10 WWE Releases That Made Absolutely No Sense
2. Mike Chioda
We've said it before in this list and we'll likely say it again in the following entry, but some of the recent Black Wednesday releases were just plain weird.
Seasoned WWE referee Mike Chioda undoubtedly falls into that very category of downright odd departures for a number of reasons.
First of all, Chioda was the longest tenured official in WWE history, working for the company since way back in 1989. This unparalleled experience meant that he was a reliable hand who'd seen and done it all before and could offer incredibly useful words of wisdom to the company's next generation of referees.
On top of this, Chioda's release wasn't even provoked by any serious wrong doing or backstage heat, as he had been off recovering from a rotator cuff injury for some time.
Speaking about suddenly being given his marching orders on the Talk is Jericho podcast, Chioda said:
'I don’t know if it’s heat, but how can you have heat if you’ve been off for six months rehabbing? I haven’t even been on Twitter and Facebook since 2015. So yeah, it took me by complete surprise Chris.'
Perhaps his release could have something to do with the company not wanting to pay Chioda the salary he'd agreed on during his most recent contract extension in March. But, surely a talent with his unrivalled experience was worth the investment, right?l
Well, AEW seem to think so, anyway.