Jimmy Korderas Talks About WWE Referees Input Into Match Finishes, Hating The HIAC Referee Stoppage
Jimmy Korderas was a WWE referee for 22 years and officiated many gimmick matches during his tenure. Thus, he serves as an expert to discuss the controversial finish to the Hell in a Cell match between Seth Rollins and Bray Wyatt.
Korderas talked about what he thought about the finish when he spoke to Wrestling Inc. on our WINCLY podcast.
"Plain and simple didn't like it at all because a referee stoppage in any combat sport is when one of the participants is incapacitated, cannot continue or an injury situation that needs immediate attention. In this situation, it's Hell in a Cell where all of the rules are thrown out the window and in this match there needs to be a finality," said Korderas. "This match was designed to negate stuff like a ref stoppage. It's basically one fall to a finish, regardless what happens.
"I get they were trying to be creative and different with it but it didn't work at all. You heard the backlash from the audience where they hated it."
He added that the biggest thing he hated about it was the ref trying to reason with Rollins as if the referee was Dr. Phil. Korderas says it bothered him on so many levels.
"To me it was because WWE had booked themselves into a corner by putting this feud on this quick and putting it in Hell in a Cell," stated Korderas. "Again, I think that was the reason why we got to where we were and I don't know what to expect at Crown Jewel with Falls Count Almost Anywhere. It's gonna end up in the desert somewhere? I have no idea."
Some referees have more power than others when it comes to planning a match and speaking up if things don't look right. Korderas was asked if he would have spoken up before the match took place.
"Yes and after a certain tenure there obviously you do feel like a little more comfortable and there is a way to presenting it without coming off like an a-hole. You respectfully say your concerns with the finish and my concerns would have been that the heat at the end of the match was going to go to the wrong person. It was going to go to the official and that's not what you want at the end of any match. The one person you don't want heat on is the referee and I feel that in this situation, if I make this call then all of the heat is gonna be on me," said Korderas.
"The short answer is I would have respectfully voiced my concern."
Adding to the controversy, and perhaps prolonging it, WWE then had the ref own the call on their new digital show The Bump which Korderas also was not a fan of.
"I did not like that either because here's a situation where you knew it was bad," said Korderas. "The reaction was bad and there was nothing but negative feedback from this whole thing. So, why don't we just – while it's later in the week and hopefully people are starting to forget about it – let's bring it up so they can refresh their memory of what they hated?
"Again, going back to what I said earlier, it put all of the heat on the referee."
In the long run, Korderas doesn't think this will have much of an effect on WWE refs in the eyes of the fans.
"I think it's minimal because out of sight out of mind. I don't think it's gonna affect [referee] Spider too much?I think it goes away with time," stated Korderas.
Jimmy Korderas can be seen hosting Aftermath on SN360 every Friday night. For TV listings and more info please click here. His full interview with Wrestling Inc aired as part of a recent episode of our WINCLY podcast. It can be heard via the embedded audio player at the bottom of this post. Featuring Jimmy discussing Eric Bischoff's WWE firing, the finish to WWE's Seth Rollins vs The Fiend HIAC match, the role WWE referees play in deciding match finishes, his criticisms of AEW's officiating, if The Wednesday Night War has lived up to the hype and more.
You can check out past episodes of the WINCLY here. Subscribe to Wrestling Inc. Audio on iTunes or Google Play. Listen to the show via Spotify here or through TuneIn here.