Veteran referee, Charles Robinson revealed how the late, ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage inadvertently ended his in-ring wrestling career on Corey Graves’s After The Bell podcast.
In WCW, back in 1999, Robinson began a storyline where he began emulating his idol, ‘Nature Boy’ Ric Flair. Robinson bleached his hair and donned the famous robes and became ‘Little Naitch.’
Robinson recalled the match on Nitro that ended his short run as an in-ring competitor. Teaming with Flair, he faced Madusa and Savage in a tag team encounter:
“Randy Savage, he took the time to work with me in the ring and to work on the match to make sure that what we gave to the fans was fun and entertaining, and it wasn’t meant to be a comedy thing because it wasn’t. I thought the match turned out actually pretty good. He was just fantastic.”
Robinson continued:
“We teamed up to take on Madusa and Savage. They called it a mixed tag match. I think they were saying I was part of the other mixed, but of course, Savage and Madusa, they were going over. They were going to be the winners and Savage was going to do the elbow on somebody. And Ric Flair looked at me and said, ‘It ain’t gonna be me.’ I was volunteered to take the elbow drop from Savage, and unfortunately, he landed on me and he put me in the hospital for a couple weeks. He collapsed my lung [and] cracked some vertebrae in my back, and my wrestling career was over.”
Although Robinson did not compete in a wrestling ring again, he was able to continue his career as a referee:
“It was very, very short but it all worked out because I find that a referee’s career tends to be a little bit longer than an in-ring performer, as a wrestler. I was supposed to tour with Ric all summer long. We were supposed to tag. Well if that would have happened, who knows what it would’ve done to my referee career. I’m of the mindset things worked out the way they were supposed to.”
Robinson is right. Over two decades later, he is still officiating matches in WWE, at the age of 56.
h/t to Wrestling Inc. for transcription