ROH Referee Todd Sinclair on How He Separated His Shoulder During a Seth Rollins vs. Roderick Strong Match

– ROH Wrestling recently conducted 10 Questions With… wrestling referee Todd Sinclair. During the interview, Sinclair discussed suffering a shoulder injury when he refereed a match between Tyler Black (aka WWE Superstar Seth Rollins) and Roderick Strong at Glory by Honor IX. Below are some highlights.

On his worst injury happing in Tyler Black (Seth Rollins) vs. Roderick Strong: “I’ve been very lucky when it comes to injuries over the past 18-plus years of refereeing. No broken bones, no surgeries. That said, some part of my body hurts all the time, depending on the day, but nothing too bad. I would say the worst injury I’ve had was a separated shoulder. Tyler Black (aka Seth Rollins) versus Roderick Strong at Glory by Honor IX — I mistakenly got in the way of a Roddy “Sick Kick,” and he nearly kicked my face off. That hurt a ton for about one second, until I crashed down on the canvas onto my armpit. My shoulder popped right out of its socket as I landed. Instant extreme pain. My shoulder still bothers me to this day because of that.”

His favorite matches he got to ref: “I could list a hundred different matches here. I’ve been with ROH since the end of 2003, and I’ve been so lucky to be in the ring for some absolute classic bouts. Some of my favorites are CM Punk versus Samoa Joe, Joe versus Kenta Kobashi, Bryan Danielson versus KENTA, The Briscoes versus Kevin Steen and El Generico, Jay Lethal versus Roderick Strong, Marty Scurll versus Will Ospreay, and Matt Taven versus Mark Haskins. But my favorite match that I’ve refereed is Matt Taven versus Jay Lethal from the 17th Anniversary in Las Vegas. It was a wonderful hour that I wish kept going and going.”

His most embarrassing in-ring moment: “Back during the initial run of the ROH Pure Title, before every match I would bring the two wrestlers to the middle of the ring and would explain the rules on the mic. Now, the biggest fear I have in life is public speaking, so the last thing I want to do is to have to speak over the microphone in front of a crowd of people. When I’m in that situation, my brain shuts down. I can’t ad lib, I stumble over my words, I’m sweating like crazy, etc. So the only way I could get the rules out over the mic was to memorize word for word what I had to say. If I didn’t say the rules in the exact order that I had them memorized, I would be lost.”

So one particular match was Nigel McGuinness versus Austin Aries on Long Island at Unscripted 2. At the time, Nigel was bending the Pure rules to protect his championship, and was carrying an iron to the ring for every match. I brought both guys to the middle of the ring, and Bobby Cruise held the mic so I could explain the rules. I started reciting them exactly as I had memorized them. As I said the line, “There are to be no closed first strikes to the face,” Aries stopped me and asked, “What about irons? Are those legal?” To that question, I answered, “No,” and then my mind went completely blank. I had absolutely no idea what I was supposed to say next. I stopped talking for maybe three seconds, but it felt like an hour. I was completely panicked and I didn’t know how I was going to continue. But then, the hero of the day said, “Closed fists” over my shoulder. It was Bobby Cruise, and him saying those words helped me to remember my spot in the rules, and I continued on from there. Bobby saved me. I’m begging the powers that be that when the ROH Pure Title is brought back, we remove the “rules said over the mic” aspect. It’s my hell.”