During a recent appearance on the It’s My Wrestling podcast, veteran pro-wrestling official Mike Chioda talked about the shock he felt following his WWE release last year.
Chioda, who had been with the company for over thirty years, had this to say:
“It was a shock you know, it was just a phone call, in middle April last year and it was just like, ‘that’s it’. It was just like ‘wow’, I moved to Tampa from Houston, and from New Jersey, and I was in Houston for about 13/14 years and I moved to Tampa to get closer to the PC centre, it was before the COVID, WrestleMania was going to be in Tampa [and] the PC is down there. I was actually out in 2019 of August, had surgery in October 2019 on my rotator cuff and bicep surgery at the same time, had it done by the best doctor. I get a phone call [in] April thinking it’s gonna be a pay cut more or less, but it was just like a see ya later and you know it’s unfortunate in the business of wrestling and WWE it seems like when you’re there for 30 years plus you have no more longevity after that. There’s really not much going, not even the areas like training referees, down in the PC and so forth. You got guys like X-Pac, Regal and a lot of guys training wrestlers and stuff like that, I thought I’d be a part of maybe doing something down with the WWE. Tony Chimel… he was my long time ring crew partner for 27 years and we ran the trucks, drove all over the United States and Canada we travelled all over the world and set shows up and he got cut and [was] released too as well. So it’s kind of a shocker it’s like wow, what is it about the 30 year mark, is it a bad omen? So if they call me back to do something, call me back. If not it’s all good, it’s been a great run.”
Mike Chioda would then go on to comment on how Shane McMahon would phone him, wishing him well after his release. Chioda commented,
“Shane McMahon reached out to me, it was nice of him to reach out as we go way back. From the days where we were training Shane with the ring crew and stuff, Tony Chimel and I used to run the roads with him for several months after college and between college and stuff when he was going to college. It was nice to hear from him I told Shane, the family, especially Vince, Linda, Hunter, Stephanie and himself, thank you for all the years and the support and I appreciate it.”
Mike Chioda first joined WWE in 1989 and he would remain with the company until his release in April of 2020.
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