Mike Chioda Explains How Referee Contracts Work In Wrestling

In an interview with Wrestling Inc, Mike Chioda spoke about how he feels referees are treated in wrestling and how a contract for a referee works compared to talent. Here are highlights:

On how referees are treated today vs. when he started: “Well, when we started out in the company, it was great that I got Chief Jay Strongbow [to make] me a referee, and I always looked to Joey Marella, which was one of my great friends when he was living back in the day. We grew up together, Gorilla Monsoon’s son. So in getting into the referee business, Gorilla Monsoon said to me, ‘Look, I’m going to tell you what I tell my son, the longevity in this business is refereeing.’ I wanted to be a wrestler. I want to snap bumps and snap suplexes, and I was working out with the boys in the ring in the afternoons when I’m setting up the ring. You’d be at the arena all day, and Gorilla kept pulling me aside. He goes, ‘What are you doing taking bumps like that?’ I go, ‘I like to learn.’ He goes, ‘Well, you’re going to be a referee. You can bump certain ways, but you want to be one of the boys, or you want to be a referee.’ I said, ‘I want to be a referee.’ He goes, ‘Referees have longevity in this business,’ which I’ve had a great career for 30 plus years refereeing. They’ve gone through a lot where they don’t take care of the referees a lot anymore in the business over the years. They need to protect the referees as much as possible, I think, as far as the rules and stop changing the rules because they change the rules on and off when it’s convenient for them.”

Mike Chioda on if referees have less power today: “True, that’s correct. There are talent that worry about where the referee is placed and how he’s working around the referee so they don’t bury the referee, but sometimes, even from the top, from the company’s, if you have a no disqualification match, why does the guy able to get to the rope and break the count or a hardcore match or a no holds barred [match]. There’s always questions, and they’ll do things in a steel cage match where a guy will be in a hold. He gets to the ropes, and you break the count. There is no rule book for refereeing in the professional wrestling business. I was actually trying to write one a while back, and it got scratched because two of the guys that were working with me in the office had gotten released. We were six months into this situation and that just went right down the tubes. This was when Johnny Laurinaitis was actually still head of talent relations.”

Mike Chioda on referee contracts: “They’re not employees. They’re independent sub-contractors. They’ll get their stuff. The ring crew referees, like I was for 20 years plus, I was a ring crew and referee, I got everything paid for, whether it was per diem, hotels, transportation, gas [and] everything. There are a lot of referees still with WWE that have to pay for their own hotels, cars, food, expenses on the road, health insurance and everything. AEW takes care of health insurance as well too, takes care of a lot.”