Bryce Remsburg: 20 Years as a ref, AEW vs Indies, Invisible Man vs Invisible Stan, and more

Jimm K Morrison passed along:

Bryce Remsburg has been an easily recognizable face on AEW TV for his signature over-the-top reffing gestures and willingness to add comic relief into wrestling matches. While celebrating 20 years in the industry, Remsburg sat down with JOB’d Out Wrestling (www.youtube.com/jobdout) to discuss how he got his start, his tenure in CHIKARA, the match that made him famous, and more.

On differences between being a referee in AEW compared to the indies:

“Refereeing on the indies for 17 years was getting my bachelors degree, refereeing in AEW is my masters degree. I learn something every week. There’s a different thing to consider, there are ear pieces, there are times, there are twelve cameras… many times it feels like you are sort of conducting an orchestra. You can’t grab the violin and make it play the notes you want but you can strongly suggest it’s time to play a certain note in a certain place, for example”

The moment that put Bryce Remsburg on the radar for a lot of wrestling fans came right before AEW’s launch in 2019. During Joey Janela’s Spring Break 3 (Part 1), Remsburg was tasked with refereeing a one-of-a-kind bout between two imaginary wrestlers – Invisible Man and his evil twin brother Invisible Stan:

“I told my wife to make sure they show it at my funeral because I think it is my Opus. For better or worse… It’s the thing that fans (still) yell during commercials at Dynamite pretty much every week!”

Naturally a wrestling match featuring no wrestlers would normally be a troublesome experience for anybody involved, but Remsburg snapped up the opportunity:

“I was very excited about this challenge. I said ‘yeah this sounds great’ and then I realized I didn’t have any idea what I was gunna do. I agreed to this in principle but I had no execution or concept…”

The match itself was a gigantic success because of Remsburg’s miming as if he was calling a match between legends – but Remsburg insists the credit for its success really belongs in one place:

“Obviously, the real secret sauce in all of this is the audience. It’s Wrestlemania weekend, it’s NYC, it’s late at night, they’re serving alcohol at the venue, everyone’s having a good time and is relatively invested in this ridiculous Invisible Man storyline… so if I had gone out there and done this Shakespeare pantomiming nonsense and they’re just sitting on their hands… we might’ve gone home pretty quick (and) it would’ve been along four or five minutes for Bryce! But luckily, and this is a testament to GCW, they have a very passionate fanbase.”

With twenty years under his belt, Remsburg laid out very simply what his goal is for the remainder of his career:

“If there’s an opportunity to referee a type of match I’ve never refereed before – I want to do it. If there’s a 60-minute ironman match, casket match, ladder match, inverted battle royal, best seven out of thirteen falls match… I want to have the most eclectic wrestling referee resume of anyone in history.”

For over half an hour Bryce Remsburg breaks down the Invisible Man vs Invisible Stan match and fallout, why he doesn’t like the idea of what his “legacy” in wrestling would be, who his favorite referees of all time are, and much more. You can find this interview in its entirety on the JOB’d Out Wrestling YouTube channel by clicking the following link: