In an exclusive for WrestlingNews.co, Steve Fall interviewed former WWE referee Jimmy Korderas. During the interview, Korderas shared some behind-the-scenes stories from his 20+ years with WWE.
Jimmy Korderas on Jack Tunny and Pat Patterson helping him get into the wrestling business:
“Growing up here in Toronto, we got a lot of wrestling on TV. We got so many different territories. We got Mid Atlantic. We had AWA. We had the old WWF, all the syndicated shows. Maple Leaf Wrestling. Of course, the Tunneys are famous here in Toronto and in stuff like that, so I was a huge fan growing up.”
“When I was old enough to be able to go down and drive down by myself, I would go down and I’d go and take pictures. I’d get ringside seats and I’d be close enough to get some good shots. I came back to the next show and sold those pictures to fans outside to fuel my wrestling habit and it kind of helped pay for it.”
“One day I got caught by a guy that worked for Jack Tunney. He took all the pictures for the promotion and for their magazine/program for the shows. He goes, ‘Hey, can I see your pictures?’ I said, ‘Sure. Here you go.’ He says, ‘Oh, how much are they?’ I said, ‘They’re two bucks a pop unless you want three for five’, or something like that.’ He says, ‘Oh, that’s cool, but you can’t do that. It’s illegal.’ I said, ‘Who are you?’ He told me who he was and I was like, oh. He said, ‘You know what? You seem like an okay guy. Maybe you can help me out. Maybe I can get you to help me take pictures and stuff like that.’ ‘I said, Oh, cool.’”
“He went and talked to Jack and he said, ‘Jack says we don’t need another photographer, but he wants to meet you.’ I met Jack and stuff like that. He says, ‘Look, we’ll find something for you to do starting off as the gofer so to speak. ‘Hey, I need one of these. Go get these. Here are the keys to my car. Go pick up so and so at the airport’, that kind of stuff. It started to progress into getting to know, and then eventually I was allowed backstage to hang.”
“I became friends with Pat Patterson and Pat is a big joker and likes to have fun kind of guy. They would run Maple Leaf Gardens every three weeks here in Toronto. On Mondays in Brantford, Ontario, which is about a little over an hour away from Toronto, they would do their Wrestling Challenge tapings. Every three weeks it was Superstars of wrestling in Poughkeepsie, New York and then Wrestling challenge in Brantford, Ontario after doing Maple Leaf Gardens. I got to know Pat because I would drive talent back and forth from Toronto to Brantford and stuff like that.”
“Pat says to Jack one day, he says, ‘Hey, you know, we got the kid here. He does all this stuff for us. During the show, he waits around until the show ends so he could start taking the talent back to the hotel and stuff like that. Why don’t we make him a referee so we can use him during the show.’ Jack says to Pat, ‘Do we want to smarten the kid up?’ Pat goes. ‘He’s been in the locker room with the boys for the last year and a half now. He kind of knows what’s going on.’ So then Pat says, ‘Go get yourself black sneakers, black pants, a blue shirt, and a black bow tie, and carry it with you at all times.’ I was like, ‘Okay, cool’, but I didn’t know enough to ask questions.”
“One day at a spot show here in Newmarket, Ontario, Chief Jay Strongbow, who was a real good dude, he was a road agent, said, ‘Jimmy Jam, you got your referee gear with you?’ I said, ‘Yes I do Chief.’ He said, ‘Put it on. You’re reffing tonight.'”
On Vince McMahon showing him how to dance:
“There was an unwritten rule. There was no fraternizing with The Federettes. They were off limits, blah, blah, blah. So we were at a TV taping, I want to say it was somewhere in California or something like that. After the show was over, we went back to the TV hotel. There was a nice little bar there where they had music and dancing. I wasn’t fraternizing. I was into dance music back in the day. I liked to dance. I was out there dancing with a couple of the girls. It was just me and a couple of the girls out there on the dance floor and Vince walked into the bar. He looks and he does that Vince walk-over and I went, ‘Oh, Oh, I’ve had it now.’ He says, ‘What are you doing, pal?’ I said, ‘I’m just dancing Vince.’ He said, ‘Dancing. You call that dancing. That ain’t dancing. This is dancing’, and I’m like, okay, maybe I’m not in trouble.”
The full video interview below includes Korderas talking about bonding with Eddie Guerrero, being in the ring when Owen Hart fell at Over The Edge 1999, referee names not being mentioned on WWE TV, Jake Roberts and The Boogeyman being difficult to work with, the Montreal Screwjob, and a lot more.
This interview is exclusive to WrestlingNews.co. If you use these quotes, please include a link back to this page.
