Hebner autobiography pulls out a victory
Despite being a business cloaked in layers of secrecy so thick that comparisons to underground crime syndicates are commonplace, memoirs from former wrestlers or one-time actual and would-be power players are almost pervasive. Books by referees are more unusual, though, and few, if any, officials have had as expansive of a career as Earl Hebner. His memoir, Earl Hebner: The Official Story, is a retelling of his almost 50-year career in and around professional wrestling. It’s vulgar at times, and filled with enough road stories and behind-the-scenes details to engage readers solely interested in insider details, but it’s the book’s surprising third-act poignancy that finally makes it memorable.
Hebner grew up in a working-class family outside of Richmond, Virginia, alongside his identical twin brother, Dave. They formed a tight bond in childhood, often finding ways to make the unusual biology of their births work to their advantage. Earl became a wrestling fan through local broadcasts of promoter Jim Crockett’s North Carolina-based affiliate of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). Through a relationship with Virginia promoter Joe Murnick, Hebner began work as part of the ring crew for NWA shows in and around Richmond before being promoted to ring announcer and, finally, official. Despite a total lack of in-ring experience, Hebner fit right in. He learned the finer points of his trade from the now-legendary referee Tommy Young, who began his career in 1971. Young helped Hebner learn how to move in the ring, and how the actions of a referee can serve to either enhance or detract from the drama and excitement of a match.
Hebner quickly moves up the ranks and is along with Jim Crockett Promotions for its boom and then bust ride in the 1980s. He’s in the ring for Magnum T.A. and Tully Blanchard’s blood-soaked “I Quit” match at Starrcade 1985, as well as the first-ever WarGames match the next year. There’s little dirt spilled, and though there are intimations of conflict and backstage heat, Hebner is not out to settle any old scores. It’s refreshing to experience those tumultuous years through his eyes, and there will be readers wishing he’d gone even deeper.
In 1988, through his brother and former booker for Jim Crockett, George Scott, Hebner is hired away from Crockett by the World Wrestling Federation to take part in yet another now-legendary match. He received a first-class welcome in New York, including a pick-up from Vince McMahon’s personal driver, a visit to McMahon’s home, and a private meeting in McMahon’s office at Titan Tower. It’s a fun window into the kind of cloak and dagger maneuverings that often accompanied the WWF’s acquisition of talent from its competition. The payoff was the nationally broadcast match on February 5, 1988, between Andre the Giant and Hulk Hogan, in which Hebner employed a bad count to rob Hogan of his long-held heavyweight championship.
It was obvious to everyone watching the match that Hogan had kicked out of a pin attempt at the count of two, but Hebner finished his count, anyway. When Hebner’s look-alike brother ran to the ring and the twins began arguing, the plot, supposedly orchestrated by “Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase, became clear. It was an engaging and novel bit of storytelling, and Hebner recounts the evening in detail; “[David and I] laughed like little kids again, pranking our school, but this time we pulled a fast one on the whole world.”
Hogan was fully invested in the storyline, and that it came off as planned was considered a success to everyone involved. Much less fun, and considerably less consensual, was the match with which Hebner will be forever linked; the November 9, 1997 Montreal Screw Job. Perhaps the most famous wrestling match of all time, and certainly the most infamous, it rightly serves as the book’s axis. After promising then-champion Bret Hart that he would inform him of the exact finish for the match, so Hart would be prepared to protect himself, if needed, Hebner learns what is planned just minutes before he enters the ring. He’s left in an impossible bind — risk throwing away his career to keep his promise to Hart or take the directions he’s been handed and protect himself and his livelihood.
He stays loyal to the WWF, destroying his relationship with Hart and earning him the wrath of an irate crowd. It’s a decision that haunts him for years to come, as he struggles with his feelings of having broken trust with Hart and other wrestlers, as well as with himself. “I tried to wash the evil off of me, but couldn’t,” he writes of his feelings the morning after the match. Hebner and Hart eventually reconcile, though the exact details of the reconciliation, as recounted by Hebner, vary from the ones included in Hart’s 2009 autobiography. It’s possible this is due to lapses in memory, but it seems strange to not reconcile the discrepancies given how central of a role the relationship with Hart plays in the book.
In 2005, Hebner was fired by WWF/E for selling unlicensed merchandise, a situation he describes as a set-up arranged by disgraced former executive John Laurinaitis. “I felt like I had finally been screwed by a business that screws everyone,” he writes. “I am still heartbroken on how the whole thing ended on such a bullshit note.” He finds a second wind with TNA Wrestling and was inducted into its Hall of Fame in 2015.
Teaming with Kenny Casanova, Hebner’s writing is most poignant when writing about his long relationship with his brother, who died in 2022. The two were side-by-side for most of their adult lives and are together in the hours before Dave died. “Life without David is sad,” he writes. “It is obvious that something is missing now to me almost every day. A piece of me is gone, but I still live my life.” Hebner is less open in sharing other details of his personal life, including related to his marriages and raising two children, as well as his participation in a class action lawsuit against the WWE in 2016. While it’s not surprising he may be unwilling or unable to discuss specific details, omitting almost all mention of them makes the book feel one-sided.
Hebner made the most of his unplanned career in wrestling. He watched from inside the ring as matches changed from being fully improvised in the moment to carefully choreographed down to the finest details. He hauled rings around the southern circuit of the NWA and flew on private plans full of wrestlers and WWE executives. He was there for the end of the territories and the beginning of the Attitude Era. Earl Hebner: The Official Story covers it all and blends insider details with the slightly removed enthusiasm of a fan who can’t believe they get to join in for the ride.
