Earl Hebner's Cageside Evaluation

What you loved:

1. Two Refs - Twin magic!
2. Fights Back - Refs usually cower to the wrestlers, but it's funny when they decide to push back.
3. Longevity - He's coming up on almost 40 years of reffing, that's damn impressive.
4. Look - He's got the classic look of a ref; smaller stature, but has a good mix of a wimp and an authoritative figure.
5. WWE Run - Someday the WWE should put him in the Hall of Fame, had a great run with them.

Best comment comes via joliemadchen:

"Earl Hebner is a friend of mine. According to him, the illegal merch selling this was a pretext to push him out of the company because they wanted to get rid of his brother, who was in a backstage role. He was so kind to me when I was a kid. He always kept kayfabe, arranged for me to meet all my favorite wrestlers, even went out to dinner with me and my family. When I went to see a TNA house show (after not being in touch with him for years), he gave me the royal treatment again. The one thing that was weird to me at that house show is that he is still living off the screwjob. He is (or was at the time at least) a heel ref who would get into the ring and do a strut mocking Bret Hart. His TNA merch is a ref jersey with "Damn right I did" on the back. He LOVES the attention. I feel like he’s the last one of the three involved in the screwjob to get over it, and he really should move on."

_______________________________________________________

What you loathed:

1. Montreal Screwjob - Earl was in a tough spot, what was he going to do, lose his job? I don't blame him to listening to Vince, but he shouldn't be still wearing a badge of pride about the situation.
2. T-Shirts - Sold some non-licensed WWE gear, and it partly led to his release from the company.
3. TNA Run - Off Earl went, and out of the minds of many fans.
4. Slow Three-Count - There's a fine line between being dramatic and annoying.
5. Mixed Bag - Earl is a pretty polarizing figure. I saw some Cagesiders call him the G.O.A.T. or a pro's pro, while others said he sucked with a one rating.

Best comment comes via pkdollabills:

"Besides the selling of E merchandize on the low, what I hate the most is his stupid long 3-count that gives away the finish every time. Killed the moment too many times. Yeah Montreal was wack too, but that was a circus of clowns."

On to the poll! With 165 votes, Earl Hebner's average score is 3.2.

Thanks, Cagesiders! Tomorrow's pick gets JBL talking crazy every week.

Until then!