The wrestling veteran Earl Hebner recently said that the former WWE referee Tim White should have been inducted into the Hall of Fame when he was still alive.
White passed away in June last year at the age of 68. He was posthumously inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2023 earlier this year as the Warrior Award recipient. Hebner also worked for the Stamford-based company as a referee, but he was fired in 2005 for selling WWE-branded merchandise without permission.
During a recent interview with Steve Fall of WrestlingNewsCo, Earl Hebner stated that WWE should have put Tim White in its Hall of Fame before he passed away, as it does not mean anything when someone is inducted when they are not alive.
"They should have put Tim White in the Hall of Fame way way before he passed away. I think the Hall of Fame means nothing if you're not alive. You don't get any benefits out of it. What good does it do you and would it do me if I was dead and they put me in the Hall of Fame? Nothing. What does it mean? Nothing. I don't know it, you know, Timmy didn't know it. So, what the he**? He's not the only one. There are Macho Man [Randy Savage], all of them. I mean what good does it do you now? But Timmy deserved it way way long before they gave it to him, before he passed. He deserved it probably ten years before that. The way he took care of Andre [the Giant] and kept Andre going, and everything, you know, but, you know, there's a lot of other referees that need to be in the Hall of Fame but I don't know if they're gonna out any referees in or not, no big deal to me either way," Earl Hebner said. [7:04 - 8:17]
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You can watch the full interview below:
Earl Hebner said John Laurinaitis got him fired from WWE by spreading a major lie
During the same interview, Earl Hebner stated that the former WWE employee John Laurinaitis lied about him selling the company's merchandise, which eventually led to his release.
He added that Laurinaitis also used it as an excuse to fire his brother, Dave Hebner.
"The whole thing was a big lie anyway. About me doing the T-shirts and all that. So, Johnny [John Laurinaitis] fired me because he wanted to get rid of my brother. Why would I give up a $250,000 a year job for a $2 t-shirt? The truth was never told. It was all a lie," Earl Hebner said.
Earl Hebner retired from refereeing in 2021. He even served as an official for AEW before his retirement.
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