10 Wrestlers Who Had To Deal With Major Pay Cuts

6. Ric Flair

WCW had a long list of issues with trying to cut wrestlers pay. Ric Flair famously clashed with WCW President Jim Herd in the early ‘90s over money that would be the catalyst for Ric to defect over to the WWF in ’91, with the Big Gold Belt still in his possession.

First Flair and Herd clashed over creative, with Herd wanting to reduce Ric’s role, make him cut his hair and turn him into ‘The Zodiac Man’ – a gimmick where Flair would have thrown fast food tokens out to the audience at the end of every match.

Then they clashed over what Flair was being paid, with Herd demanding Ric take a large pay cut, which is likely why Ric regards Herd as the “Dumbest ass**** I’ve ever met in my life” to this day.

Herd, as recent as last year, has spoken of wanting to reduce Flair’s pay at the time after being pressured by WCW higher-ups on cutting costs: “I didn’t want to pay the same amount that I was paying at the time because I was getting pressured as far as money coming in.”