Referee Brian Hebner announced on his podcast that he will be retiring from wrestling:
“I’m announcing that I’m going to retire from professional wrestling as a full-time referee. I will no longer be under contract with anybody. I will be working for myself.”
“This is a move that I’m making because of the fact that there’s a lot of different reasons. I’m not bitter towards the business at all. This has nothing to do with anybody making me mad or anybody making me angry. This is a move on making a personal decision. I’m healthy. I’m in great shape. I’m not beat up. I have a lot of life left to spend with my kids, my family, and my friends.”
“I have other projects that I’m working on, this podcast being one of them that I’m really trying to dig into. Some people may think it’s something that I shouldn’t take seriously. Some people think it should be. What it means to me is that I’m doing what Brian Hebner wants to do on my own terms.”
“I’ve talked to many of my people that I work with and many of my friends that I’ve reached out to. I’ve made so many phone calls to so many people, not just TNA, not just Impact Wrestling, not just WWE, not just AEW, the whole caboodle.”
“I just want to say that this business has been the greatest thing that’s ever happened in my life. But now it’s time for me to take a step back, to get off the road, to stop flying, to stop missing my children’s games, to stop missing my family cookouts, to stop missing Father’s Day, to stop missing Mother’s Day, to stop missing the things that are important to my family. I’ve done it long enough, over 23 plus years.”
“I’ve done a lot in this business and I’m very proud of what I’ve done. I’ve done WrestleManias, I’ve done SummerSlams. I’ve done Slammiversary. I’ve done NWA 70s. I’ve done the main events of all the television shows. I’ve worked on every major wrestling promotion in the United States.”
“I just feel like it’s time. I feel like God is pulling me away. I have two 13-year old daughters. I have a 19-year old son that is going away to college. He’s a huge, huge person and body and man in their lives and he’s not going to be there for them anymore, so they need their daddy. I think it’s time for their daddy to be here for them for everything they need. So this is more of a me thing. It has nothing to do with wrestling.”
I’ll be honest with you. Ever since I moved around a little bit from WWE to TNA to NWA to Ring of Honor, back to Impact, my goal was to always retire at Impact Wrestling and I mean that with all my heart, because that gave me the most infectious love that I’ve ever felt in my life. So I honestly feel like this is the time for me to do what I’m doing. I also have a family business that I help run and operate. I’m very blessed that I can be able to do this, financially wise, and I’m very blessed to be able to do it goal wise because I’ve done so many of my goals.”
“So this is not a pity party. I’m not making this a pity party. I’m making it that this should be happy for me and I want it to be happy for you guys. The support hopefully is there, and if it’s not, it’s not. It is what it is. There’s nothing pushing me to do this other than just me, my family, my friends, and just want to do what I want to do for the first time in my life and not have to worry about scheduling everything around being on the road and being away from my family.”
“Slammiversary will be my last show. I will finish out the day after which will be the TV tapings. I will also do those.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Refin’ It Up With Brian Hebner with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription
