2025 marks a 30-year anniversary for Charles Robinson.
The WWE referee made his debut in 1995 and he's been an official for the company since 2001. Charles has been a part of some of the biggest moments in professional wrestling.
He worked the classic match between Shawn Michaels and Ric Flair. And the controversial match between The Undertaker and Brock Lesnar in 2015. But perhaps the most memorable moment was coming out for Undertaker’s match against Edge where Robinson had to run fast like a track star.
The senior referee sat down and spoke to Chris Van Vliet about that unforgettable moment at WrestleMania 24 and what he was thinking during that entire run.
“When I did the run to the ring for WrestleMania, that was epic. I mean, there’s so many memes. It’s fantastic. But I run down, then Undertaker goes to chokeslam me, and he’s slippery, and I didn’t post right. He got me up off the ground about six inches. Made him look so weak, and I felt so bad for him.”
Robinson goes on to describe the worst bump that he’s ever taken and Randy Savage has that honor.
“Randy Savage elbow. But it wasn’t a ref bump. I was a worker then, but that was the worst bump I’ve taken, the elbow from Randy Savage. He put me in the hospital for 12 days. It was Ric [Flair] and I against Medusa and Savage, and he came off the top with the elbow, and Ric Flair wasn’t going to take the elbow from Savage, so they let Little Naitch.
Cracked my sternum, collapsed my lung. So two hours later, I went to my room and I said, Oh, man, I just can’t breathe. Went to my room, two hours later, still can’t breathe. I called Jimmy Hart, lifesaver. He called the EMTs. They came to my room, said, ‘Hey, we need to put you in the hospital.’ So that hospital, I won’t say what city, they released me the next day to fly home to Charlotte, which with a collapsed lung you’re not supposed to do that. So I went straight to the hospital for 12 days. But Randy Savage called me every day just to check on me.”
Robinson even talked about John Cena knocking him out of his boots earlier this year.
“With Cena, when I did it recently, I didn’t run as fast for a reason, he didn’t want me to run past him. So he goes, ‘Just take it easy coming down the ramp.’ I saw the camera guy, so I looked. I wasn’t looking at him; I was looking at the camera guy. And then I kept going straight, and then, boom, knocked me out of my shoes.”
Check out the full interview where he talks about more moments in his legendary career such as being Lil’ Natch, a spear from Goldberg, and much more!