Mike Chioda Criticises AEW's Standard Of Refereeing

AEW are doing may things right in the eyes of the fans, but the standard of refereeing has come up for criticism on many occasions.

Especially with regards to tag team matches, there has been somewhat of a lax approach to traditional rules, and veteran referee Mike Chioda isn’t the biggest fan of AEW's approach.

Speaking to the Such Good Shoot podcast, Chioda said this about AEW:

“AEW’s rules with the refs - I can’t, it's hard for me to watch it” started Chioda “AEW I think is starting to boom, and they're starting to build a roster where with AEW you got the referees are just not doing s***. I want to go back to referees because, you know, I watch it. I watch the show. And it's just hard to watch as a referee when they're just acknowledging the tag in, but not acknowledging the five count out of the corner, or the five count off the ropes, and not even acknowledging the ten counts pretty much. It's basically count a false finish or count the finish.” 

Chioda was WWE’s chief referee for many years, and said while WWE had set rules, he didn’t like the way they handled referee’s identities:

“[In WWE] we made it where you know, you had rules,” said Chioda “The only thing I didn't like is when Vince cut our f****** names off you know, and he like he heard some referee’s name years ago just being announced on commentary and he said ‘Who the f*** is this guy?’ They said it's the referee Vince ‘Well why the f*** am I hearing a referee’s f****** name God dammit. I don't wanna hear any more f****** referee’s names’ and I'm like what?”

After being released by WWE in 2020, Chioda made a handful of appearances for AEW, and has revealed that he’d like to go back and help out:

“They're building Aubrey [Edwards] and doing a great job and she’s Chris Jericho’s referee you know, and I wish I was in AEW right now training these guys you know. I know I can help."

Chioda continued:

“Cody wanted me [in AEW] and there was a lot of guys that pushing for me like Taz, Jim Ross… a ton of guys,” Chioda continued “Tony Khan’s not high on referees, bro. I mean, he didn't want me there to train them, and like Cody wanted me to do a lot of their PPVS, but they axed me after like three shows. That was it.”

If you use any quotes from this article credit Such Good Shoot for the content, and insert a H/T to Cultaholic for the transcription