Referee Mike Chioda is a notable name in this business.
For 35 years, Mike Chioda has been apart of some of the biggest matches in professional wrestling. From classics such as Shawn Michaels vs. British Bulldog to duds such as Goldberg vs. The Undertaker, he’s been the go to veteran that WWE has relied on.
But after being with WWE for 31 years, the company released him from his contract in 2020. Mike did some more jobs here and there, most notably several matches in AEW and Ric Flair’s last match, but these days, Chioda isn’t doing three counts in the ring that much.
During a recent interview with Chris Van Vliet, Mike Chioda pretty much confirmed that he was retired at this point (Transcript courtesy of Fightful).
“Pretty much, yeah. I mean, if there’s a match or two, or something like that, I’ll do here and there. Ric Flair’s Last Match I did, I had done a match in the Jersey Shore for Fight Factory and for New Jersey. So it was nice to get down there, and those guys are great at Fight Factory. So it’s really pick and choose, but I’m doing seminars, training refs in Orlando, doing a bunch of and signings and stuff. And the podcast, yeah, Monday Mailbag with Mike Chioda, with Conrad Thompson, on ad-free shows. They’ve been great to me for four and a half years, five years almost.”
And once he shared that news, him and Chris got into some wrestling stories and Chioda recalled the worst bump he’s ever taken.
“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.”
Check out the full interview where Chioda talks about the importance of referees, funny stories about some of the matches he’s done, and so much more!