5 Incredible WWE matches you may not know Mike Chioda was the referee for
In a week that has not been the best for professional wrestling, in any sense of the term, WWE releasing Mike Chioda is something that has stuck out to many as the unbelievable occurrence of the week.
Chioda has been appearing in wrestling matches in WWE since the company was known as World Wrestling Federation. He is possibly the longest-tenured WWE referee and had been around for upwards of 31 years.
His first appearances for the company were around 1989.
Since then, he has been the principal voice of authority during matches as a referee innumerable times. As a result, some of the most famous matches in WWE history has seen Mike Chioda as a referee.
With that in mind, in this article, we are going to be talking about 5 of the most incredible matches in which he was the referee.
Without any further ado, let's get into it.
#5 WrestleMania XIV — Shawn Michaels vs Steve Austin
WrestleMania XIV is one of those nights that Shawn Michaels would like to forget — not because he dropped the title, but his attitude going into the match. This was an altogether different version of The Heartbreak Kid that we know today.
This was the big crowning moment for 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin where he would truly become the face of WWE. Unfortunately, his opponent was coming into the match with quite a few issues. At that year's Royal Rumble, Shawn Michaels had broken his back in a match against the Undertaker and was in incredible pain during this whole period.
Not only that, this was during the time that Michaels was also fighting his demons with substance abuse. As a result, the other wrestlers were worried, with The Undertaker famously standing in the Gorilla Position silently as a warning to Michaels to drop his belt as had been planned. There were worries that he would take things into his own hand, as it was clear that he was reluctant to let the strap go.
Another man who had a small but important role to place in the match was the referee, Mike Chioda. In what may seem quite an unimportant role, the referee was to take a bump and be knocked out, so that Mike Tyson could come in believably and count the final fall of Shawn Michaels, raising Stone Cold's hand as the Champion.
Chioda did his job and after refereeing a contentious match where Michaels was cheating for all he was worth, he took a bump where he was squashed in between the turnbuckles by the combined bodyweight of Stone Cold and Michaels, not once, but three times.
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