Former WWE referee Mike Chioda is as recognizable to any longtime wrestling fan as any wrestler following over 30 years with the company. Still, WWE chose to release him as part of their mass roster cut in April despite him having only signed a new contract the month previous month.
Since leaving WWE, he has made a few appearances for AEW and done several interviews about his time in WWE. One such interview was with WrestlingINC, where he discussed being surprised at how much freedom AEW gives both talents and referees in terms of merchandising. He also revealed that in WWE, he was taken out of future video games for asking then Senior Vice President of Talent Operations John Laurinaitis about royalties.
It’s well known WWE doesn’t like to pay royalties unless absolutely necessary. Talents don’t get paid for their matches on the WWE Network, and anyone who has ever watched any ECW content on the Network will have noticed the music changes. It wasn’t until Jesse Venyuta’s lawsuit against WWE in the 90s that wrestlers other than Hulk Hogan began to see royalty payments at all. Since then, video games have become one of the most significant revenue sources for wrestlers, with payments often being high five figures. So even a fraction of that to a referee would noticeably affect their check.
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