Former WWE referee Mike Chioda has been in the business for a very long time. He was one of the longest-tenured WWE referees of all time, and during his time in the company, he has had to officiate a number of questionable matches. Mike Chioda has previously revealed that Vince McMahon asks for WWE referees to always go through with a pinfall if Superstars make a mistake and don't kick out at the right time. So, when Mike Chioda was confronted with such a situation during a match between Shinsuke Nakamura and R-Truth, that's exactly what he did.
During a recent podcast episode of Talk Is Jericho, Mike Chioda talked to Chris Jericho about how R-Truth reacted to Mike Chioda going through with the pinfall when Shinsuke Nakamura did not kick out.
Mike Chioda reveals R-Truth's reaction to a botched finish in a WWE match
During Shinsuke Nakamura's match against R-Truth for the WWE United States Championship Match, R-Truth was supposed to win, but it was supposed to come after two small packages. Unfortunately, Shinsuke Nakamura was not able to kick out in time and R-Truth's first roll-up was enough for the pinfall. Both R-Truth and Nakamura were surprised by how the match ended and it was obvious.
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Mike Chioda revealed that when they went backstage, R-Truth confronted him over it, but then later saw that it was his own fault.
"Not too long ago, a couple of years ago, there was Shinsuke Nakmuara vs R-Truth. I remember Ronnie goes, he goes... small-packaged him one time, he was supposed to small package him twice, but Shinsuke didn't kick out or something, and I counted three. Ronnie goes, ‘That wasn’t the finish. I was supposed to small package him again.’ I go, ‘Why would you small package him twice? You told me once in the back.’ And he goes, ‘Oh my bad dog, I’m sorry.’”
Mike Chioda went on to say that back in the day the referee would get heat for that, but now, if they don't kick out while they would be angry, it was the WWE Superstar's own fault.
“Back in the day, you would get heat but not these days. They may be hot, but if they didn’t kick out and didn’t get back in the ring by the count of ten, then that’s their own fault.”
Mike Chioda admitted that if that pinfall was not counted, then there would be heat from the office and Vince McMahon and so it is better to go through with it.
“You get heat from the office most definitely. You get heat from the Gorilla. You have to do your job.”