Mike Chioda Reveals Cody Rhodes Pushed For AEW To Sign Him

Cody Rhodes wanted to make Mike Chioda a permanent addition to All Elite Wrestling, the referee has revealed.

Chioda made his AEW debut as an official back on an August 2020 episode of Dynamite, refereeing Cody Rhodes vs. Scorpio Sky before he officiated the first match between Chris Jericho and Orange Cassidy. The longtime official has since made sporadic appearances in AEW, most recently at Double Or Nothing 2022 when he was the official for the Owen Hart Foundation Men's Tournament final between Adam Cole and Samoa Joe.

Speaking about his recent work in AEW on the Cafe de Rene podcast, Chioda revealed that Cody Rhodes pushed for AEW to sign him.

"Cody [Rhodes] called me up after my months of severance pay with the company [WWE]. He said, 'Hey, I want you to come down here' and this was like two-and-a-half-years ago...You know, I worked down there [AEW] about three or four times and he wanted to get me signed and signed and signed and then knowing now what happened and him going back to WWE, I heard he was losing some kind of stroke at that point maybe or something and I know he was trying to get me in, backing me," Chioda revealed.

"He was like, 'Man, it's exactly what we need. We need your experience. Train the referees, help out here or do matches, whatever.' I'm like, 'Fine bro. Whatever you need,' you know? And I just get called back every once in a while but I don't get signed so, I don't know what's going on with AEW so, we'll see."

Chioda had previously been with WWE for 31 years but he was released by the company on April 15, 2020. Along with his AEW appearances, Chioda also hosts a mailbag show on AdFreeShows.com.

H/T to POST Wrestling