In his prime, the Nature Boy Ric Flair was one of the greatest of all time. Everyone knows this. Its a professional wrestling truism. Everyone also knows that drama follows Naitch around like a lost puppy begging for scraps. When Jim Herd was appointed executive vice president of WCW in 1988, he would clash with Flair repeatedly over the booking direction for the promotion. Flair was not only the NWA world champion at the time, but also one of the shot callers at WCW, as a member of the booking committee. By contrast, Herd had a background in fast food management, and knew as much about professional wrestling as he did particle physics. Convinced that Flairs time was past, Herd wanted him to drop the title to Lex Luger: in turn, Flair refused, advising him that Sting had been promised a run with the belt. Matters came to a head when the hapless Herd simply gave up negotiating and sacked Ric Flair in July 1991, stripping him of the NWA/WCW world heavyweight championship. There was just one problem with that: Flair took the belt with him to the World Wrestling Federation. Herd didnt realise that the wrestler holding the NWA title always paid a $25,000 deposit for the physical belt itself to prevent them from skipping promotions with the championship. Flair had paid his deposit, and Herd now owed him the money back, with interest but Herd wouldnt pay it, instead suggesting that Flair perform a frankly physically impossible act upon his own person. In turn, Flair countered by directing Herd to undertake an equally unlikely expression of intimacy with himself. The irony was deep: the tactic that was supposed to stop the champion from taking the belt away with him now prevented him from giving it back. Flair sent the championship strap to Vince McMahon, who paraded it around WWF television, incensing and embarrassing the NWA. Meanwhile WCW didnt have a champion or a title belt, and were forced to set up a contender/contender match to crown a new champion giving winner Lex Luger one of Dusty Rhodes old belts with tape on it spelling out WORLD CHAMPION. The matter was eventually resolved, but had far reaching repercussions. The reason that McMahon set up what would become known as the Montreal Screwjob was because he knew the extent of the PR nightmare that had befallen the NWA and WCW when he and Flair had their opponents top title in their possession, and remembered vividly the lesser embarrassment that WWF womens champion Alundra Blayze had caused him when she defected to WCW and dropped her title belt in a trash bin on his rivals television show. McMahon couldnt handle the idea of Bret Hart potentially doing the same thing to him, should he leave the WWF as world champion: the resulting scandal of Harts betrayal led to babyface announcer Vinces outing to WWF fans as the true power in the company, which led directly to his capitalising upon their dislike of him by creating the Mr. McMahon heel authority figure to feud with his new angry rebel star, Stone Cold Steve Austin. In turn, Austin versus McMahon, in all its various permutations, was the cornerstone angle of WWFs programming throughout the Monday Night War, and the storyline that pushed WWF over the top in ratings as WCWs ship began to sink. What does all this mean? It means that Jim Herds insistence that he knew what was best for business for WCW in 1991 indirectly led to the WWFs beating WCW in the television ratings war in 1998. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. Heard any other stories of controversial firings in WCW? Tell us all about it in the comments...
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
