>>15763640The kayfabe explanation is that the ref is there at the behest of the wrestlers, not the promotion, like in the old days before promotions were a thing.
Back in the day, boxing and wrestling matches worked a lot like duels: each principal had a friend who would act as his second, and the seconds would get together before the event and agree on the details of the contest and name a neutral third-party to act as referee to adjudicate any disputes. Sometimes, the seconds would each nominate an umpire (judge) instead, and then the umpires would then name a referee to settle disagreements between the umpires.
I always understood an "unsanctioned" match to work similarly: the promoter is (kayfabe) uninvolved, and the wrestlers theoretically could chose whoever they want as referee, but as a matter of convenience they normally pick one of the promotion's regular referees who's already in the building and now (kayfabe) off the clock.
