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What's the story?
This has not been a good week for referees in Impact Wrestling. Brian Hebner and Brian Stiffler left the company earlier this week.
Now Pro Wrestling Sheet reports that legendary pro wrestling referee Earl Hebner has left the company as well.
In case you didn't know...
Earl Hebner has been a part of pro wrestling history for decades now. He was the referee during the notorious the amazing Iron Man match between Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart as well as the Montreal Screw Job.
He took off from the company after some scandal involving the sale of knockoff WWE merchandise under his watch.
But that didn't stop him from taking his referee prowess to TNA. Hebner has been a referee in Impact Wrestling sine 2006 but after over a decade with the company, it looks like he's finally had enough and is leaving.
The heart of the matter
Impact Wrestling is looking to cut costs however they can and that includes referees. Since Impact is holding their Bound For Glory pay-per-view event in Canada they have decided to hire only Canadian referees effectively leaving their usual referees in the lurch.
Pro Wrestling Sheet reports the Impact Wrestling Hall Of Fame referee left the company once word was handed down that they would be using Canadian referees during these upcoming events in Canada.
What's next?
Although it's unknown at this time what Hebner's next move will be it wouldn't be surprising to see him pop back up in WWE in one way or another.
The 68-year-old pro wrestling legend still has the ability to do his job well in the ring as he orchestrates incredible matchups inside the squared circle.
Author's take
It is very interesting timing that Earl Hebner is now a free-agent only a few short weeks away from the 20th anniversary of the Montreal Screwjob.
I'm not saying he will show up at Survivor Series, after all, there's already rumoured to be a pretty special referee already.
But WWE might consider bringing Hebner in for an angle down the line. After all, he's done his time away from WWE at this point and you'd think any fences would have been mended at this point.
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