Later in the show, Earl Hebner himself called in to chime in on the situation.

“It’s either drop me so I don’t see it, make it so I don’t look stupid … but other than that, it’s like nut shots,” Hebner explained. “I tell guys, ‘If you got nut shots, tell me now,’ because I can work around them, but if I see them I call for the bell.”

Bully Ray and Mark Henry took a modicum of pride in Hebner agreeing with their take on the match’s undermining of wrestling’s authority figures, but still had more to say.

“To me, it takes credibility away from everybody,” Bully said later with a caller. The longtime table advocate felt that the way the table was used in the “Collision” main event not only undermined the match but the moment itself, as the use added nothing to the contest itself or the stakes.

“Don’t just use it for the sake of using it,” Bully said. “Why is the referee just staring at it? … Wrestlers have to be smarter about protecting referees, and referees need to have enough confidence in themselves to speak their mind if the wrestlers aren’t protecting them in the first place.”

AEW referees have not had issues with kayfabe moments like foreign objects and other nefarious tactics in the past, and also have come under fire for recently missing serious injuries, as in was the recent case of referee Rick Knox and Jon Moxley.