REF WEEK: Refing Round The Globe By Jhonny Puttini
I’m Jhonny Puttini, a pro wrestling referee born in 1991 in Verona (Italy). My love for wrestling started when I was very young, I used to watch it on television with my father and think how would it be to become part of that world. I was so into wrestling that growing up as a teen I spent my summers looking for ways to be involved in the business, looking for wrestling academies (unfortunately back then there weren’t many and being a pre internet era made it even more difficult) and founding a very popular wrestling themed forum.
When I finally found a wrestling academy I was told I had to wait until my 16th birthday to join (in Europe back then that was the age to start practicing active wrestling to ensure a proper and healthy growth of kid’s back bones) so I started counting the days with excitement, finally my dream was coming true. It was 2007 when I started my training in a gym that was more than an hour away from my home. I know it doesn’t sound much but in Italy the concept of distance is much different than in Australia. In comparison it’s like going from the costal area of Sydney to the Blue Mountains, of course with no public transportation.
The training sessions were difficult but I didn’t mind, I spent every weekend there training both as wrestler and referee. I had the chance to train with big personalities of this business and I was happy to train as a wrestler but soon I knew that my path was to be a referee. My goal was to be a well trained referee, it was frustrating for me to see that in my country often if not always the referee is a role given to a trainee who simply aren’t ready for their debut as a wrestler. Wrestling is a serious business, as important as football for Italians or rugby for Australians, so for me it’s impossible to think in those other sports to see referee without specific training on the field, so why should it be different in our business?
The more I learnt the more I wanted to learn, the more I experienced the more I wanted to do so in 2012 I founded my own promotion where I was co-founder, vice president, senior referee and commentator on national TV. Those experiences were awesome and gave knowledge that I still use up to this days, inside and outside this business. But at some point that wasn’t enough, so I started going overseas exploring the European scene. Here I had the opportunity to learn new styles, especially in the UK, and I met lots of professionals that gave me very useful suggestion, reminding me that no mater how long you trained for and how many courses you did there is always so much to learn especially traveling, and I also learned that every booking you do is an occasion to improve.
I started dreaming to do more, to go far away, to achieve big goals, so after the pandemic I did it. I went to the USA in 2022 for a 7 week tour where I worked every weekend for a different promotion in a different state. That trip was a personal and professional dream and it was amazing, I met my childhood heroes too. When I returned to Italy people asked me “what do you do when your dreams come true” and simply what you have to do is to find new ones, and for me that means to never stop, to go further away, so I did it. I went to Asia referring in Japan, China and Hong Kong where language barrier become a reality. In 2023 I moved to Australia, Sydney, and spent a whole year there referring every weekend in different promotion across the country, I even went to Darwin! Before moving to Australia I have to be honest I had no idea what to expect and I was a bit afraid as I did take a big risk selling everything back at home and just going for it, but since the beginning I found a welcoming environment that gave me lots of trust with lots of people asking me for suggestions.
For the first time I was seeing as a more experienced referee and that made me feel really appreciated, Australia gave me so much personally and lots of opportunity, here in fact I started my working journey in NJPW Tamashii which took me to New Zealand too. My life experience, working and learning in 4 different continents, is the practical example of what a good impact “globalization” can have in this business, how traveling and learning all the ways of doing things in the different country apply can make an individual being more experienced, prepared and able to adapt. We see the big wrestling league such as WWE and AWE that reminds us with their events worldwide too that globalization in this business helps athletes do better, improve and meet people from different environments. In fact in Australia for example I worked in both bigger leagues such as ALL STAR WRESTLING , AWE and PWA, and smaller leagues such as WRESTLING GO and TOP END, and I can say I learned a lot working in each one of them.
I’m back in my hometown now, I’m here refereeing in new countries in Europe, like Cyprus, and while in Italy I also organized the biggest show of my career as an organizer in collaboration with NWA where I worked their main title.
Said that my heart is set in leaving again, reaching new achievements and goals, and hopefully I’ll hope to return to Australia, I can seriously say that Australia is the place where I lived and worked that gave me more and where I can see a huge potential for the business.
