20 More Surprising WWE Facts You Probably Didn't Know
5. Montreal Wasn’t The First Earl Hebner Screwjob
The Montreal Screwjob wasn't the first time Earl Hebner heeled it up and cost a babyface hero the title through foul means instead of fair.
Back in 1988, Hebner was ‘the Million Dollar Man’ Ted DiBiase’s secret weapon in Andre the Giant’s match with Hulk Hogan to cost him the WWF Championship.
He was the referee who counted the pinfall for Andre to win the title (and then sell it to DiBiase), even though Hogan’s shoulders were up. Although Hogan would speculate - loudly and indignantly - that DiBiase had paid someone to have plastic surgery to look like the designated official Dave Hebner, it was later revealed that tricksy Earl was in fact Dave’s evil twin.
Regardless, the storyline screwjob ended Hogan’s four year reign as champion, although DiBiase wouldn’t benefit from it: it was ruled that Andre ‘selling’ the title constituted vacating it, and a tournament was created to crown a new WWF Champion… a tournament that ‘the Macho Man’ Randy Savage won, not DiBiase.