Known as a ref bump in Professional Wrestling parlance, it is common in pro wrestling matches for one of the wrestlers to knock over the referee during the course of the match, usually inadvertently. Apparently, this puts the referee in a comatose state of sorts in which he is completely oblivious to his surroundings. This can reach ludicrous extremes; a referee that is barely clipped may be rendered "unconscious" for several minutes at a time. In addition to having the shortest attention span of all organisms in the known universe, pro wrestling referees are apparently the weakest as well.
Since pro wrestling referees do not rule on anything they don't personally witness (remember, if the ref didn't see it, it didn't happen), this gives the Heel ample opportunity to call out his cronies or locate a foreign object. Alternatively, the referee may be knocked out just as the Face pins the heel. In either scenario, bonus points are awarded if the referee "awakens" just as the heel begins pinning the face. More if he wakes in time to see the face turning the tables with a foreign object on the heel.
From a Kayfabe standpoint, the main function of ref bumping is to allow such dirty tactics to continue, since obviously any ref with two functioning eyes and half of a functioning brain would halt the match at the first sign of underhanded activity. By removing the ref as a factor for a period of time, the watchers are able to continue enjoying the match without getting hit by a heavy dose of Fridge Logic, and therefore keep the spectacle going.
A variation of this, which may have originated as a subversion, is for a second referee to eventually come rushing out and assume control. In a Double Subversion, this second referee may also be knocked out. Just as likely, though, the first ref comes to, and both refs rule the match in favor of a different wrestler/team (which, in particularly rare and hilarious instances, can result in the refs themselves duking it out). In fact, even if a fellow wrestler is performing the referee duties, they can sometimes be knocked out or incapacitated by a move they would shrug off while competing in a match, though most promotions are getting better about this. Still, for the "normal" referees, it's not uncommon for even the show's own announcers to suggest a stiff wind would knock a ref out. While today seldom does a pay-per-view go by without this coming into play at some point, it was a relatively rare occurrence in mainstream American pro wrestling until around the mid-1990s.
It should be noted, however, that in Real Life the refs are as durable as the wrestlers they are in the ring with, and ref bumping itself is taken with a huge dose of kayfabe as part of the show. Performance or not, these are still 200-pound masses of muscle and adrenaline throwing themselves around, and even a "partial contact" hit can deal some serious damage to you if you're not as durable as they are.
Notable Instances:
- The original Dusty Finish comes to mind. After being ousted due to an injury by The Four Horsemen, Dusty Rhodes got his chance at comeuppance against the then-NWA World Heavyweight Champion
, Ric Flair, at Starrcade 1985, The Gathering's main event. Late in the match, referee Tommy Young was knocked clear out of the ring with two referee bumps. The Horsemen used this opportunity to jump Dusty, sending both Ole and Arn Anderson to attack Rhodes' injury. Rhodes persevered, and a second referee counted a small-package pin on Dusty, apparently (and to the appearance of all watching the show) making Rhodes NWA Champion for the third time. This was reversed (and the trope subverted) when Young noted on the next week's television that he had seen the interference, thereby disqualifying Flair, Flair retaining the title through the Champion's Advantage.
- The main event of SummerSlam 91 featured a notable aversion. It was Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior vs. the Triangle of Terror (Sgt. Slaughter/Col. Mustafa (The Iron Sheik)/Gen. Adnan [Sheik Adnan Al-Kaissie]), with Sid Justice (Sid Vicious/Sycho Sid) as special referee. Meaning, wrestlers would collide with Sid and he wouldn't actually move.
- In a most absurd case, decorated amateur athlete, mixed martial artist for the UFC and NWA World Heavyweight Champion Dan Severn was portrayed this way during Owen Hart's feud with Ken Shamrock. Whether Severn turning heel and becoming Owen's personal trainer makes up for it or not is a matter of opinion.
- Triple H vs. The Undertaker at WrestleMania 17 was very over the top about this. The referee got knocked down early on in the match. The two spent at least ten minutes brawling all over the arena. This included doing things that should have gotten them disqualified (not to mention counted out). By the time they returned to the ring, the ref still took a while to recover.
