Jim Herd was the Executive Vice-President of World Championship Wrestling from 1988 to 1992, following Turner Broadcasting's acquisition of the NWA-affiliated Jim Crockett Promotions in 1988. Before that, Herd had been a station manager for the St. Louis TV station KPLR-TV, which broadcast the then-popular wrestling show Wrestling at the Chase. Later on, he served in an executive position for Pizza Hut of St. Louis. Herd resigned from WCW in early 1992.

Many wrestling personalities, fans, and workers have openly criticized Herd for his lack of knowledge of the wrestling business. Ric Flair in particular stated that Herd "knew nothing about wrestling, other than the fact that the station he ran had a hot show." During his run in WCW, Herd tried to compete with Vince McMahon and the World Wrestling Federation by introducing the same kind of "cartoon" gimmicks that were a part of McMahon's WWF at the time, alienating the diehard NWA audience. For example, he once tried to come up with a tag team called The Hunchbacks (with the gimmick in which that they can't be pinned because their humps would prevent their shoulders from touching the mats), and after that idea was rejected by the booking committee, he came up with the bell-wearing Ding Dongs. After that, he came up with Big Josh, a lumberjack with dancing bears. Stan Hansen left the organization after the idea was pitched to him to become a part of the comedic cowboy stable called The Desperados. Jim Cornette and Stan Lane also left the organization after Herd would blame his many failures on Cornette and others. Even the Road Warriors - as Animal has stated on WWE Home Video's Road Warriors DVD - had a fallout with Herd as well, and resigned from WCW in the summer of 1990.

Herd regularly clashed with the then-NWA World Champion and booking committee member Ric Flair. According to Flair, Herd wanted him to drop his entire "Nature Boy" persona, shave his head and adopt a Rome gladiator gimmick in order to "change with the times", which didn't sit too well with Flair and the committee (Committee member Kevin Sullivan was quoted as saying, "After we change Flair's gimmick, why don't we go to Yankee Stadium and change Babe Ruth's uniform number?"). Herd believed Flair's time was over as a main event player and the big money was with Sting and Lex Luger. This backstage feud hit its breaking point when, during contract renegotiations, Flair refused to take a pay cut and be moved away from the main event position (despite the fact that he was the company's biggest draw). As a result, on June 15, 1991, weeks before the Great American Bash PPV and one day after the Clash of the Champions, Herd fired Flair from WCW and stripped him of the WCW Title. Flair took the NWA title with him because Herd refused to give back Flair the $25,000 deposit he put down on the (physical) belt, plus interest. Without Flair, the Great American Bash became what many fans consider one of the worst wrestling PPVs ever, as the Baltimore audience loudly chanted, "We want Flair!" for the entire show.