WWE referee Charles Robinson recently spoke with WWE.com about being the referee in the WWE Championship match at Royal Rumble, what it meant to him and its place in wrestling history. You can read a few highlights below:
Charles Robinson comments on being the referee for John Cena’s 16th title win:
It was probably one of the top honors I’ve ever had. John Cena is up there with the greatest of all time, in my opinion. I don’t care what any of the fans say, or how they boo, or whatever — to me, now, he’s the man. I texted John after the show and said, “You are the man.” And, you know, he’s great. He’s great with the fans. He’s great with everybody that he works with. He’s a true professional. Everything that he does is for the business. It was just an honor to be in the ring with him and hand him the title.
Robinson’s thoughts on finding out which match he’d officiate, if he knew the significance:
It was actually very spontaneous. I hadn’t really thought about it up until then. I was told earlier that I was doing the match, but things change in this business [laughs]. So, I didn’t wanna get my hopes up, so everything was very, very spontaneous.
Robinson reveals he injured himself early in the bout:
I got hurt! I tore my plantar fasciitis like seven minutes into the match. So I’m limping around, trying to do the match — which was incredible — but what I was gonna do? Throw up the big “X” for myself?!
Robinson comments on what a historic moment Cena’s win is for wrestling:
It’s just very exciting. This is historic and it’s just nice to be part of making history in this business that I’ve watched since I was 6 years old. I’ve been in [sports-entertainment] for 20 years and this is definitely one of the top moments, besides retiring Ric Flair, which was pretty awesome. And I retired Shawn Michaels — that was pretty cool. This is definitely in my top three, if not the top two [matches] that I’ve officiated.
