Former WWE referee Mike Chioda sat down with Chris Van Vliet in Tampa, Florida to discuss being the official for some of the biggest matches in WWE history, Shane McMahon’s scary bumps in his match with Kurt Angle, the Brock Lesnar shooting star press, saving Triple H and Steve Austin from a fan attack, the worst ref bump he took, advice for aspiring referees, and more!

On referees being named again in WWE:

“I like that. I’ve been seeing that lately on TV and stuff. So that’s awesome. I think the referee should be recognized. I mean, come on, everybody has a name, and there’s nothing wrong with that. If you don’t want to say all the referees’ name, at least say the major players, Charles Robinson, Chad Patton, Shawn Bennett and certain guys, or whatever. They’ve been around for quite a minute. I don’t know. I mean, I think all referees, you know, women and men, should be mentioned or recognized.”

On the worst bump he took:

“I’d have to say in Tampa, Florida. It was Triple H and Ahmed Johnson. Ahmed had to throw me over the top rope, and he was blown up, man. He was in the center of the ring. When he lifted me up, I looked how far I was, and he started going towards the rope. He couldn’t really get me over the top, and I remember hitting the top rope, boom, boom, hitting the end of the apron, the hardest part, and hitting the floor. I couldn’t feel anything from the neck down. It was a stinger. I remember Triple H in my face. He was like, ‘Oh, my God, we’re going to get the paramedics here right away. Hang tight Chioda, Hang tight. We’re getting some help.’ And it was I want to say, about an hour or so later, 30 minutes later, it started coming back, and everything, some kind of stinger I took, so kind of just numbed me out for a little while. Big time stressed, because the nerves take a little while to come back.”

On refereeing Mick Foley vs. Randy Orton at Backlash:

“So that match, hardcore match all the way. Randy’s kind of been in the business for a while, so he’s got this big match with Mick Foley. I don’t think Randy, at that time, has never done those type of matches, like those straight out hardcore matches. So we’re just full-blown. I remember all the thumbtacks and Randy’s back. It was like, 50 or 75 maybe 100 thumbtacks in his back.”

On Chioda getting tacks in his hand:

“I had one or two thumbtacks and it stung like a son of a, because I count really hard, right? I remember, boom. I was like, oh sh*t. I’m thinking Orton has got like 75 of these things in his back, I can’t be complaining here.”

On receiving a bonus for taking a ref bump.

“[The biggest was] $2500. Yeah, it was a chair shot that Stone Cold gave me [at WrestleMania 15]. Because I started the match for the first 5-10 minutes, and I take the chair shot and I get knocked out. Yeah, my head rang for like three days, ears were ringing, it was pretty cool. He [Jim Ross] goes, ‘You’re getting a bonus for that Mike.’ I was like, ‘Oh my god, thanks, JR.’ Got that bonus on top of the WrestleMania pay.”