Mike Chioda
 | This poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libelous. )Find sources: "Mike Chioda" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (August 2008) |
| Mike Chioda | |
|---|---|
 Chioda in 2012 | |
| Birth name | Michael Joseph Canzano [1] |
| Born | August 1, 1966 Willingboro Township, New Jersey, U.S.[2] |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Mike Chioda |
| Billed height | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) |
| Billed weight | 175 lb (79 kg) |
| Trained by | Joey Marella |
| Debut | 1989 |
| Retired | 2022 |
Michael Joseph Canzano[3] (born August 1, 1966) is a retired American professional wrestling senior referee, who most recently worked for All Elite Wrestling (AEW). Before his release on April 15, 2020, Chioda was the longest-tenured referee in WWE history, having been with the company for over three decades.
Professional wrestling career
World Wrestling Federation / Entertainment WWF/WWE (1989–2020)
As a young adult, Chioda lived close to the Marellas (Gorilla Monsoon and his son Joey), who helped him break into the wrestling business.[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 1992.
He refereed the match where
Chioda has also competed in an actual wrestling match, teaming with
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, and 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.
During the
During his tenure on SmackDown!, he officiated a WWE Championship match between 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
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, WrestleMania XXVI, Extreme Rules 2010, and Over the Limit 2010 (Batista's last match in WWE before he quit for the first time). He also appeared in an episode of WWE Tough Enough's second season.[2]
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 2008 was made a Triple Threat Match.
At the pay-per-view 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 refereed the main event match of
He refereed the main event of
On April 15, 2020, WWE announced that Chioda had been released from his WWE contract after 31 years with the company.[10]
All Elite Wrestling (2020, 2022)
On the August 12, 2020, episode of AEW Dynamite, Chioda made his All Elite Wrestling debut as the referee for the AEW TNT Championship match between Cody Rhodes and Scorpio Sky.[11] Later in the night, he officiated the rematch between Orange Cassidy and Chris Jericho. On November 7, 2020, Chioda returned to referee the TNT Championship match between Cody Rhodes and Darby Allin at Full Gear. On May 29, 2022, Chioda officiated the finals of the Men’s Owen Hart Foundation Tournament between Samoa Joe and Adam Cole at Double or Nothing, which Cole won.
Retirement
On July 31, 2022, Chioda would referee the main event at Ric Flair's Last Match between Ric Flair and Andrade El Idolo against Jay Lethal and Jeff Jarrett.[12] The day before the match took place, Chioda stated in an interview with the Battlefield Podcast that this match would be the "final chapter in my book" with regards to his career with professional wrestling.[13]
References
- ^ Van Vliet, Chris. "Mike Chioda: The WWE Referee Of Our Childhood Has The BEST Stories!".
- ^ a b c "Mike Chioda Profile". WWE. Archived from the original on April 12, 2006. Retrieved March 18, 2007.
- ^ Van Vliet, Chris. "Mike Chioda: The WWE Referee Of Our Childhood Has The BEST Stories!".
- ^ "Gangrel vs Test WWF Shotgun July 3, 1999". YouTube. Retrieved September 4, 2012.[dead YouTube link]
- ^ "WWE WrestleMania 2007 (23)".
- ^ "WrestleMania 21 main events". WWE. Archived from the original on 2007-12-26. Retrieved 2008-01-14.
- ^ "WWE Champion John Cena def. Triple H". WWE. 2006-04-02. Retrieved 2007-12-10.
- ^ "PWTorch.com - WWE News: Over the Limit PPV results - Cena vs. The Miz for the WWE Title in an I Quit "handicap" match". www.pwtorch.com.
- ^ [1]
- ^ WWE.com Staff (April 15, 2020). "Kurt Angle, Karl Anderson, Luke Gallows and other Superstars released". WWE. Retrieved April 15, 2020.
- ^ All Elite Wrestling [@AEWrestling] (August 13, 2020). "The legendary referee Mike Chioda will be calling the action! Watch #AEWDynamite NOW on @TNTDrama or http://AEWPlus.com for our International fans. #AEWonTNT @AEWonTNT" (Tweet). Retrieved August 12, 2020 – via Twitter.
- ^ Powell, Jason (July 31, 2022). "Ric Flair's Last Match event: Powell's review of Ric Flair and Andrade El Idolo vs. Jeff Jarrett and Jay Lethal, Josh Alexander vs. Jacob Fatu for the Impact World Championship, Motor City Machine Guns vs. The Wolves, Killer Kross vs. Davey Boy Smith Jr., Jordynne Grace vs. Rachael Ellering vs. Deonna Purrazzo for the Knockouts Championship, The Briscoes vs. The Von Erichs". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved August 1, 2022.
- ^ Lambert, Jeremy (July 30, 2022). "Mike Chioda Says Reffing Ric Flair's Last Match Will Be The Last Chapter Of His Book". Fightful.com. Retrieved August 1, 2022.
External links
- Mike Chioda at IMDb
- WWE bio at the Wayback Machine (archived November 30, 2018)
- Mike Chioda's profile at Cagematch.net, Wrestlingdata.com, Internet Wrestling Database