Jim Herd Passes Away At Age of 87

Former WCW executive Jim Herd passed away at the age of 87 this past October.

Herd’s passing was first announced by Conrad Thompson in an article for Sports Illustrated’s Uncrowned.

Herd’s career in the pro wrestling industry spanned from 1988 to 1992. Herd was the inaugural Executive Vice President of World Championship Wrestling after the acquisition of Jim Crockett Promotions by Turner Broadcasting.

During his time in charge of WCW, Herd was responsible for the company moving away from the NWA style and more into WWE’s “sports entertainment” style for their television shows after seeing the success WWE had for their own programming. Many of these ideas and plans for WCW’s product by Herd were criticized by fans of WCW at the time.

Herd was also the key person for landing promotional deals and growing WCW’s business during his time in charge.

Herd’s time in WCW was also infamous for his issues with Ric Flair over him wanting to change Flair’s persona and character going as far as to pitch a Spartacus gimmick for Flair. Other issues revolved around Herd wanted Flair to drop the World Heavyweight Championship and take a pay cut. The backstage conflicts between Herd and Flair eventually led to Flair’s firing from WCW in July of 1991 and Flair taking the World Heavyweight Championship with him when he joined WWE in August of 1991.

Herd resigned from his position as Executive VP of WCW in January of 1992 and mostly stayed out of wrestling outside of rare interview appearances over the years.