There aren’t any referees that can say they’ve been tag team partners with the 16-time World Champion Ric Flair – except for Charles Robinson that is.
Robinson, who has been a life-long Ric Flair fan, had his dreams come true in WCW when he became Flair’s ally. Since Robinson had a lot of pull in the ring as an official, Little Naitch, as he soon became known as, was a powerful man to have on your side. Robinson’s one-sided officiating in Flair matches, though, soon caught the ire of Randy “Macho Man” Savage.
Flair, who was WCW President at the time, had recently fired Savage from WCW, so the Macho Man laid out a challenge. He said that if his girl, Gorgeous George, could beat Flair’s “girl”, Robinson, in a one-on-one matchup, he would get his job back. With that, Robinson had his first-ever professional wrestling match. Not only was it his first match, but it was also live, on pay-per-view at Slamboree in 1999. Little Naitch only had about a week to train, but was able to put forth a rather impressive showing. Unfortunately for him, though, he came up with the short end of the stick, and Savage had his job back.
One week later, Robinson got another crack at in-ring competition. But this time, he was paired up with his life-long idol, Flair. The duo teamed up against Savage and Madusa on Nitro. Not only did Robinson suffer another loss, but he also suffered the worst injury of his career. Savage nailed him with his patented top-rope flying elbow, and he collapsed Robinson’s lung and cracked some vertebrae in his back.
Although Robinson’s career is calling the action inside the ring, actually being one of the competitors is something he’ll never forget.
“Being Little Naitch was the highlight of my career. Ric has always been my hero. He’s one of the reasons I wanted to get into wrestling,” he said. “Just to work with him was phenomenal. There are people that go years and years in their career and don’t get to work with someone like Flair, but I got to.”
But before Robinson was styling and profiling in WCW, he was a photographer for a small independent promotion in Charlotte, N.C., called PWF. The promotion was run by George South and the Italian Stallion. In 1996, Robinson got involved in the action one day, and was used as a special referee. With that, his refereeing career was underway, and he never looked back.
Robinson was there for about a year before he got his big break from Terry Taylor and went to WCW. His arrival in WCW didn’t just come from out of the blue, though.
“Whenever WCW was within 150 miles of Charlotte, I kept showing up, and showing up and showing up at the arenas. I kept calling Terry Taylor and was very persistent,” he said. “I guess he got tired of hearing me, so he finally gave me a job so I’d shut up and leave him alone. He said I was the most persistent guy he’s ever seen.”
Robinson refereed a match between Chris Taylor and a local wrestler as a tryout match before a Nitro. Before long he became a regular and was refereeing some of the most high-profile matches in the company’s history.
“Goldberg vs. Hulk Hogan in the Georgia Dome probably stands out the most,” he said. “There were a ton of people there, and it was a huge deal for Goldberg to win the WCW Championship. Also, any Ric Flair match was great. I did the Flair vs. Hogan First Blood Match, which was great. Those were probably two of the biggest matches of my career.”
When Mr. McMahon bought WCW in March 2001, Robinson was out of a job. But his unemployment didn’t last very long. After about three months he received a call from WWE, and Robinson jumped at the chance to get back inside the squared circle. As excited as he was, though, he admits that he was nervous.
“It was scary coming to WWE. Any time you come to a new company, even if they’re nice to you, you get the sense they don’t want you there,” he said. “But that feeling didn’t last long at all here.”
Robinson endured a couple of embarrassing moments when he first came to WWE, but after that he began to feel at home and received a great birthday present.
“The guys put a sign on me that said, 'The Rock who?' and introduced me to The Rock,” he recalled. “But it was fun. I sat home for three months before I got the call, and my first match was July 2, which is also my birthday.”
Robinson has even managed to get himself caught up in some more in-ring action since coming to WWE. When Robinson and other former WCW referees came to WWE, they became involved in the WWE vs. The Alliance rivalry.
“Jack Doan punched me good and threw me into a blackboard,” said Robinson.
Then, on a July edition of SmackDown in 2004, Robinson was forced into a match against Luther Reigns by General Manager Kurt Angle. The match was broken up before too much damage could be done to Robinson, but the emotional scars still linger.
“It was very embarrassing. I had my shirt off in front of millions of people. I don’t have the body that these guys have. It’s not a pretty sight,” he said.
While that may be one of the lowlights of Robinson’s WWE career, one match stands out as his favorite as well.
“Undertaker vs. Ric Flair from WrestleMania X8 was great,” he said. “That was the last match that my wife, who passed away, was with me – so that one means the most to me. She was sick, and had been going through chemo. She shouldn’t have been there, but she wanted to be there for me, so that meant a lot.”
Robinson can’t think of a better way to earn a living than by being a WWE referee, but he also enjoys spending time with 12-year-old daughter Jessica outside the ring. Together, they enjoy skiing and riding horses.