In the typical wrestling match, the referee is about as important as the ring apron. Sure, without them, everything would look a little "off," but from an entertainment standpoint, they offer little to the match itself. Referees are ignorant, mostly invisible, and recently, even nameless phantoms that haunt the ring and occasionally get the attention of the medical staff if something goes horribly awry. So it's not necessarily that hard for a special guest referee to earn their title and make the proceedings a little more memorable. Anytime the company wants to toss a little extra flash into a match or add another obstacle for one of the competitors to overcome, just use a special guest referee. At their worst, the inclusion of the special refs have no real purpose other than adding some more star power to the card. (After all, Mike Tyson made the happenings before WrestleMania pop, but how much did he actually add to the match between Stone Cold and Shawn Michaels?) Yet, at their finest, the inclusion of a special guest referee can raise the stakes, intensify the drama, and most importantly, inflate the entertainment value to a whole new level.
