Earl Hebner recently sat down with Viceland as part of their Dark of the Side ring series. In the brief clip released by the company, Hebner discussed his role in the infamous Montreal Screwjob, and how he and Bret Hart both reacted after the legendary wrestling moment.
Hebner said he was very scared in the immediate aftermath, even going so far to barricade his hotel room just in case Hart knew where he was. “If I hadn’t have rung the bell in the sharpshooter, Vince McMahon was going to ring that bell,” he said when asked. “So I understand, Bret went through and destroyed monitors, beat the s— out of Vince. I went to the hotel, and I was so scared that he knew where I was staying, I took the dressers and everything and put them up against the door.”
According to Hebner, he and Hart ran into each other about a year later, when Hart was with WCW, and Hart wanted nothing to do with him. “I saw Bret talking to my brother, and I went over there and I go ‘Hey Bret, can I talk to you for a minute?’, he goes ‘I have nothing to say you,’ this was about a year after all the bulls—, and I said ‘that’s fine’ and I walked off.”
The two did eventually speak, however, during an autograph session that featured both personalities in Virginia. According to the former referee, Hebner called Hart and said that he wouldn’t show up if Hart didn’t want him to, but he did.
“So we went to the show, and I had no idea he was going to do what he did. He went and walked to the ring, and he said ‘I got two great friends here that everybody knows…and I want to bring them to the ring.’ I’m going oh my god when he gets in the ring is he going to beat the s— out of me, is he going to clothesline me, is he going to kill me?” he said. “And, got in the ring, and he just put us over and made us look like a million dollars. That even broke my heart. It took a lot of weight off of my chest, believe me.”
