Cody Rhodes wanted Mike Chioda signed to an AEW contract.
After 30 years under the WWE banner, Mike Chioda finished up with the company in 2020 as a part of their mass releases in April of that year. Chioda has since gone on to do guest refereeing spots for All Elite Wrestling, independent dates and has his own show on the AdFreeShows network.
Chioda was invited onto René Duprée’s Café De René podcast to share memories from his time in the wrestling business and promote what he is up to present day.
He touched on his work with AEW over the past several years and it beginning with a phone call from former E.V.P. Cody Rhodes. Chioda added that Rhodes continuously tried to get him signed.
Cody [Rhodes] called me up after my months of the severance pay with the company [WWE]. He said, ‘Hey, I want you to come down here’ and this was like two-and-a-half-years ago, two years ago and he was like, ‘Come down here man. We wanna –‘ you know, I worked down there [AEW] about three or four times and he wanted to get me signed and signed and signed and then knowing now what happened and him going back to WWE, I heard he was losing some kind of stroke at that point maybe or something and I know he was trying to get me in, backing me. He was like, ‘Man, it’s exactly what we need. We need your experience. Train the referees, help out here or do matches, whatever.’ I’m like, ‘Fine bro. Whatever you need,’ you know? And I just get called back every once in a while but I don’t get signed so, I don’t know what’s going on with AEW so, we’ll see.
Chioda officiated the men’s Owen Hart Foundation tournament final between Adam Cole and Samoa Joe that Cole won. To get a recap of Double or Nothing 2022, head over to this link.
If the quote in this article is used, please credit ‘Café De René With René Duprée’ with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcription.
