Arn Anderson reveals the pay cut he took for leaving WWE
Arn Anderson was recently on Talk is Jericho with Tully Blanchard. Together, they talked about their time in the Four Horsemen, as well as their time as The Brainbusters in WWE. While talking about the various aspects of their careers as a tag team, Arn Anderson revealed that he actually had to take a cut in pay when the time finally came to leave WWE and go to WCW due to odd negotiations with Jim Herd, who was in charge of WCW at that time.
Currently, Arn Anderson is working as a player-coach to Cody Rhodes on AEW.
Arn Anderson on taking a pay cut to leave WWE and go to WCW
Arn Anderson opened up on his experience of having to take a pay cut to get into WCW from WWE. Unfortunately, Jim Herd did not listen to him, and he lost $150,000 over the course of three years. As Tully Blanchard had suddenly tested positive in a drug test, his signing with WCW had come to a halt, and this, in turn, affected Arn Anderson, who was leaving WWE to sign with WCW. Unfortunately, his negotiations came to naught, and he did make a loss.
"The biggest reason was there was an a--hole named Jim Herd at the helm, and he figured out some way somehow when I came in for my meeting that I wasn't worth as much to the company that had made a deal for he and I. And you're not worth as much as you two guys were together, so we're going to cut your contract by 150 grand over a three-year period. At that time, that was a lot of money at my house. And then he saw I was not happy as you could imagine. And he went, 'Arn, hey, no big deal. You can go back to Vince if you want. No hard feelings.' That's how little he knew about our business. What I'm going to walk back in the door with my tail between my legs, stick my head in the window fan in Vince's office? See, if there's anything left, go ahead and bury it." -Arn Anderson, ARN podcast