10 Times WCW Was The Most Insane Company In The World
2. Jim Herd
Sometimes, it takes a rank complete outsider to recognise problems those institutionalised by a certain business can not. Rather than being worn down by their industry and incapable of thinking beyond a set of tired, pre-ordained rules, the interloper can deliver fresh ideas produced by their naive mind. Unless they're Jim Herd.
That isn't to say that Jim Herd didn't have original and creative new concepts for WCW. He did. It's just they were complete gash.
Soon after taking over the company in 1989, Ted Turner relinquished the running of the promotion over to his close friend Jack Petrik. Petrik, just four years from retirement and unprepared to take on a brand new project - especially a wrestling show - quickly passed the gig onto his own buddy Herd. The assumption was that as Herd had prevailed over St. Louis TV station KPLR, which carried Wrestling from the Chase, he had an intimate knowledge of the wrestling industry. The assumption was wrong.
A former regional manager at Pizza Hut, Herd knew more about pizza cutters than Diamond Cutters, starkly evidenced by some of the ideas he had for his new venture. Looking towards the competition for inspiration, Herd assumed the key to success was to ape the cartoon-like gimmicks of the WWF, but failed to consider the way this would alienate the staunchly traditionalist NWA audience. Amongst his brain-waves were The Hunchbacks, whose deformities would prevent their shoulders being pinned to the mat; Big Josh, a lumberjack accompanied by a bear (played by the unfortunate Matt Borne); and the bell-wearing campanologists the Ding Dongs.
Herd's zany schemes led to a raft of disaffected talent departing the company, most notably Ric Flair, who he wished to shave bald and present as the gladiatorial 'Spartacus'. Flair's exit crippled WCW's Great American Bash pay-per-view, as disgruntled fans hijacked the show by chanting "We want Flair!" throughout its duration.
It cost Herd his job, but WCW being WCW replaced him with another man with absolutely zero experience in the business: venture capitalist Kip Allen Frey.