In an exclusive for WrestlingNews.co, Steve Fall interviewed former WWE referee Mike Chioda. Chioda spoke about his 3 decades working for the company. Scroll down to watch the entire interview.
Mike Chioda on getting hired by WWE because of Gorilla Monsoon:
“When I was like 15 or 16, I used to work for Gorilla Monsoon who owned a ring from Vince Sr. Gorilla owned a territory, New Jersey, South Jersey area, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area and so forth, and up into Salisbury, Maryland. Everybody had a territory at the time, whether it was Bruno Sammartino, the South had their territories, so when Vince took over, he kind of took over everything at that point, but at the time when I first started, it was the summertime when I was 15 and 16 setting up the rings and making 50 bucks for the robes, 50 bucks for the ring, 50 bucks for timekeeping, 50 bucks for playing music. Like $200 a night was like, for a 15 year old, I mean, they got me started. Then here comes the programs at that point, and I’m like, ‘Well, fu**. Victor’s like, ‘You got to sell programs’, because Tony Chimel wouldn’t sell them. Joey was refereeing at the time, he and Dick Woerhley in the area, and Dick Kroll. I was like, oh, ‘Man, what am I gonna make off of programs?’ They were $1. He was like, ‘Oh, you’re gonna make 10 cents off the dollar.’ I’m like, ‘Man, that ain’t nothing.’ I would go out and sell 3000 programs at the Spectrum or off the boardwalk in Wildwood, New Jersey with Andre the Giant on a cover or Big John Studd or Tony Garea and Rick Martel and then I’d make 300 bucks on selling programs plus the $200 I was making for the crew stuff setting up the ring. I would do the programs before the show, and at intermission, and then do the blowout for a little bit at the end and then come back and tear down. So you know, it got me hooked.”
On smoking in front of Vince McMahon and bonding with him:
“There was one time when I was pushing cases during TV, working the crew and everything and I was smoking a cigarette. You could smoke in the arenas back in those days. He comes through the curtain and I just puffed a big cloud of smoke in his face and he hates smoke. I looked at him and I froze like a son of a bitch. He looked at me with his eyes wide open. I just threw the cigarette down, started jumping on it like, goddamn cigarettes. I had to do something to pop him and he kind of smirked and then he gave me this long lecture for like, 30 minutes. We bonded over little things like that. Vince is great. He was a great boss and he respected me as far as my refereeing.”
This interview is exclusive to WrestlingNews.co. If you use these quotes, please include a link back to this page.
