Mike Chioda noted that the referees in WWE pay for some of their own travel costs these days, which is a change from how it used to be. The WWE alum spoke to Monday’s Mailbag this week about how during the first half of this long run with the company, his expenses were paid, which is not the case for current referees, who pay much of their expenses from the pocket. You can see some highlights below, for Wrestling Inc:
To avoid paying travel expenses for most of his career: “In the first 20 years that I was with the company, everything was paid for because I was on the crew. That’s the key – being in a crew. For the last 12 years, I was just a full-time judge, and that was the best, because you got paid everything – you got per diem, you got everything. It was the best of both worlds: being on a crew and getting paid for everything at your own expense.”
For current judges who do not have that benefit: “They are paying out of pocket. They don’t pay for flights, they don’t pay for hotels, rental cars, gas – [but they don’t] give them a per diem or something. So a lot of money is out of pocket… [one referee] was spending $300 to $400 for the rental car for four days, not even three days, and he was paying about $500 for hotels, and gas was maybe a couple hundred dollars … and then you have to add food in there, and if you you have to pay to go to the gym or pay for that or buy anything, it adds up.”
