Dave Hebner

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Dave (on the left) with his brother Earl Hebner during the infamous "twin referee" incident on The Main Event in 1988.

"Dave" Hebner (born May 17, 1949 in Richmond, Virginia) is an American professional wrestling authority figure, promoter, road agent and referee.

[edit] Career

Hebner, who was an amateur wrestler in high school, debuted as a professional wrestling referee in the late 1970s in the Richmond, Virginia area. In the 1980s he began working for the World Wrestling Federation, where he refereed many historic matches such as Randy Savage versus Ricky Steamboat at WrestleMania III and Randy Savage versus Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania V. Perhaps his most memorable appearance came on the February 5, 1988 episode of The Main Event, when he was assigned to referee a match for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship between Hulk Hogan and André the Giant. André defeated Hogan after Hebner's twin brother Earl had switched places as Dibiase had locked Dave in a closet and quickly counted to three as Andre pinned Hogan, despite Hogan clearly kicking out of the pin attempt. The match and the WWF Championship were awarded to Andre as a result.

Both Hebners received a $2,500 USD bonus for the match In an interview with the WWF RAW Magazine in 2001, Dave claimed he suffered broken ribs as a result of the kicks Earl put to him as part of the angle, which kept him out of action until after WrestleMania IV. As a result, the storyline was shifted to have Earl come clean, and he was the referee when Randy Savage won the Tournament final at WrestleMania IV against Ted DiBiase for the WWF Championship.

After retiring as a referee following knee replacement surgery, Hebner became a WWF road agent. He worked as a Road Agent until July 2002, when he was sidelined for several months with a badly injured knee.

Hebner was released from the WWF, renamed WWE, in July 2005 along with his brother Earl after Earl was accused of selling WWE merchandise without permission from a gift store he owned. In January 2006, Hebner claimed that Earl had been selling T-shirts with the WWE logo printed on them.

After being released, Hebner debuted in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling on the December 17, 2005 episode of TNA iMPACT!, appearing on the stage during a match between Team 3D and the Diamonds in the Rough. The audience, assuming at first that he was Earl Hebner, began chanting "You screwed Bret!", a reference to the Montreal Screwjob that Earl was a part of in 1997. The chant was largely censored when the taped episode was aired. Hebner reappeared several times over the following weeks, with commentator Mike Tenay identifying him as a "Management Consultant" on December 31, 2005.

In addition to appearing with TNA, Hebner opened his own professional wrestling promotion, the United Wrestling Federation (UWF), in Virginia. In addition to the promotion, he is also the promotion's storyline General Manager. In March 2006, the UWF announced that it had signed a deal to promote TNA-branded house shows in the Mid-Atlantic States, with the first shows being promoted in conjunction with NASCAR's April 2006 race in Martinsville, Virginia. UWF ceased co-promoting shows with TNA in early 2007, although the promotion continues to use TNA talent. In February 2007, the UWF announced that it would begin using talent from Wrestling Society X on its shows.

[edit] References

Dave Hebner at WrestlingInformer.net
Dave Hebner at ObsessedWithWrestling.com^{[citation needed]}
Dave Hebner talks about his WWE release and the reasons behind it, his affiliation with TNA and more^{[citation needed]}