Former WWE official Earl Hebner was interviewed by Steve Fall of WrestlingNewsCo, ahead of the release of Hebner’s upcoming autobiography Earl Hebner: The Official Story.
During the interview, Hebner addressed the process of reconciling with Bret Hart for the referee’s role in the infamous Montreal Screwjob.
I have another merch shirt that says, ‘Damn right I did.’ A lot of people want me to write on it, ‘I screwed Bret.’ I go, ‘No. I can’t do that.’
A while back, maybe three or four years ago, I would do it but Bret and I made up. And before my brother passed, we were at a house show or indie show and he was there and he called us to the ring and he put us over like big time.
So now Bret calls me, and I’ll call him and we have a good relationship back and I’m not going to screw it up by writing something on a dumbass shirt that’s going to destroy our friendship.
Footage of the moment was captured by Matt Hardy in 2014, at a Big Time Wrestling event:
Hebner went on to share the time he and his late brother Dave tried to speak to the WWE Hall of Famer at an airport:
For a long time, honestly it bothered me. It was bad for me, you know, because I carried it with me for a lot of years.
We met one time at an airport and I wanted to talk to him and he said “I don’t want to talk to you.” I go ‘okay.’ He was talking to my brother and I said, ‘Can I talk to you for a minute?’ And he goes, ‘I don’t want to talk.’ I said okay, I let it go and that was it.
As time went on, (we) eventually got to a place where we could see each other, (and) communicate.
Source: F4WOnline