10 Wrestlers Who Had To Deal With Major Pay Cuts

3. Earl Hebner

It wasn’t just the wrestlers getting their pay cut in TNA, it extended to all its employees, including referees. Even its Senior Referee Earl Hebner, who spent a lengthy 11 years in the company and was one of their star inductees into their Hall of Fame class in 2015, couldn’t escape having his pay continuously reduced. You would have thought the promotion would have had more respect for the most recognisable and well-known referee in pro wrestling history, with his career spanning more than 6 decades.

In 2017 Anthem Sports & Entertainment bought the failing company and they went to work “heavily downsizing” employees to get out of the financial red. It was unclear why Earl and his son (fellow referee) Brian Hebner had left TNA, but it became very apparent when Earl verbally laid into TNA for the way it was treating its employees and cutting their pay to an excessive degree. Earl noted:

“We thought the new company had it all worked out when they bought it, but they’ve been having financial problems. I feel like I’ve been paying them. It’s been pay cut after pay cut, so I asked for my release. Some of the wrestlers were only getting paid $100 a day. That’s a slap in the face to the wrestlers. My son, Brian, also wanted his release, and then they asked Brian Stiffler to be the senior ref. But the money he’d have made there would have been spent on expenses on the road, so he quit, too.”

Thankfully Earl joined AEW in 2019, where he’s treated with the respect he deserves, to work big-time matches and events.