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Virgil and andre seem to have a plan


It would go down as one of the biggest matches in the history of pro wrestling, the date was February 5th 1988 in Indianapolis, IN. Hulk Hogan faced the late Andre the Giant in a rematch from Wrestlemania III in front of a live national TV audience of 33 million viewers on NBC while millions more watched around the world, it was the first time that wrestling was on primetime network television in 33 years. What made the rematch interesting was that Ted DiBiase along with his bodyguard Virgil were in the corner of the Giant. The storyline developing a few months earlier with DiBiase trying to buy the WWF title from Hogan, after DiBiase was turned down he then gained the serves of Andre from Bobby Heenan in an attempt to have Andre deliver the title to him.
Hulk looks worried

I thought match was great, it was voted match of the year by the readers of Pro Wrestling Illustrated and it had a controversial ending with Andre pinning Hogan but his left shoulder was still up as every wrestling fan knows both shoulders have to be down for a pinfall. This ended Hogan's four-year reign as WWF Champion, after the match Andre surrendered the title to DiBiase but that's not all, the referee announced for the match was Dave Hebner but after Andre, DiBiase and Virgil left and Hogan was still in the ring we saw two Dave Hebners. Dave's twin brother Earl (who was a referee in the NWA) was the referee in the match and cost Hogan the title, Earl even hit Dave after they were arguing and then Hogan grabbed Earl and threw him out of the ring on top of Andre, DiBiase and company after when they came back to the ring area.

Hey his shoulder is up


As a result of what happen the WWF title was vacant for the first time in history, this lead to a tournament at Wrestlemania IV with Randy Savage beating DiBiase in the finals to win the title.




Earl Hebner would go on to become the WWF senior referee and was the ref for the controversial match between Shawn Michaels & Bret Hart at the 1997 Survivor Series. I guess you would have thought Earl Hebner would have learned his lesson by now!