The longtime official explains why IMPACT Wrestling is where he wanted to be.
Over the summer, referee Brian Hebner wrapped up his career as a full-time official in pro wrestling. He officiated at IMPACT Wrestling’s Slammiversary event.
He took to his Refin’ It Up podcast and explained what IMPACT means to him and has meant to him throughout his combined years working for the company.
He went on to say that he’s had plenty of opportunities to go back to WWE or head to AEW but it’s not always about money or opportunity and it’s simply about being happy.
Hebner: I did exactly what I wanted to do. IMPACT gave me — When I lost my job at WWE, I felt like the world was done and over. I really did. It was the lowest point of my life. I had just bought a house, I had just bought a car and I lost my job and my wife didn’t — at the time by the way. I don’t have one now and that might be why — but, she didn’t know what to do and I didn’t know what to do and IMPACT gave me my moment, my lift of life and I always wanted to come back again and that’s where I wanted it to be finished because I love that locker room, I love that place, I just love IMPACT Wrestling and so, yeah, I’ve had plenty of opportunities to go back to WWE, go to AEW, went to Ring of Honor. Sometimes it’s not about opportunity and money as much as it is your happiness and to me, I’m very fortunate, very lucky that I got to work with guys like you [Josh Alexander], Rich Swann, Eddie Edwards. I should have never started a list but anyway — because it’s so long — it’s just awesome and I love you guys and wish nothing but the best.
The IMPACT World Champion Josh Alexander was a guest on the show and there was a conversation he and Hebner had about the early pandemic days of IMPACT TV tapings.
Hebner brought up that wrestlers were taking advantage of the opportunity to pause matches because there were no fans in attendance. It got to a point when Hebner went to D’Lo Brown and expressed that it was going to hurt the quality of the in-ring product if it continued because eventually, they were going to get back in front of fans.
Hebner: Me and you [Josh Alexander] talked about that before, all the pauses and all the stops [during the empty arena period of wrestling]. I’m not using names but it was literally like guys that would go, ‘Hold on, hold on a minute’ and I’m like, ‘What do you mean hold on a minute?’ ‘I got gassed. Let me take a break for a minute’ and it would piss me off so bad. No, I’m being dead serious. Josh, am I kidding?
Alexander: A lot of breaks [Josh laughed]. People started taking advantage of the ability to take breaks more than anything and it was just because they could.
Hebner: I even went to D’Lo [Brown] because I wasn’t going to Scott [D’Amore] because who the f*ck am I? And I said, ‘D’Lo, you know this is gonna kill us when we go live. Because you know at some point, we’re gonna go back live with the crowd. This is killing us. These boys are not learning sh*t and they’re young. They’re not learning sh*t’ and he agreed but, we all know, there’s nothing we can do about it at that point in time because the pity was on the boys and I get it because we were working in front of nobody trying to make TV, it’s tough.
Brian was able to share the ring with his father Earl at Slammiversary. There’s a review of that event up on the POST Wrestling site that John Pollock hosted.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Refin’ It Up with Brian Hebner with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
