Charles Robinson Reveals What Happens When Wrestlers Forget To Kick Out During Matches

Everyone understands that wrestling is a stressful profession, whether you’re a wrestler, producer, or even a referee like Charles Robinson. Despite everything being predetermined, there’s a lot of pressure on talents to perform in front of thousands of fans, when everything needs to be perfect. There are no retakes on live television, so even a single mistake could ruin the entire segment or match.

There have been multiple instances when wrestlers have forgotten their lines or their moves during matches. Botches happen at times, and it’s hard to avoid them. One of the most awkward things to watch during matches is when wrestlers forget to kick out of their opponent’s finishers, and then everyone has to pretend that they actually did, and the match goes on. Current WWE Senior Official Charles Robinson recently talked about this during an interview with Chris Van Vliet. Robinson explains what happens when wrestlers forget to kick out, and how he handles such situations.

WWE Referee Charles Robinson On Wrestlers Not Kicking Out On Time

Charles Robinson was asked how he is so good at counting nearfalls, and he explained that it’s not up to the referees to make the nearfalls so close. It’s the wrestlers’ job, and sometimes when wrestlers forget to kick out on time, referees will not count the third fall and continue the job. He also responded to fans telling him to just count to three if wrestlers forget the finish, and Robinson said that he can’t do that when he knows how the match is going to end.

“The guys 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. I’m counting out loud for one thing so they can hear it. And a lot of times I’ll say ‘kick out’ when I get down there so they know to kick out ’cause sometimes guys forget. And in our defense ’cause people say, ‘Hey, 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 we just when they don’t kick out, we just try to fix it somehow.”

He then recalled that incident with Chris Jericho in March 2016 when he was wrestling Neville on Raw. Neville injured his ankle, and Jericho called for an audible. But Charles Robinson didn’t count to three, and Jericho got furious at him.

He shoved Robinson on camera, and the match ended in a disqualification. Later, both wrestlers talked it out in the back, with Jericho telling him that he was just “acting.”

Charles Robinson Isn’t The Only Referee Who Does This

While referees try to stick to the original finish, when these kinds of blunders happen on camera, it’s always awkward for a fan to watch. Just this week on SmackDown, Nia Jax forgot to kick out during her match against Jade Cargill and Tiffany Stratton.

This was really, really poor. What a shame. The refs should always count as if they’re going to hit the mat a third time; it’s the performers fault if they don’t kick out. Then Nia just starts chatting to the ref?! No wonder the crowd were booing this. pic.twitter.com/JF2olOsvch

— Gorilla Position (@WWEGP) September 27, 2025

What did the referee Daphanie LaShaunn do? She covered for Jax and stopped the count. If LaShaunn hadn’t done that, Cargill would’ve become the new WWE Women’s Champion, and it would’ve caused a lot of trouble backstage.

If you use quotes from this article, please credit Chris Van Vliet and link back to this article for the transcription.

Main image credit: Megan Elice Meadows, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons