Former WWE referee Mike Chioda spoke with Ten Count’s Steve Fall on a number of topics such as why he was released by the WWE in 2020.

Mike Chioda said:

“I don’t know. I don’t know to this day. I was making really good money. I’ll tell you straight out I was probably making 240 a year, but I’ve been there for 35 years at the time. I was out on surgery. I was out hurt. I made the transition. I moved to Houston in ’07. I came here in 2019, waited about a year for a house to be built, and got here in October 2019. I flew to Alabama, once it went to closing on my house here in Tampa, went and got the surgery, came home, rehabbed here for six months. I was ready for WrestleMania but then the COVID hit and I didn’t get a call. I’m like, you gotta be kidding me. But you know, when we look at it, like Tony Chimel and I, you know, Tony got released too. He was with the company for 38 years. You know, just no reason, no why, no nothing, You know, they said budget costs but come on. The company, I think six months later, they had their best quarter in so many years or something and did great. It wasn’t just me. People like Tony Chimel. You know, I remember talking to Carano. I said, ‘Carano, what the f**k. You gotta be fu**ing kidding me?’ I know he felt bad and he didn’t know what to say. He said, ‘Mike, look, it’s not just you. It’s Tony Chimel, Tom Carlucci, John D’Amico.’ I’m like, ‘Oh, so everybody over 30 fu**ing years plus with the company. So that’s where you’re going with this. It wasn’t really a fu**ing budget cut’, because he’s mentioned three other people in three other different departments.”

You can check out Mike Chioda’s comments in the video below. H/T to hereWrestlingNews.co for transcribing the above quotes.