Referees

[El-P]

Wally Yamaguchi in Gran Hamada's UWF from early 90's is up thear with the worst refs ever i've decided. Gets in the way, ruins the flow of matches, screws up finishes and plays way too fast & loose when it comes to when he will and won't enforce the rules with the worst example being not allowing a tag that takes place right in front of him and then allowing like 2 straight mins of 2 on 1 beat down from the other team.

And he can't cut a forehead worth a shit.

[MJH]

To be fair, given her track record, I'm pretty sure Hokuto would've sooner had her head cut to shit than if he'd barely cut her.

[El-P]

Rudy Charles, TNA referee. Terrible. Bad positioning, positively distracting, awful at being distracted and looking away. No idea if he improved, but in 2003, this guy was the shits.

[ButchReedMark]

He's a WWE ref now.

[El-P]

He's a WWE ref now.

 

The jokes write themselves.

[NotJayTabb]

I love Charles Robinson as a ref. He's really good at not being noticeable, until the referee gets bumped and the fact it doesn't look terrible makes you realise it's Robinson in there. He never does things to distract from the match, and the fact he's been around for nearly 20years is still great is testament to him. Plus he had one of the few good referee matches, vs Gorgeous George of all people in WCW

[gordi]

Something that is apparently not widely understood is that the ref is often responsible for more than just playing the role of the referee in the match. Particularly in the indies, they share the responsibility for calling spots, keeping the wrestlers aware of the time, controlling pacing, and so much more. You can see that WWE refs wear an ear-piece. I have long assumed that the agents or Vince or HHH or someone is in their ears, and the refs have to act as the go-betweens conveying instructions from the back, while simultaneously playing their more obvious role. Refs are the unappreciated glue guys of pro wrestling. SLAM wrestling hall of famer "Vicious" Verne Seibert, an old hand and a long-time fixture of the Vancouver Indy scene, is in my opinion a *GREAT* referee. Not for the kind of things written about in this thread, but because of how he facilitates communication, and helps guide and shape things in the ring, unobtrusively, so you'd never notice it. THAT is actually what makes a great ref, in my book.

[Tabe]

Kyohei Wada - the guy so many love. The guy I can't stand. From giving away finishes by pausing for the three count to PHYSICALLY INTERFERING in at least one match by dragging one guy on top of another... ugh. Terrible, just terrible.

[PhilTLL]

The Mid-South vote was 8 years ago and I still hate Tommy Gilbert's look-at-me ass. There was no physical reason for Bronko Lubich to be reffing in the 80's.

 

On the positive side, I've always loved Randy Anderson, and he gave us the Luger/Hogan title change freakout.

[grapplin' apple]

World Class had the worst referees. Bronko Lubich is one of my least favorite wrestling personalities. How long it took him to do a three count is absolutely ridiculous. If he could have done a three count at half the speed of Tommy Young, the Von Erichs would have been combined 16 time NWA World Heavyweight champions. He absolutely takes you out of the flow of the match. The other frustrating aspect is I love Texas wrestling, and he is all over it. From Houston on NWAClassics to World Class to Global/USWA, he is always there. I noticed from watching NWAClassics that Danny McShane has the same "style" as Bronko.

 

David Manning was just ridiculous. Actively trying to get himself over by trying to get heat with the heels. I still think, however, that Lubich is worse.