Former WCW EVP Jim Herd Passes Away

Jim Herd, the former executive vice president of World Championship Wrestling from January 1989 until January 1992, passed away last month. Conrad Thompson announced in his column that Jim Herd died in October at 87 years old.

Herd is known within pro wrestling for his controversial tenure running WCW, having been installed by Ted Turner shortly after he purchased Jim Crockett Promotions and rebranded the company to World Championship Wrestling. Herd, a former TV station manager and Pizza Hut executive, was tasked with making WCW profitable and also given a mandate by TBS Vice President of Programming Jeff Carr to make WCW more family-friendly, similar to Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation.

Some of Herd's family-friendly ideas have become infamous within pro wrestling, including The Ding Dongs tag team, Big Josh, who actually made his way to the ring accompanied by real-life bears, and Oz portrayed by Kevin Nash. Also, after Herd was ordered to have a WCW tie-in with "RoboCop 2", the character would appear at WCW Capital Combat 1990 to save Sting from a Four Horsemen beatdown.

The most infamous moment of Jim Herd's tenure, however, saw Herd fire reigning WCW World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair in the summer of 1991, two weeks before a scheduled title defence against Lex Luger at the Great American Bash. Flair's firing came after negotiations over a new contract, during which Herd offered Flair a pay cut from $700,000-$750,000 per year to a deal that would pay $350,000 in the first year before a further pay reduction to $250,000 in the second year of the contract. Herd also pitched for Flair to cut his famous hair and change his name to Spartacus. After Flair didn't accept the offer, he was fired.

While the WCW World Heavyweight Title was vacated, Flair maintained possession of the Big Gold Belt and he appeared for the WWF with the title, proclaiming himself to be the "real world's champion." In early 1992, Herd resigned from his position as WCW EVP.

Despite his controversial tenure, Conrad Thompson credited Jim Herd with some successes in World Championship Wrestling, including Big Van Vader, The Great Muta, and Scott Steiner performing for WCW during his tenure, Sting's first world title win at Great American Bash 1990, and one of the great pro wrestling trilogies of all time in Ricky Steamboat vs. Ric Flair from 1989 taking place under Herd's watch. Herd also helped secure sponsorships for WCW and deals for WCW action figures and trading cards.