Former WWE referee Mike Chioda was asked during a recent Monday Mailbag show if the referees during The Attitude Era were instructed not to count wrestlers out when the action spilled outside the ring.

Here is what he revealed:

“That’s true,” Chioda said. “There was so much HAHA going on. When you had The Attitude Era, with Stone Cold doing his thing on the outside, and like with DX, there was a lot of HaHa being played in DX matches and stuff like that. The rules were kind of shaded a little bit out the door. The rules came back a little bit after that, in the mid-2000s, like maybe late-2000s the rules came back strong. There was a lot more leniency on the outside, a lot more leniency on the DQs.”

Chioda added, “There were a lot of nut shots and other things you saw. The Hardcore style was a lot more entertaining. When you’re trying to entertain more, your rules kind of fall out the window. When MMA became really big, Vince wanted to go with all the rules.”