Jim Cornette was on his way out at that time as he was repeatedly trying to resign and leave WCW for most of 1989 after the horrible bookings and decisions made against the Midnight Express. Plus Jim Herd hated the Midnight Express, and the only team he hated more were the Dynamic Dudes, and that's why Herd wanted both teams to engage in a meaningless feud that didn't draw money. 

Speaking of the Dynamic Duds... Jim Ross was a big fan of the Rock N Roll Express and he decided to re-create that magic but add skateboards thinking skateboards were popular at the time. But the Dynamic DUDS gimmick was very bad and didn't appeal to the fans. It irritated them so much that during a TV taping at the rafters the fans had a big sign that said "Johnny sucks Shane's dick." Plus it didn't help that the fans sympathized with the horrible bookings the Midnight Express received at the time. And around Fall 1989 Stan Lane and Jim Cornette left WCW and headed over to the Smoky Mountain area where SMW was shortly created.

So Jim Cornette wouldn't have been involved in the Sting being a Horseman decision as that happened around after WCW Halloween Havoc 1989 which was at the end of October 1989. He was gone by then. The problem was Jim Herd who knew nothing about wrestling as he was a suit that was a regional manager of pizza hut before his WCW gig. And unfortunately, Jim Barnette at this time was just a "Yes-Man" for Jim Herd and taking paychecks as he wanted to keep his lifestyle, and had no real power. And Jim Ross would change booking committee decisions after being ordered to do so by Jim Herd (and Herd would tell the fellas that Jim Ross changed the booking decision but not telling them it was under his orders), so that Herd divided the booking committee. And Jim Herd and Ric Flair butted heads and Ric Flair resigned as head booker at the end of 1989 as he was initially promised full control because of the Great American Bash Tour not drawing any money, but was never given so. 

My apologies ... Jim Cornette and Stan Lane did not leave in Fall of 1989, they left at Fall 1990. So the decision to have Sting become a Horseman would have Jim Cornette's decision included with Her, Barnett, Sullivan, and Ross. Hamilton wouldn't be included as he only took care of the wrestling ring crew and jobbers.

Um, take that Gagne interview with a massive block of salt.  Greg has made all kinds of claims that do not gel with anyone else's memories and that he cannot substantiate.  gagne is an old school worker, who sticks with kayfabe.  Gagne worked for WCW, in a rather undistinguished tenure, as an agent, as did Mike Graham.  Both talked a lot of feces about their time there, while almost everyone else has little good to say about their work there.  Greg has done a lot of revising of history to make Verne and him seem less out of touch than they really were.  The fall of the AWA is never their responsibility but the plotting of outside enemies and circumstances.


Greg was a great tag-team wrestler; but, was never gonna be a star.  Verne was still trying to book the AWA like it was the early 1970s and making his son a featured performer and his son-in-law the World Champion was just plain wrong.

It was funny how no one had ever heard of any invasion idea until that shoot interview, despite the AWA working with memphis and crockett, in Pro Wrestling USA, and Memphis and Dallas, in the AWA/WCWA World Title Unification Match, at Superclash III.  A match, i might add, that Jerry Lawler won, then was stiffed on the payoff by Gagne.  Lawler and Jarrett went home and ran memphis and Dallas, as the USWA, while Verne disintegrated and went belly up.


Invasion angles were hardly new.  Memphis ran one when they signed Randy Savage, after the Poffos had been running opposition.  Randy came in to finally challenge Jerry Lawler, after public challenges, before they started working together.  Memphis had ignored them; but, they buried the hatchet and decided to make money on the past, which was well known in the Memphis region.  Randy and Angelo invaded the Memphis studios, on the live Saturday morning broadcast, looking for Lawler.  That set up a series of confrontations and matches, with big houses at the Mid-South Colosseum, as well as matches with Randy and Lanny against the Rock N Roll Express, and Randy against Austin idol, for the International title, as seen on the Wrestling Gold series of videos/dvds.


In Japan, they had done the invasion of the original UWF, when they came crawling back to New Japan, after it went under.  then, there was Ricki Chosu and his army, after he returned from All-Japan.  Then, the UWFI/New Japan feud, which is what Bischoff saw and copied.  There were others.  In Dallas, when the Von Erichs sold to jerry Jarrett, they had an angle where a mysterious business conglomerate was buying World Class, in the form of Tojo Yamamoto and his hired goond PY Chu Hi (Phil Hickerson).  Eric Embry led the fight from the World Class side and won the day, leading to rebranding the group the USWA (as the Texas branch of Jarrett's promotion, which combined the CWA of Memphis and WCWA of Dallas).

ECW had invaded RAW, when they cooperated and ECW and memphis had run angles before that.  In fact, Vince McMahon led his own little invasion of Memphis, with Randy Savage, going after Lawler, in the early 90s.


