Charles Robinson Says It’s Not On Referees When Wrestlers Don’t Kick Out

Charles Robinson explains his approach to telegraphing near falls and his belief that it is not the referee’s responsibility to make sure that a wrestler kicks out of a move that is not intended to be the finish of the match.

Sometimes, wrestling matches don’t always go as planned. Matches can be changed on the fly, or sometimes, wrestlers can forget to kick out of a particular move. Professional wrestling referees have an essential job because they don’t just count pinfalls or declare that a wrestler has submitted; they can sometimes help keep a match on track or assist the wrestlers in improvising if something goes wrong.

Charles Robinson, a senior referee at WWE, recently explained to Chris Van Vliet his approach to counting near falls. Van Vliet praised Robinson for his cadence when counting a pin that was supposed to appear as if it had almost ended the match. He also explained that he believes it’s not the referee’s job to make sure a wrestler kicks out when they’re supposed to.

” I like to do the swipe. I think the stopping, number one, is not good for your shoulder, because it’s a lot of force. I mean, you’re hitting it as hard as you can. So that’s the thing it is. The guys will say, ‘Hey, make it close. It’s really not up to us to make it close. It’s up to them to kick out close,” he said. “I’ll go down. I’m counting out loud for one thing, so they can hear it. A lot of times, I’ll say, ‘Kick out,’ when I get down there, so they know to kick out. Because sometimes guys forget, and in our defense, because people say, ‘Oh, they don’t kick out. Count three.’ Well, if you know that’s not the finish, guess what? Mentally, you’re going to swipe.

“We’re not counting for — it’s not a shoot. So it makes it much more difficult to do that. I hear that all the time, man, ‘They didn’t kick out. Well, dude, that wasn’t the finish. We’ll try to fix it some other way. But it’s either we’re going to count all the time, shoot, and you just kick out, or not, which would end a lot of matches quickly, or when they don’t kick out, we just try to fix it somehow.”

Recently, such an incident happened on the September 26 episode of WWE Friday Night SmackDown, where Nia Jax’s shoulders were down for a three-count, but the referee didn’t count the fall because there was still more to be done. Ultimately, they arrived at the ending they needed to.

Learn about the worst bump Robinson says he ever took at this link.

Learn more about how much longer Charles Robinson wants to be a referee here.

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