I shared ring with Stone Cold and The Rock as a WWE icon – now I’ve quietly retired after 36 years

It was never his to be the star of any wrestling ring but, to fans everywhere, Mike Chioda is a WWE legend.

The iconic wrestling referee was etched into the memory of millions of fans who grew up in the 1990s and adored the Attitude Era.

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Indeed, for more than three decades, the striped shirt and the no-nonsense scowl made him as recognisable as some of the men and women he was officiating.

Chioda first walked into WWE in 1989, a New Jersey kid with family ties to Gorilla Monsoon who quickly became part of the furniture.

His debut came at Survivor Series that year, and he would never really leave until the pandemic. In between, he worked thousands of matches, eventually becoming the longest-serving referee in company history and one of the most trusted eyes Vince McMahon ever had in the ring.

Mike Chioda finally reveals if he’s really retired after 36 years

“Pretty much, yeah,” he told Chris Van Vliet when asked if he considers himself retired, officially if not for the first time, calling time on one heck of a run.

Cheekily, he added the caveat: “I mean, if there’s a match or two, or something like that, I’ll do here and there, like the Ric Flair’s Last Match I did. It’s really pick and choose, but I’m doing seminars, training refs in Orlando, doing a bunch of seminars and signings and stuff.”

That sums him up perfectly. Low-key, unshowy, still proud of the craft but never desperate for the limelight. Even in stepping away, Chioda isn’t talking about farewell tours or final chapters, just the odd booking if the right call comes.

But his story deserves more than a quiet exit – this was the man who slid across the canvas to count the three for some of wrestling’s most immortal finishes.

He was in the middle when Hulk Hogan and The Rock clashed in front of a deafening Toronto crowd at WrestleMania X8.

He was there for Steve Austin’s coronation over Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 14, with Mike Tyson at ringside and then-senior referee Earl Hebner laid up in a hospital bed.

He called the chaos when Brock Lesnar superplexed Big Show through a collapsing ring, and he stood firm in one of WWE’s most surreal spectacles, John Cena versus The Rock at WrestleMania XXVIII.

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Chioda didn’t just watch history; he helped shape it. At times, referees in WWE became characters themselves, and he played his role when needed. He once even dropped his own version of The People’s Elbow in a tag match alongside The Rock and Chris Jericho against Nick Patrick and The Dudley Boyz.

The bumps came too. At WrestleMania 15, he was on the wrong end of a steel chair from Stone Cold Steve Austin. The sound of metal meeting skull wasn’t just for show – Chioda admitted the ringing in his head lasted days. That willingness to take a hit, to sell the chaos, made him invaluable.

After 31 years of loyalty, the pandemic cut the cord. In April 2020, Chioda was released in a round of budget cuts. It was a shock to fans and colleagues alike, given his longevity and reputation. For many, he was as much a fixture of WWE as the ropes or the ring steps.

Yet even then, the stripes weren’t entirely gone. Within months, Chioda was in AEW, refereeing TNT Championship matches for Cody Rhodes and stepping into the spotlight again for Chris Jericho’s clash with Orange Cassidy. He returned for AEW’s Owen Hart Tournament finals in 2022, a poignant booking that linked his career to a man he’d worked alongside during WWE’s hottest era.

And then came perhaps the most fitting swansong – Flair’s Last Match in July 2022. The Nature Boy’s controversial farewell drew global attention, and there was Chioda, the trusted hand in the middle, making sure the match reached its end. He admitted it might be his last major assignment, and if it was, it was a fitting curtain call.

What is legendary WWE referee Mike Chioda doing now?

Since then, he’s poured his energy into the next generation. He’s led seminars, trained referees at Fight Factory and in Orlando, and appeared at conventions to share war stories with fans who grew up seeing him every Monday night.

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He’s even become a podcast regular, swapping tales of backstage madness with noted podcaster Conrad Thompson, recalling the nights when referees had to literally fight off invading fans to protect the wrestlers.

After 36 years, he may be retired, but for fans of a certain era, the idea he might not have fully, totally and completely closed the door keeps alive one heck of a childhood memory.

Chioda has also spoken about the pain of his WWE exit and the lack of tact that came with it, saying he never received a call from long-time boss McMahon. That call may not have come, but the respect of fans and peers has long since done the talking.