Kevin Nash says WWE referee should be ‘first-ballot’ Hall of Famer

Whenever referee Charles Robinson decides to end his career, Kevin Nash thinks a WWE Hall of Fame induction should be in short order.

Nash spoke about the Avery Styles dues-paying controversy on his Kliq This podcast this week and defended Styles in the situation. Nash was never asked to set up a ring during his own career, and he thinks it’s very important to have people in that role who know what they’re doing. If a ring isn’t properly put together, someone could get hurt. Nash credited WWE referees like Robinson for the work they put in helping to set up and take down the ring. It’s one of the reasons Nash believes Robinson should be a “first-ballot” WWE Hall of Famer.

“Are you supposed to come into a territory and take someone’s job that it is to set up the ring? Are you supposed to clusterf*** the system? Are you going to stop doing what you’re doing and take me under your wing and let me be your f***ing ring-put-together apprentice? Or are you just going to do the f*** what you do?

“There are people in this f***ing business that have done — and the WWE referees are renowned for this. And to this day, I’m almost f***ing sure that [Charles] Robinson still helps put up and take down the ring. I mean, if he’s not a first-ballot Hall of Fame, you can take me out, coach. But Charles is like — there’s always going to be a Charles. And there’s always going to be eight or nine or 10 guys — like, it’s so important for that ring to be put together properly, for those ropes to be put together properly. It’s not a chore. It’s not house work. It’s not being a f***ing young boy at the f***ing dojo and lacing the f***ing boots of the old-time f***ing Japanese wrestlers. It’s not a tradition, this is a very intricate — if not the most intricate — part of the apparati that we do the art form that we call pro wrestling in on a weekly basis.”

Robinson, who refereed matches for Nash dating back to the 1990s in WCW, has been a fixture in WWE ever since WCW closed its doors. The first time a WWE referee was inducted into the Hall of Fame was in 2023, when the late Tim White received that year’s Warrior Award.

Kevin Nash on Avery Styles situation —

Along with pointing out the potential dangers of having someone inexperienced set up the ring, Nash echoed the same sentiment as Cody Rhodes, feeling like AJ Styles has already paid enough dues on behalf of his son.

“I think AJ paid enough dues to where his son’s f***ing piggybank is full, that’s where I come from,” Nash said.

Nash also said that, while he likes Game Changer Wrestling and has appeared for the promotion before, he thinks Avery Styles is paying his dues just by being in GCW. If it were Nash’s son, Nash would want him to start out his career in NXT getting a push right away.

The controversy surrounding Avery Styles originated in a tweet from indie wrestler Arik Cannon, who claimed that he watched Styles “skirt away from helping with a single thing” at a GCW show. Brett Lauderdale (the promoter of GCW) said that — while he respects Cannon — Cannon does not speak for him or GCW. Lauderdale believes Styles, who just made his wrestling debut, should be afforded the same grace that any teenager in his situation would be.