Earl Hebner is the latest referee to leave Impact Wrestling.
Pro Wrestling Sheet reports that he left the company earlier this week. He, along with the other referees, were told by Impact that going forward, they would only be using local referees. This comes after his son Brian Hebner announced his departure earlier this week, along with Brian Stiffler, another longtime Impact referee. Both made their departure announcements over social media.
Earl Hebner is best known for his with the WWE, where he was a prominent referee for over 20 years. He and his brother Dave were part of a famous storyline in the 1980s involving Hulk Hogan where Hogan has cheated out of the title by the identical brothers, who switched places during his bout with Andre the Giant on an episode of Saturday Night’s Main Event.
He, along with his brother Dave, were fired by WWE in 2005 after allegedly selling WWE merchandise without permission. Earl joined TNA the following year and had been the senior referee for the promotion ever since. He was later induced into the TNA Hall of Fame in 2015.
Referees are not the only casualties with TNA’s move to Canada. Various names such as Madison Rayne, Rockstar Spud, Taryn Terell, Jim Cornette among others have also departed the company.
Bound for Glory is set for this Sunday, with a headline match of Johnny Impact vs. Eli Drake for the Impact title. Fightful will have live coverage of all the action starting at 8 p.m. EST. Impact is also set to tape next week at the Aberdeen Pavillion in Ottawa, Canada November 6 through November 10.
