Earl Hebner Talks Working For TNA, "Screwing" Bret Hart, Blames Laurinaitis For His Firing
Recently, TNA's head official Earl Hebner was interviewed for Tha O Show. Amongst the topics discussed were; why he was fired by WWE, if he'd ever go back, whether he's considered suing WWE and "screwing" Bret Hart. Check out some of the highlights:
On what exactly happened when he and his brother, Dave Hebner, were fired by WWE: "Well, I'm going to tell you the truth and whether anyone believes it doesn't mean a s–t to me. Johnny (Laurinaitis) had a hard-on for my brother. He wanted to fire my brother. I owned a shirt shop in St. Louis. Whatever we had in the shop — and I was not there that often — was legal. It was the same merchandise that WWE bought.
"They used me as the scapegoat. I've had offers to come back there but I'm not going back there. That's the whole story. It's a big lie that I was doing what they said I was doing. Johnny wanted to get rid of my brother and I was the scapegoat when they told me I was making illegal merchandise.
"I've had offers to come back to WWE but I won't go back because I feel if I went back there, they'd only be hiring me to get me out of TNA. Because, the ref that myself and (my son) Brian — they'd get us down there, find another loop hole and we'd be out of a job. I love TNA to begin with because they're truthful, honest and straight up.
"There's so much bulls–t up at WWE it's unreal. So, I don't need to go back there. My time is limited. I've probably got two years — maybe I could stay to 2014 if I want to stay — but right now, my plans are to leave in 2013."
On whether or not he considered suing WWE: "No. It's not worth the aggravation. I'd be wasting my money, spinning on wheels because they got cahoots with this guy, that guy and the other guy. It was better for me to just walk off and say, 'Thank you very much. I'm gone.'
"I could have fought it but I'm not going to waste my money. All the loopholes that Vince McMahon knows, with all the lawyers and bulls–t, it'd probably cost me more than it was worth. So, the best thing was for me to just leave. I'm glad I did and I'm happy where I'm at.
"TNA picked me up out of the the blue and it's been great there. It's like a tweeted a while back: When I leave, I'll leave my boots and my shoes hanging on TNA wrestling ropes. I'll be finished, I'll be gone. I will never go back to WWE."
On a t-shirt he sells that says "Damn Right I Did" that he sometimes wears and shows off when fans chant "You Screwed Bret": "When they chant that, I pull my referee shirt off and it says, 'Damn Right I Did' and I'm making a lot of money off that.
"It is what it is. I'm making money off it. They can chant it all night long and it's making my money. I love it. ... It's great. It's about 15-years-old. I'm selling anywhere from 50-80 shirts a night at the house shows. We're going to Canada June 23rd and 24th, I hope I sell 10,000 shirts over there. They can either s–t on them, burn them or keep them. I don't care. As long as they buy them — that's all I care about."
You can check out the entire interview below.