THIS Former WWE Referee Says McMahon Family Is "Torn Apart"

"The family is torn apart at this point."

by Andrew Pollard
mike chioda
WWE.com

While fans will always speculate about the relationship between certain people at the top of the WWE food chain, long-time company referee Mike Chioda has now detailed how fractured he believes the McMahon family to be.

Having been employed by WWE for 21 years up until his release last year, the legendary ref was asked on the latest episode of his Monday Mailbag show about whether or not anyone ever spoke to Triple H to let him know he shouldn't be dating Stephanie McMahon.

As Chioda explained (via WrestlingNews.co), Shane McMahon spoke to Hunter about this, which led to a strained relationship between Stephanie's brother and her beau.

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"Yes, Shane did. Shane McMahon did. That's why the two fell out, that's for sure. It was a thing from Vince Sr. that came around many years ago. They didn't want anybody dating talent, none of the kids and none of their family. He didn't want them taking bumps, which that didn't happen. I think Shane really had a big part of that and that's why Shane and Triple H had a falling out for many years, and that's why Shane was exiled for ten years.

Shane is still not on top of the list. Where is he at now? Is he in the office? Is he running things? Is he Vice President? Is he Vice CEO? Can somebody tell me where he's at right now, because he should be there. I mean, even with Triple H out, you're going to have Johnny Laurinaitis, Road Dogg and Scott Armstrong running the f**king business? You're not going to have Shane McMahon there? Where's he at? It's boggled me for many years too. A lot of here there. It gets more interesting, believe me.

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It's sad, because when I started working for this company, there was Linda McMahon, Vince McMahon, Shane McMahon and Stephanie McMahon, and now it seems to be all broken apart. All the money in the world probably can't fix it. They have all the money in the world, a publicly traded company, which is okay. The family is torn apart at this point, I think. Maybe not torn apart all the way, which I hope not, but it's torn apart."

Chioda would go on to compare this situation to that of Tony Khan and his father Shahid Khan, talking up how you never hear of any problems between those two and how they work together to make money.

The New Jersey native would wrap up this segment of Monday Mailbag by saying how he loves Shane and Stephanie, before adding how the Billion Dollar Princess likely could have stopped him from being fired last year if she wanted to - but that she didn't.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.