Mike Chioda
| Mike Chioda | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Ring name(s) | Mike Chioda |
| Billed height | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)[1] |
| Billed weight | 175 lb (79 kg) |
| Born |
August 1, 1966 Twin Hill Park, Willingboro, New Jersey[2] |
| Trained by | Joey Marella |
| Debut | 1983 |
Michael Joseph "Mike" Chioda[3] (born August 1, 1966) is an American senior referee who is currently signed to WWE.
Career
World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment
Early Career
As a young man, Chioda lived close to the Marellas (Gorilla Monsoon and his son Joey), who helped him break into the wrestling business.[1][2] Being trained as a referee, Chioda first began to appear in WWE in 1989, when it was known as the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), most notably at Survivor Series 1989. After taking a hiatus from refereeing following WrestleMania VII, he began to reappear on camera around 1993.
On July 3, 1999 on WWF Shotgun, Chioda got an Implant DDT from Gangrel following his loss against Test which Chioda officiated.[4]
Chioda has also competed in an actual wrestling match, teaming with Chris Jericho and The Rock to take on the team of The Dudley Boyz and referee Nick Patrick on an episode of SmackDown! in 2001.[1] Chioda actually scored the pinfall victory after delivering his version of "The People's Elbow" to Nick Patrick.
During the WWF tenure, he officiated matches such as Shawn Michaels vs. Steve Austin at WrestleMania XIV, Triple H vs. Vince McMahon at Armageddon 1999, The Rock vs. Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania X8.
Following the September 11 attacks, Chioda began to wear an American flag patch on his referee shirt.
Brand Switches and Seniority Status
During the WWE Brand Extension, Chioda was sent to SmackDown! to become senior referee of that show. On an "All Referee" edition of the WWE.com show Byte This! in 2004, he told an inquiring Josh Mathews that he did not like the old-style "button-up and bow-tie" referee attire, preferring, at the time, the SmackDown! variant of referee shirt.
During his tenure on SmackDown, he officiated a match between The Big Show and Brock Lesnar in which Lesnar performed a superplex on Big Show and the ring collapsed. Chioda would rule the match a no contest.
In 2003, he was traded to Raw. Following the firing of Raw's senior referee Earl Hebner in 2005, Chioda was appointed as Raw`s head referee.
At WrestleMania 23, he refereed the match against John Cena and Shawn Michaels but got taken out after being hit with Sweet Chin Music by Michaels.[5]
During his time as Raw brand head referee he would officiate Raw matches such as Triple H vs. Batista at WrestleMania 21,[6] John Cena vs. Triple H at WrestleMania 22,[7] Cena vs. Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 23 and Cena vs Batista at SummerSlam 2008. He also appeared in an episode of WWE Tough Enough's second season.[2]
However, in November 2008, referees were made no longer exclusive to certain brands. Chioda refereed his first match on SmackDown in three years on November 28, 2008, when he refereed the Beat The Clock Match between Shelton Benjamin and Triple H; during the match, Chioda was knocked down and the match ended in controversy when it was decided that Jeff Hardy and Triple H finished their matches in the same amount of time. To settle this, the WWE Championship Match at Armageddon was made a Triple Threat Match.
At the PPV event WWE Over The Limit 2011, The Miz initially defeated John Cena after a cell phone recording of Cena's voice saying "I Quit" was played into the microphone, although when the referee Mike Chioda heard it, he immediately reversed the decision and ordered the match to restart. This led to Cena defeating the Miz and retaining the WWE Championship. [8]
On August 15, 2011, Chioda was suspended for 30 days due to his first violation of the WWE's Talent Wellness Program.[9]
On April 1, 2012, Chioda would referee the match between John Cena and The Rock at Wrestlemania XXVIII in front of 78,363 people attending at Sun Life Stadium, Miami, Florida
Chioda was featured as the referee in the 2012 iOS game, WWE Wrestlefest.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Bio at IMDb
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 WWE.com Profile
- ↑ Tv.com Summary
- ↑ "Gangrel vs Test WWF Shotgun July 3 1999". YouTube. Retrieved September 4.
- ↑ Online World of Wrestling
- ↑ "WrestleMania 21 main events". WWE. Retrieved 2008-01-14.
- ↑ "WWE Champion John Cena def. Triple H". WWE. 2006-04-02. Retrieved 2007-12-10.
- ↑
- ↑
External links
| Sporting positions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by First |
WWE SmackDown Senior Referee 2002-2003 |
Succeeded by Nick Patrick |
| Preceded by Earl Hebner |
WWE Raw Senior Referee 2005-2008 |
Succeeded by None |