Speaking on the latest edition of his “ARN” podcast, AEW producer Arn Anderson commented on a variety of topics, including Jim Herd’s claim that Lex Luger was making $240,000 in WCW, Herd not recognizing Ric Flair’s star power, and more.
You can check out some highlights form the podcast below:
On Jim Herd’s claim that Lex Luger was making $240k: “Do you believe that? Do you believe Lex was only making two-forty? I’ll give you some facts. Lex, with Jim Crockett Promotions, when he came in; they were sky-high on him. Lex got a $350k per year. I don’t know if it was times two or times three, but that was the deal. That was with Jim Crockett. If you think Lex is going to come into WCW when he still has the WWF card to play, and take over a hundred grand cut? I ain’t buying that.”
On Herd not recognizing Ric Flair’s star power: “One thing Herd did is make it very clear that when he saw Sting, Luger, and the Steiners, he saw the core of his company. And you know what? Good choices. Look at those guys. If you’re building new superstars, those guys would have been a great group to start with. But you don’t cut your biggest star at the time, which was Ric Flair… forget about the title, we’re just talking about star power. You’re going to cut his money? I think Ric was probably making for Crockett, six-something? I’m just guessing, now. You’re going to cut him down to three-thirty?”
On why he doesn’t buy Herd’s claim about Luger’s salary: “Another thing. Ric put the deal together with Herd for Tully and I to come back from WWF. They offered us $250 (thousand) times three. That went south when Tully was not brought back. The quote to me was ‘be honest with you Arn, we’re not hiring Tully because of his legal issues. We’re going to cut your money over the three year period.’ So it went from 250 times three to 250, down to 200, and then 156. So it was a total of 150 grand over a three year period. So you’re telling me that they’re going to bring me in and originally, I’d be making more than Lex Luger. Bulls**t. There’s no way that was gonna happen.”
On the deal offered to Flair being terrible: “It’s one of those things where you’re talking about cutting Flair’s money in half, ‘I want you to cut your hair, call you Spartacus, put an earring in you, take the title.’ What kind of a beautiful offer was that? [Sarcastically] Yeah, I’ll take that deal, that’s great. That’s one of the worst deals I’ve ever heard.”
On Herd low-balling Flair but paying many wrestlers to stay home: “Jim Herd should have been smart enough to go Flair, Sting, the Steiners, Luger. That’s going to be my core of superstars. Alright, slice that pie [budget from Turner] up to make their deals right first. And then what’s left, don’t bring in a bunch of guys that you’re never gonna put on TV. Where they went south is they just kept hiring guys, they got a look at them, and they never made TV. So they would get paid a year, sometimes two years, of guaranteed money. You get some guys making a hundred grand a year times two, but never make TV, so where’s your return on your investment? That’s more slices coming out of that pie. You had to be a little more saavy on who was worth what to even qualify to be able to slice that pie up, right? What made [Jim Herd], the Ding Dongs? Is that what made him qualified to slice that pie up?”
“When I went into sign my contract, and he told me he wasn’t going to be hiring Tully? He said ‘and Arn, you’re just not worth as much as you guys were worth as a team. That’s the reason I’m cutting your money. You as a single is not worth as much as you guys as a team.’ He’s talking out of his ass, everything he says.”