Jim Herd is well aware of the criticism he’s received as the once Executive Vice President of WCW, but he’s also aware of the several factors he had to keep in mind when it came to presenting the product Ted Turner wanted.
Herd spoke with Conrad Thompson in an exclusive sit-down via AdFreeShows.com to give his perspective regarding his tenure with World Championship Wrestling.
Herd took the reigns as EVP of the company in 1988 and experienced his fair share of bookers and wrestling minds, which included Bill Watts, Dusty Rhodes, JJ Dillon and George Scott. While they all brought their strong knowledge to the game, something that was difficult to incorporate was adhering to Ted Turner’s guidelines: something Herd had to be concerned about.
“Bill Watts came on the scene, then at the same time and so we were getting a lot of direction from people that were not necessarily understanding the dynamics that Turner wanted, two things: no more violence (blood primarily) and I want to make a lot of money and that’s the way it went up.”
Conrad talks about JJ Dillon making his leave for WWF at the time and he asks Herd how much of a blow that was to WCW.
“All those guys were important,” Herd said. “Each one of them had their own, you might say important portions of the entire package they were all a part of it. Like Dillon and Dusty and you take all of those things and you put them together in a pod and you’ve got a much better situation than you had with them in it than individually and so that’s basically all we did.”
Herd then took former WWF executive George Scott on as a booker and made note that a big incentive in roping in him was his relationship with Ricky Steamboat, who Herd had high praise for.
“There again, he [Scott] had a niche not only being the booker but he made friends with guys he could bring along like Ricky Steamboat. Purely from a selfish point of view, George Scott can be the booker as long as I get Ricky Steamboat who at the time was very popular and very good. He was a great wrestler, Ricky Steamboat. Anyway, that’s part of the reason for some of these bookers is who they knew which I had no access. I said, ‘Well, I’m going to get access by having the ability to use Turner’s money by hiring them.'”
(Transcription credit should go to @DominicDeAngelo of WrestleZone)
Check out the conversation in full by becoming a patron of AdFreeShows.com.
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A landmark moment for https://t.co/5v6Q3sv3sk & the entire wrestling community…is HERE! For the first time in 20 years, former WCW EVP Jim Herd sits down to talk about his experience in the world of pro wrestling. #ConversationsWithConrad
Full Interview https://t.co/1YwW7y4Ope pic.twitter.com/9SAxwuIJnl
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