So, with all of these other invasion angles, how come the only source for Greg gagne feeding the idea to Bischoff comes from Greg Gagne, in a paid shoot interview, 20 years later?    

Sting becoming a Horseman was damage control after Jim Herd prevented Tully Blanchard from returning, after he had failed a WWF drug test, on the way out. Tully and Arn had given notice and brokered a return to WCW, with everyone in agreement and the WWF hit Tully with a drug test, on the way out, to stick a knife in. Tully failed. WCW, rather than giving him a chance to test clean before bringing him in or go to rehab, recinded their offer, thereby crapping over the proposed reunion of the Horsemen. Flair was pissed, as this was Jim herd yet again messing with his angles. The plan was to put the belt on Sting, after going through the Horsemen. With Tully out, they had a problem. The improvisation was to have Sting join the Horsemen, as they battle Gary Hart and his J-Tex Corporation. Flair was pretty much a babyface, after the Terry funk attack and this was to help set up his heel turn, so he could drop the belt to Sting. They turned on Sting and went out to have their match, in a cage. Sting comes out to attack them and starts to climb the cage. Security is supposed to "stop him, in a working manner but gets a bit overly enthusiastic and Sting blows out his ACL. The prognosis is 6 months. So, Flair switches to Luger, which bides tim, while Sting heals. Then, they have the match at the Great American Bash, which does big business (as did the previous PPV match with Luger for the title).

Flair became the booker after demanding the job from Ted Turner, after the George Scott fiasco. Scott had been a booker for Jim Crockett and was quite successful at it. he then went to work for Vince. he was back now, and tried to turn the clock back to the 1970s. Cornette has stated that he truly believes that Scott had some form of dementia, as there was little logic to what he was doing, in anything. Ratings and house shows had tanked and Flair made a power play and won. problem is, Herd didn't give him the control and they were constantly at odds. Flair was the one who brought Cornette into the booking committee, after giving Eddie Gilbert his walking papers, after changing finishes in Memphis, so that he won. Flair was wanting to elevate Brian Pillman and Cornette and the Midnight Express were going to work an angle to injure Pillman's throat, to build on his childhood history of throat surgeries. Herd wanted to break up the ME and wanted Flair retired. Flair wasn't going anywhere and the Midnight's were one of the few top draws they had, with massive box office against the Rock N Roll Express, the Fantastics, the Road Warriors, and Tully & Arn.

Cornette and the Midnight Express arranged the Original Midnight Express coming in, with Paul E Dangerously (Paul Heyman) and laying them out, to set up a feud. Then Herd Fed with things and Dennis Condrey walked out, again. Cornette and Bobby Eaton took time off and came back. They were supposed to turn the Midnight's heel, so that they could help elevate Pillman and other babyfaces. There was talk of making them Horsemen. When Herd, who didn't think much of Pillman, axed the injury angle, Cornette turne to working with the Dynamic Dudes, to turn the Express heel. That played out; but, Cornette and Stan Lane decided they were done. Bobby Eaton stayed because he had a young family and needed the steady income. Cornette already had the idea for Smokey Mountain and set off to create it, with Stan helping to form the basis of the Heavenly Bodies (with Tom Pritchard).

Getting back to invasion angles, Cornette was brokering a deal with Bill Watts, who was brought in to run WCW, to use Smokey Mountain as a developmental territory for WCW, and they set up a sort of invasion, for WCW. The Heavenly Bodies appeared on the Clash of Champions, which featured cross words between Cornette an Eric Bischoff, and then Watts was fired by WCW and Bischoff wormed his way into control, which killed Smokey Mountain working with WCW. Instead, they worked with the WWF, which ultimately led to Cornette working in creative at the WWF, inadvertently giving Vince the idea to screw Bret for the title, in Montreal, and Cornette setting up Ohio Valley Wrestling as the WWF developmental territory, producing the likes of John Cena, Randy Orton, Batista, Brock Lesnar, Shelton Benjamin, Eugene (Nick Dinsmore), Rico Constantino and more.

Understood, Loud and Clear and thanks for taking the time to make those two posts, sabongero ...

Jim Herd was such a problem for the company at the time. Imagine not accepting Tully Blanchard, yet downgrading the agreed salary with Arn Anders from $ 250,000.00 to $ 150,000.00 citing that he wasn't worth it individually without Tully Blanchard? Is he bonkers? Plus he should have listened to Jim Cornette's suggestion of just sending Tully to rehab and then hiring him, thus showing everyone that WCW gives people second chances.

It's too bad. Imagine the Midnight Express and Horsemen continuing their feud from the previous year, that drew a lot of money and interest from the fans. 

Thank you, too.

Although I share modern news here, and discussion, I suspect my motivation in setting up this topic was to discuss classic wrestling. So many greats to discuss!