Mike Chioda is a veteran referee of 35 years, so he knows what to look for in the ring as an official.
In a recent appearance on the Such Good Shoots podcast, Chioda critiqued All Elite Wrestling’s referees and explained why it’s hard for him to watch them call certain things in the ring, but ignore some other key acts.
“AEW’s roles with the refs, it’s hard for me to watch it. AEW I think is starting to boom, man, and they’re starting to build a roster, but the referees are just not doing sh-t. I watch it, I watch the show, and it’s just hard to watch as a referee when they’re sitting there and they’re just acknowledging the tag,” Chioda explained, “and you’re not acknowledging the five-count out of a corner, the five-count off the ropes, they’re not even acknowledging the ten counts, pretty much, really.
“It’s basically ‘count a false finish’ or ‘count the finish and just make the acknowledgment to a tag.’ It’s hard to watch that show with the referees, you know. Aubrey [Edwards] does a great job, she does a great job. She sells every little motion, you know what I’m saying? If you watch her, she sells every little spot, every little [thing]. To me now, when I’m watching a match,” Choida pointed out, “I’m watching Aubrey because she’s so much all over the place and I’m like, ‘God, this girl’s got so much talent,’ she could… just if she didn’t sell every little bit, you know?”
Choida went on to say he wishes he could train AEW’s officials and help them out, but he’s not currently working for them. Chioda made a few appearances for the company last year and said Cody Rhodes wanted him to work more events, but “someone ex-nayed it after like two shows.”
Mike Chioda recently spoke with Dominic DeAngelo of WrestleZone about his show on AdFreeShows.com to talk about the art of officiating and more, stating that blending into the canvas is how he was taught when brought into WWF back in 1985 by the legendary Gorilla Monsoon.
“When you don’t notice the referee, the referee’s doing his job and Gorilla Monsoon used to say the same thing,” Chioda said, citing the old school ways of Chief Jay Strongbow, Jack Lanza and Rene Goulet. “Cause if you did things in the ring, even at a live event, I’d come back and Chief Jay would go, ‘Are you campaigning for yourself now?’ ‘No, sir.’ ‘Well don’t do any of that shit!’
Whether you did see him or not, Chioda has certainly officiated some all-time classics.
“There’s a ton of them: There’s Shawn Michaels and Stone Cold at WrestleMania with Mike Tyson as the enforcer on the outside. There’s Rock and Hogan,” which Chioda says is probably his all-time favorite bout to be a part of even if it wasn’t considered a five-star display of technical prowess.
Check out our full interview with Mike Chioda at this link.
