Referees

[Steam]

I was watching the Ring of Honor blood compilation (hell of a bargain at $10 at FYE) and a thought came to my mind while watching the Boston Street Fight between the Briscoes and Steenerico. In the match Mark wants to perform a move off the ladder onto Steen but the cheapo ladder that ROH likes to use wasn't functioning properly so he told referee Paul Turner (?, I think thats his name) to hold it against the turnbuckles for him as he did whatever it was he was going to do. The result of the move is not important as I spent a few minutes trying to think of what it takes to be a referee. Seriously, is it really that difficult? I mean, fucking Todd Sinclair can do it, why can't I? I'm not saying that I want to throw away my career to try a shot at being a ref but really it can't be too hard.

[Hornswoggle]

refs are trained like wrestlers? they do blade jobs and stuff and they have to know certain spots I'm sure its harder then it looks

side note i wish i could buy ROH dvds

[TheKris]

This should help

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_mag?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=ring+of+honor&x=26&y=22

[TheICON]

I guess the answer here is... it depends. There are many referees who are trained just like wrestlers. One I know of off-hand is Bryce Remsburg, who was trained alongside of Kingston and Jigsaw in Chikara's second class. However, there was something that prevented him from being able to do certain things in the ring, which subsequently cut his wrestling career short. But he is trained and can take the occasional big bump. One that comes to mind was the Samoa Joe/Necro Butcher match from IWA MidSouth in Philly, where Joe launched Bryce over the top, and took a beautiful bump on the concrete floor.

But on the adverse side, there are many referees who are not trained wrestlers, and to me, it shows. They're not very mobile, they almost seem clueless in there, and they definitely don't know what makes a match a good match or how to put a match in that direction. I don't know if it was the training (or lack thereof) that does it, or the fact that they're just not that good at being a referee... In my opinion, if a referee goes through training and studies tapes like the wrestlers do, then they know exactly what it takes to make a good match. They know where they should be positioned at certain points in matches, and they know that if a wrestler is lost, they should be there to gently nudge them in the right direction.

Some of the best referees are the ones you don't notice. If you notice a referee during a match, it usually means that the referee is doing something to detract from the match, and that's a bad thing. The attention should be on the match, not the guy calling the match...

As far as actual referee training, I think it's more of a thing where you watch tapes of other referees and see what they do, and you go with it accordingly. I remember telling a buddy of mine to just watch tapes where Bryce is reffing and "Do what he does." I think you learn the basics of refereeing on day one (counting to five in the corner and on the ropes, "enforcing" the rules of no punching, chokes, or eye rakes, etc.), and you just fine tune it for the rest of your time... It's a craft, just like wrestling is. And you work for perfection that you will more than likely never see. I've heard of places where they'll just take the referee in training and put them in the ring during practice matches, so they practice being a referee without being in front of a crowd. So hope that helps your curiousity. =]