Former WWE and AEW referee Mike Chioda recently spoke with PWMania and was asked if he sees himself on the Mount Rushmore of pro wrestling referees. He said:
“I hope I could be that fourth one on there. You know, to me, it’s like, you know, I mean, I’m so glad Tim White, WWE, and Vince and Hunter, they put Tim White in the HOF, cause he’s done everything for the company to take care of Andre to doing this to referee and working as an agent. God bless him, I love Timmy White. He was definitely a legend, an icon to me, and a good friend, really good friend, dear friend. Joey (Marella), I would love for them to put in Joey Marella. He’s on my Mount Rushmore because I believe, you know, with the Hogan and Andre match that he had done and so many other matches that he has done in his career before he passed. It was Joey in the beginning. Earl should be up in there too. I hope I get a fourth spot in there, but there’s so many other good referees to in there and everything. You can’t take anything away from Charles Robinson. You can take Tommy Young back then and all that other stuff. Nick Patrick as well. It’s just a lot of refs, you know. I just wish they can make that Mount Rushmore out of six people. Plus, these guys started way before I did. He may not have had the longest career that I had with the company with WWF/ WWE. But I mean, these guys go way back to the 70s into the 80s. I started in ’87, I didn’t make my TV debut until ’89. I always tried to give it my best out there. I was either pinpointed by the wrestlers, the agents, or Vince and they had these productions meetings. If Earl had this match, I’d have another important match. It was great. Traveled around the world and all over the country. Had a great career. As a referee, who’d think you’d have that career and travel around the world. No sport would give you that, not football, not baseball. It’s been a phenomenal career.”
Chioda also stated that he has a “few good more years” ahead of him. He worked the “Ric Flair’s Last Match” event in 2022, but noted that weekend that he was wrapping up his pro wrestling career, which began in 1989.
Before his WWE release on April 15, 2020, Chioda was the longest-tenured referee in company history, having worked at WWE for more than three decades.
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