Jim Herd is one of Cornette's favorite targets as well as Sullivan and Flair's. To say Jim Herd knew the business would be like saying David Arquette as WCW World Champion was a great idea. Anyhow one of the funniest videos I listened to last night had Cornette discuss Herd and the contract negotiations that he and Midnights had in 1989.


- Cornette brought up that by spring 1989 after Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard had left for WWF as well as the aborted Midnights vs Midnights angle crashed n burned due to Randy Rose leaving ; things weren't good. That they approached George Scott (who was the head booker at this point of WCW) and they asked him what plans they had. Scott told them he didn't have anything for them so they all 3 wanted to leave the company then and would leave when their contracts expired that fall. Scott agreed and said he would write them out in a few weeks.


- Well behind the scenes Scott suddenly was fired and a whole booking committee was established. Jim Ross was a key part of this and learned that the Midnights with Cornette was leaving. So he contacted him to stay which Cornette agreed. But felt the group needed time off to get over the fact they had been involved in some terrible matches and losses. As he laid it out Stan Lane and Bobby Eaton were banged up anyhow and needed time off to heal up so they would get 2-3 months off then return with a new focus etc. J.R agreed to this idea and told him to speak with Herd on a new contract.


- Cornette met with Herd for the 1st time and detailed how he knew the Midnight's and himself was being paid way too much. That they were being paid $225,000 a year which was very top of the line money and given to them by Jim Crockett at one point. So as Jim laid it out to Herd the guys and himself wanted to stay with WCW as they considered themselves loyal workers and would take a pay cut in line with everyone else in the company.


- Herd came back with an offer of $75,000 for Eaton & Lane ...and giving Cornette $100,000. But Jim was like , why would you wanna pay me more but as Herd claimed it was because Jim could do color commentary. Cornette rejected this offer saying the guys deserved to be paid in line in what Sting and others were at $150,000 a year. That he would take less but give the guys that. Herd at 1st rejected it and came back with a $90,000 offer for both guys and Cornette making $120,000. Each time Cornette would tell him that he didn't want more money and to pay Eaton & Lane more than him.

This continued for days as Herd would slowly make offers and Cornette would reject each one. At one point Herd told J.R "I ain't seen this type of thing since Korea War !" Finally Herd came back with an offer to pay Eaton & Lane $120,000 a year and Cornette $150,000. Which in 1989 money was really big. So he told them and both guys had families (Eaton had 3 kids to support) so they told Cornette to accept the offer. That they didn't care he was making more.

It boggled Cornette's mind that he would literally tell Herd he was fine being paid this amount of money and would take less , yet comically would each time get offered more every time. But it summed up how stupid Jim Herd was he felt.