10 Wrestling Mistakes You'll Never Unsee
8. Earl Hebner Forgets What Rock Bottom That Was (WWE No Way Out, 2001)
Sticking with the theme of c*cking up a match ending, instead of a referee helping to keep a contest moving in the right direction, No Way Out 2001 actually saw the complete opposite go down.
As Kurt Angle would recall on his podcast in 2021, the finish for his and The Rock's WWF Championship main event experienced an accidental change-up thanks to Earl Hebner suddenly forgetting which Rock Bottom The People's Champion had hit on The Olympic Hero.
According to Angle, the finish was supposed to come after the second Rock Bottom of the night. But the WWE official clearly forgot that another one of Rocky's finishers had been unleashed earlier in the contest, leading to the odd visual of Hebner hesitating and ultimately refusing to count the three, despite Angle's shoulders still seemingly being down.
At a glance, it wasn't really clear who had f***ed up, with both the audience and commentary team having not the slightest clue what was happening.
Once you realise it was Earl who made the substantial error on the night, though, a briefly p*ssed off Rocky's screaming at Hebner to "count the motherf*cking finish" after his third Rock Bottom of the night soon sticks out like a particularly sore thumb.