Former WWE referee Mike Chioda recently discussed how WWE handles their referees’ travel arrangements.

During his “Monday Mailbag” podcast, Chioda said current referees have to cover their own travel costs. Chioda, who started with WWE in 1989, shared that for the better part of his career his travel costs were covered.

You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:

On not having to pay for travel costs for much of his career: “The first 20-something years I was with the company, everything was paid for because I was on the crew. That’s the key – being on a crew. For the last 12 years, I was just a full-time ref, and that was the best because you got everything paid for – you got per diem, you got everything. That was the best of both worlds: being on a crew and getting paid for everything in your expenses.”

On current referees not having that perk: “They’re paying out of pocket. They don’t pay for flights, they don’t pay for hotels, rental cars, gas – [but they don’t] give them a per diem or anything. So, a lot of money’s out of pocket… [one referee] was spending $300 to $400 for the rental car for four days, not even three days, and he was paying like $500 for hotels, and gas was probably a couple hundred bucks … and then you’ve got to add food in there, and if you got to pay for to go to the gym or pay for this or buy anything, it adds up.”

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