Referee Mike Chioda answered a new batch of questions last week on AdFreeShows.com. Here are a couple of highlights from the podcast:
Chioda was asked, “Who should be the first referee inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame”:
“Easy. Joey Marella. Big matches, Hogan and Andre. If you had that match, that’s almost like having Rock and Hogan for me. I mean, and all the other matches he’s done in his career before it was ended when he passed away, he’s done some incredible matches that I remember. There was Hogan and Andre, Bulldog and Bret. You can go on and on with Joey. He’s done Undertaker matches and everything. You watch the old clippings and see Joey doing his thing. I think Joey should be inducted into the Hall of Fame first.”
Marella, son of the late Gorilla Monsoon, passed away in a car accident in 1994.
Chioda was asked what was the backstage feeling about the finish of the main event of WrestleMania 35. It was the women’s triple threat winner take all where Becky Lynch pinned Ronda Rousey, but it appeared Ronda had a shoulder up. WWE referee’s are told to call matches like a shoot so if Rousey got her shoulder up, he should have stopped the count. Chioda said the following:
“Rod Zapata was the referee for that match and got a lot of heat for it, a lot of heat for that match for counting. He shouldn’t have counted. I think he panicked. He could have said, ‘Hey, get that shoulder down more. Get that shoulder down.’ Sometimes if you start a count and it’s almost not touching, and if you’re telling them as you’re counting, they can make the adjustment and get it tighter. He should have never counted. He got a lot of heat for that. I remember there was so much heat that you almost thought he was going to lose his job at that point. That was something that you just have to work as a referee. If you don’t see something down, you can’t count it the way the camera angles are. Vince was f**king hot. Laurinaitis was hot. Rightfully so. You have to man up to your mistakes. That’s why it’s hard to be a referee. You know that’s the finish, and he was saying something about how he didn’t think Ronda or someone couldn’t make the adjustment. I remember we said to him, ‘Why didn’t you just tell them to get the shoulder down as you’re counting?’ He tried to protect himself and said ‘I don’t think she could have made the adjustment.’ Those were his return words, and I think he got himself a little more heat after that. That goes back to where you have to protect yourself as a referee because it’s going to make you look bad for counting the shoulders that are not down. It makes you look like sh*t, and that’s where you bury yourself if you don’t make the adjustment.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit “Monday Mailbag with Mike Chioda on AdFreeShows.com” with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
