ears were ringing, it was pretty cool. He [Jim
Ross] goes, ‘You’re getting a bonus for that Mike.’ I was
like, ‘Oh my god, thanks, JR.’ Got that bonus on top of the
WrestleMania pay.”