- Eddie Guerrero loved taking advantage of this trope. When the ref was out, he'd often try and get his opponent disqualified by pretending he'd been hit with a foreign object when the ref came to. Occasionally he'd knock the ref out himself and try to get his opponent blamed for it. His match with Chris Benoit at Vengeance 2003 is a particularly classic instance of this. His final match, against Mr. Kennedy, had this same trope. After Kennedy was disqualified for "using a chair" on Eddie, Kennedy actually did use one — hard — saying "DISQUALIFY THAT!!" It was a bit Harsher in Hindsight, but no one knew what was about to happen, unfortunately.
- SHIMMER referees have been known to be knocked off their feet simply by being shouted at.
- Kurt Angle vs the then-WWE Champion John Cena at Survivor Series 2005 was a particularly hilarious instance of this trope. Angle had his own personal referee, Daivari, who was determined to make Angle win. Cena, after several pin falls that should have been three counts, realized he could hit the ref and Angle wouldn't allow Daivari to disqualify him because it would cost Angle the belt. Eventually Daivari got inadvertently knocked out of the ring, and another ref came in. This ref was later knocked out by Angle so that he could bring Daivari back into the ring (still unconscious despite a relatively minor fall), but instead another ref came in, who ended up being knocked out as well, and then yet another referee who also only got knocked out, by which time Raw was out of referees and they sent in one from SmackDown!. When Daivari finally came back in, he received a DDT from Cena. By the time the match was over, the ring was littered with the bodies of four unconscious referees.
- Conversed to exploit a lack of attention span by Tigresa del Norte in 2006 when she mocked the fragility of an LLF referee by pacing around with a cane, which she eventually used to bludgeon Reina Azteca and then distract him with so she could utilize brass knuckles.
- Ended up played for laughs with Tennessee area referee Jingus when a fan randomly started doing push ups during a PGWA title match between Nikki Roxx and Mickie Knuckles, and Jingus decided to try but could barely do one.
- Possibly the most over-the-top example of this may be a tag match at ROH's Manhattan Mayhem II show on August 25, 2008... where the referee was knocked out long enough for the Vulture Squad stable to debut, leading to a three way melee with weapons and high spots to break out, and for the match to be decided with the ref none the wiser.
- In a TNA match, Chris Sabin of the Motor/Murder City Machine Guns inadvertently knocked out the referee in a match against Team 3D. Sabin then got knocked out and Brother Ray of Team 3D pinned him, at which point another referee came out and counted the three count. AT THE SAME TIME as this was happening, Alex Shelley of the MCMG pinned Brother Devon of Team 3D, and the original referee woke up in time to make that three count. Cue the two referees arguing over whose count was the real one; eventually it was ruled a no-contest.
- Subverted by Shane Sewell, whose Puerto Rican wrestling background was noted and well-documented throughout his time as a TNA referee. Especially during Sheik Abdul Bashir'snote matches as X-Division Champion, when it was almost expected for Sewell to beat the shit out of Bashir after the match, regardless of all the storyline reasons against it.
- On an episode of Raw in 2013, a match between Daniel Bryan and Wade Barrett was interfered with when Vince McMahon came down to ringside and very slowly pulled the ref out of the ring to break up a pin. Despite not even really being hurt in any way, the ref stayed down long enough for the Bryan/Barrett match to continue, with Vince calling Brad Maddox down as the new ref, Bryan beating up Maddox, Triple H coming down to finish the match as ref, and a dramatic appearance by Randy Orton. The last one closed out the show and the ref was still laying on the ground, selling the small tumble he took roughly five minutes earlier.
- Enforced at the World Wrestling League's Navidad Corporativa 2014 event, where referee Joe Bravo, an accomplished wrestler, was ejected by a bunch of other referees for trying to assert himself against Laredo Kid and “El Fenomeno” BJ.
- Averted by Pro Wrestling Guerilla and All Elite Wrestling referee Rick Knox, who is liable to kick the ass of any wrestler who tries to mess with him. Of course there's really no point in bumping a ref that refuses to enforce the rules to begin with...
- Double Subverted during the match between El Gran Armando and El Gigante Nihan on the 6-29-2019 WWC show. It took five of them, including lady ref Windy Sáez who usually defies this trope by ducking out of the ring during brawls, but the referees were able to successfully handcuff managers Wizard and Juan Manuel Ortega together in spite of Wizard's active physical protests. However, Wizard was able to escape during the match after Armando knocked one of the referees out by pulling them into the path of a charging Gigante Nihan. A mere four weren't enough to stop him again, so they disqualified Armando and let Ortega handle Wizard his own way.
