Former WWE referee Jimmy Korderas was a recent guest on Talkin’ Sass on VOC Nation. Jimmy talked about his start in the business with Jack Tunney, how he became a referee, his greatest moments, and more. Check out some highlights of the interview below.
On working with The Undertaker (and his match with Edge at WrestleMania):
I told them ‘I so much thank you guys, I appreciate you guys having the confidence in me, I won’t let you down.’ Taker just looked at me and said, ‘we know you won’t.’ Taker is scary but at the same time, there’s just this aura about him. It’s the way he presents himself: The way he comes out, the way he walks, that look, it’s kind of scary but you’re more in awe I think than anything. When we were going over the match, they wanted a spot to take me out of the match. It had to be something devastating enough to have another referee (Charles Robinson) run down. Taker looks at me and says ‘are you OK taking a big boot?’ I’m taking a big boot from the Undertaker; it doesn’t get better than this.
On Pat Patterson originally suggesting that he be a referee:
Pat went to Jack Tunney one day and said ‘hey we got the kid here; he does his stuff and all day he just sits around and waits for us to finish so he can keep doing more stuff. Why don’t we use him (and) make him a referee?’ And I remember Jack’s exact words to Pat were: ‘We don’t want to smarten the kid up yet do we?’ And Pat’s like ‘he’s already in the back with all the boys in the locker room. He kind of knows what’s going on, we’ll just teach him to ref.’
On growing up as a huge fan of pro wrestling:
It’s amazing because as a young child you watch it on television and you dream about being able to go to the matches in person. Then as you start getting older, sometimes with some people, you start thinking ‘hey maybe one day I can do this.’ As a nine year old going and watching wrestling in person for the first time and sneaking down as close as you can, it’s just an incredible feeling.
You can listen to the entire interview below.
