Former WWE official Mike Chioda has opened up about the historic ring break which occured in a bout between Brock Lesnar and Big Show on SmackDown.
On June 12, 2003, ‘The Next Big Thing’ Brock Lesnar defended the WWE Championship against Big Show in the main event of the promotion’s weekly blue brand offering after defeating Kurt Angle for the gold at WrestleMania XIX.
As the bout wore to its conclusion, a tired Lesnar placed Big Show on the top turnbuckle and the fans rose to their feet as the champion readied for a superplex on the gargantuan star. Seconds later, both men crashed to the canvas and upon landing the ring imploded as all four posts popped from their sockets and referee Mike Chioda was thrown with the collapse of the squared circle.
Now, one of WWE’s longest serving members of staff has joined Chris Van Vliet to discuss the moment the ring broke and how he was told by management to really sell the abnormality, which he did to perfection:
“Oh, that [Big Show vs Brock Lesnar] was cool. Michael Hayes, everybody, Pat Patterson, the thing on that match they wanted me to do was to sell the collapse of the ring. And the way I did it, which I don’t know what I did, I just did what I had to do because it was actually pretty freakin’ cool. I’ve never been in the ring which is collapsing before. It’s just like, when they take the bump out of the corner, the ring collapses.
They’re selling. They’re out like a light. I’m the one sitting up like, ‘Holy s**t. Just what the hell happened’, you know? And I remember them just screaming like, ‘Yes, yes, that’s we want, yes’. I mean it was just, and then the crowd’s like ‘holy s**t’. And it was just like, it was just one of them moments. The pop wasn’t as big as Rock and Hogan, but it was there.”
In the years since the momentous happening, Big Show has revealed in several interview that the combustion wasn’t natural and the ring had been rigged to break on impact.
Mike Chioda made his debut for the then World Wrestling Federation in 1989 and became a permanent fixture as well as Head Referee when Earl Hebner departed the company. However, the man who was known as well as those putting their bodies on the line was released in April 2020 as part of the company wide COVID necessitated talent cuts.
Credit for the interview: Chris Van Vliet