Contract disputes have been and always will be a point of contention in pro wrestling, sports, and entertainment, and on this day in wrestling history Jim Herd fired Ric Flair after cutting Flair’s salary in half.
There aren’t many fans of Jim Herd from his WCW days, and it’s safe to say he either didn’t understand the business or had poor communication skills.
From various reports, including Jim Ross, Herd based his decisions on the flat numbers involved and not who the person was in the company.
He also said Flair handled it badly, but JR thought it had become personal by then.
Breaking ties
During Herd’s run, WCW had some major failings, and one of those was his treatment of Ric Flair to the point Flair took the WCW World Heavyweight Championship with him to the WWE, forcing another belt to be made.
Flair even appeared on WWE TV with the WCW title in Bobby Heenan’s hands, which lessens the perception of victimhood in the WWE when Alundra Blayze dropped the WWF Women’s title in the trash can on WCW Nitro, but that’s another story.
Ric Flair talked about his firing on July 1, 1991 in his book, To Be The Man.
“In the meantime, I refused to accept the contract renewal terms WCW had offered so now I was working without any kind of binding agreement. Herd initially wanted me to lose the championship to Lex Luger at The Great American Bash on July 4, 1991. But he must have gotten frightened that I would refuse because he asked me to lose to Barry Windham three days earlier at a TV taping in Macon, Georgia.
“Then, the company reasoned, Luger could beat Barry at the Bash and become WCW’s Hulk Hogan who, coincidentally, had recently won back the World Wrestling Federation Championship at WrestleMania VII.
“I was ready to leave for Macon and drop the title when a termination notice was faxed to my attorney. As I was walking out the door, Herd called me and said, ‘F— it. You’re fired.’
“FLAIR: What’s that?
“HERD: You’ll have your release. You’re fired now.
“Herd offered to have WCW’s head of security, Doug Dellinger, come over to my house and pick up the championship belt. I said, ‘Well, tell Doug to bring my check, and he’ll have it.’
“Herd knew damn well that the NWA champion always put down a $25,000 deposit when he won the title then received his money back when the reign ended. Because I kept winning the title again and again, I had never bothered collecting. But if my relationship with the company was over, I wanted the deposit plus interest. And that interest was pretty significant. When I finally did receive a check later on, the amount was $38,000.”
Flair would go on to have a good run in the WWE, especially with one of the most memorable Royal Rumble wins to claim the vacant WWF World Heavyweight Championship in the 1992 classic.
Flair would eventually return to WCW, and he’s been open about his feelings about Herd and what he did to WCW during his time running it.
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