The referee of a professional wrestling match is a guy, simply put, who is supposedly there to make the wrestlers wrestle within the rules of the match. They’re role is the one least paid attention too but sometimes they’re actions have either changes the course of history or been detrimental to them or the wrestler involved which wasn’t scripted.
Even though a referee is made to appear to have little control over the wrestlers, they are still important characters that are as much important in letting a story play out in the middle of the ring. And some of the listed run-ins have actually changes the course of many careers.
Here are the 5 run-ins between referees and wrestler
#5 Sasha Banks
Starting with the latest incident, Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch and Paige were in a match against Dana Brooke, Eva Marie and Lana. The show went on well but it was in the following weeks that fans began noticing Banks’ absence from television. While there were initial reports that this was done for storyline purposes, word later surfaced that she was accidently kneed to the head by a referee during the aforementioned tag team match, which caused a concussion.
This put a brief bolt to the plans of beginning a Banks Vs Charlotte feud where The Boss was almost guaranteed to take the title away. Also, there were rumors that Vince McMahon was getting a bit iffy about her push because of the injury
But she returned in 2 weeks to main Event even confirmed soon that she had a concussion but she’s back now and that’s all that matter
#4 Chris Jericho & Charles Robinson
On the March 14th edition of Raw Neville faced Chris Jericho and during the match he suffered an injury that has kept him away till date. He rolled his knee and yet went on to deliver a couple of moves more until he couldn’t. We can hear Jericho asking if he’s okay and later telling the referee that he’ll pin him. And just on cue Jericho rolls Neville, but the ref, Charles Robinson doesn’t count till three even after Neville doesn’t lift his shoulders presumable because he did not hear what Jericho telling him to pin Neville. That enraged Jericho and he shoved the referee shouting ‘he’s hurt’. Robinson disqualifies him but they don’t stop arguing about the chain of events. This is all happening outside of kayfabe.
#3 Nick Patrick, Sting and Hulk Hogan
As far as talk about referees and controversies go, this one is one of the most remarkable incidents. Fresh off the Montreal Screwjob, Bret Hart was ringside for Sting Vs Hulk Hogan at Starrcade 1997. This was a match that had huge amounts of build up. The story goes that Patrick was NWO’s lackey and given that history, he was supposed to do a fast count when Hogan pinned Sting.
But he didn’t.
This made Hogan’s win seem clean and Hart’s speech later, on why nobody should be screwed like he himself was at WWE, seem redundant.
Many speculate that Hogan might have been influential since he did not like putting guys over much, but Patrick retrospectively answered that WCW had a huge problem with changing bosses week to week that there were many voices about what to do. These conflicting voices made him make that botch.
#2 Tim White
You just read about how Sasha Banks got injured by a referee,. Here’s an incident where a referee got injured and that really ended his career as an in-ring official. We have seen referees being either accidently or intentionally attacked, but that is all scripted. So, when Tim White was accidently (storyline wise) pushed onto the steel cage during a match between Chris Jericho and Triple H, no one reckoned it would signal the end of his career.
White’s shoulder was a complete mess and the pain made him unable to continue officiating the match or any other match for that matter.
#1 Earl Hebner
If you’ve been a life-long fan of wrestling, Earl Hebner has been one of the most recognized figures when it comes to referees. He’s been part of many memorable matches but the biggest controversy of his career is still the biggest kayfabe breaking moment in WWE history. Hebner knew that he had to signal the official to ring the bell while HBK held Hart in the sharpshooter without the latter submitting to his own move. He was in on everything that McMahon went on to do during the ‘Montreal Screwjob’.
That fact was made even clearer when he ran away soon after. Hart felt betrayed obviously because Hebner evaded this fact by swearing on his own children that he did not know what McMahon was upto.
