Jim Herd: We Never Considered Changing Ric Flair’s Name To Spartacus

Jim Herd has cleared up one of the biggest rumors in WCW history.

Herd and Ric Flair famously clashed during Herd’s time as Executive Vice President of WCW in the late 80s and early 90s, leading to Flair leaving WCW for the WWF. According to Flair, Herd wanted to change his entire persona, turning him into a Roman gladiator and renaming him Spartacus.

Speaking to Conrad Thompson on AdFreeShows, Herd said they pitched a bunch of different gimmicks and characters during meetings, but turning Flair into Spartacus was never under consideration.

“When you’re brainstorming those things, you get all kinds of feedback from those guys. That’s where the lie that I wanted to change Ric Flair’s name came from. That came from one of the meetings, but it was never considered. One of the things that was considered, and he didn’t like it so it became — there was a wrestler were going to call The Zodiac Man. Every match, at the end of the match, you could go out the door and they would throw these discs that were redeemable at fast food places. They would catch them and if you could prove you were a Leo after the match, you’d get another disc. It got so complicated, but his name was going to change every month with a different promotion. I think Ric heard we wanted him to be the Zodiac Man. It was just another lie that came out of those meetings. A lot of it was tongue in cheek in those meetings,” said Herd.

Flair would leave WCW in 1991, taking Big Gold with him to WWF.

Herd said he recently watched an interview with Flair and noticed his forehead looked a little different from his years in wrestling. You can find his full comments by clicking here.

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