Former WWE referee Mike Chioda recently spoke with Chris Van Vliet on a number of topics including the brutal 2001 King of the Ring mattch between WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle and Shane McMahon.
Chioda said, “You know, that night, whoo. I’ll never forget, you know, I thought I may not have a job coming back. You know, during there was several times during that match. You know, Shane had a lot to prove. You know, he rocks this match out. He gets through it. You know, it puts him on the chart of being a wrestler, you know what I’m saying? And he can hang with the toughest. And you know, Kurt’s not in the business that long at that point really, too. But boy he picked up the wrestling business professional wrestling business quick. And, one of the best, you know, and he’s a tough son of a gun in that ring. Man, I’ve done many matches where Kurt and Kurt don’t let up and he just keeps going. He’s like a machine. So, you know, Shane had a lot to prove. And getting to the spot where he goes through the glass. And it just, you know, he didn’t go through the glass. I’m thinking are we at the wrong f*cking panel? You know, because there were certain panels and certain panels were breaking certain panels weren’t. So at one point, I’m thinking now is this the right panel, you know, the glass panel. And Vince is all in the background going. Tell him not f*cking throw him through the glass. No, no more like this. After the first time. Gorilla position was screaming. Everybody was screaming. And then all of a sudden you hear Vince just taken over. Like, tell him, tell Mike Chioda, and I’m going, Kurt. Don’t put him through the f*cking glass. No more. Don’t try it. No more. Don’t try it. I’m on his right side. He tries it doesn’t work again. I’m like, holy shit. And it finally occurred to me. Like, oh, no, I couldn’t stop anything. I couldn’t stop anything because that would have been disrespectful to Shane. And Shane had a lot to prove. And I know Shane is you know, Shane, he’ll go through anything. It’ll do anything. I mean, tough, tough guy, man. I was just like in shock. You know, I’d seen all this glass and Shane’s head and those slices and stuff. And I’m thinking, was that the fake glass that we were supposed to use? Or is this real?”
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