Earl Hebner Recalls Andre The Giant Giving Him Two Black Eyes
Legendary wrestling referee shared a story of what happened when Andre The Giant gave him two black eyes just by squeezing Earl’s neck!
Earl Hebner had a long career in WWE as a referee from the late-1980s until the 2000s and then he would eventually work for TNA/Impact Wrestling for many years.
Andre The Giant was a larger-than-life wrestler who headlined the massive WrestleMania 3 event when he lost a WWE Title match to Hulk Hogan. Even 35 years later, it is remembered as one of the biggest professional wrestling matches ever.
During the WWF Main Event broadcast in 1988, Earl was part of an identical twin angle with his brother Dave, who was also a referee and road agent for WWE. The story was that “Million Dollar Man” Ted Dibiase bribed Earl, who wasn’t really known to the audience watching at home. Andre pinned Hogan to win the match even though Hogan had his shoulder up clearly before the three count. It didn’t matter because the referee counted the pin.
After the match, Andre handed the WWF Title to Dibiase. It wouldn’t last or be recognized as an official title win for Andre, but it was a way to get the WWF Title off Hogan to end his four-year run as champion. It was a huge story at the time leading into the WWF Title tournament at WrestleMania 4.
When Hebner was on the K&S WrestleFest livestream recently, he talked about the moment when Andre gave him two black eyes.
“We were in Winnipeg doing a match with Andre. It was a spot where he was gonna hold me. He grabbed me right here and he held me in the corner. The next day we flew from there to Madison Square Garden. From the pressure on his hands, I had two black eyes. Could not referee, couldn’t see. I walk up to Andre, ‘Andre, look what you did, boss.’ He goes, ‘No, not me.’ I go, ‘Yeah, you.'”