Tony Schiavone Thought This WCW President Would Lead To Promotion Closing

Tony Schiavone worked under many bosses during his more than 10 years in WCW, but during a recent podcast appearance, he was pretty certain on exactly which one was the worst of the bunch. "There's no question that the worst era to work in the front office was the Jim Herd era," Schiavone said on an episode of "Ask Tony Live." "He was f***ing clueless."

Schiavone joined WCW in 1990, fresh off a year-long run with the WWF. He had worked for Jim Crockett Promotions for the first seven years of his wrestling career. Walking into a company that was under Herd's leadership, however, Schiavone could immediately sense that WCW was not long for this world. "I always thought, 'Man, the sheriff's going to put a padlock on the front door here,'" he joked, referring to the practice where county sheriffs would lock out failed businesses that couldn't meet their debts. 

Herd ran WCW from 1988 to 1992. He was a fish out of water in the wrestling business: a TV executive and former Pizza Hut manager who landed the role of president through his connections with Turner Broadcasting. But his complete lack of wrestling experience and apparently terrible creative ideas caused him to lose favor with some of the company's biggest stars — especially Ric Flair, who he fired in 1991 after many creative disagreements.

"You would not believe how Herd alienated people," Flair said on his podcast, also accusing Herd of bungling the contracts of Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson, which ultimately led to them leaving the company. "He made everybody's life miserable."