WWF was better known. These stunts included a cross-promotional appearance of RoboCop at Capital Combat in May 1990, the Chamber of Horrors gimmick, and the Black Scorpion storyline. House shows would drop to record lows as Ole continuously pushed older wrestlers who were loyal to him. Behind the scenes, WCW was becoming more autonomous and slowly started separating itself from the NWA. They would officially split from the NWA in January 1991, and began to recognize its own WCW World Heavyweight Championship and WCW World Tag Team Championship. Both WCW and the NWA recognized Ric Flair as their World Heavyweight Champion throughout most of the first half of 1991. However, the recently installed WCW president Jim Herd, who was formerly the manager of the St. Louis TV station KPLR-TV and had also once been the regional manager of Pizza Hut, turned against Flair for various reasons. Flair would be fired before The Great American Bash in July 1991 after failed contract negotiations. In the process, they officially stripped him of the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. According to Flair's autobiography, they refused to return the $25,000 deposit he had put down on the physical belt, so he kept it and brought it with him when he was hired by the WWF at the request of Vince McMahon. Flair then incorporated the belt into his gimmick, dubbing himself "The Real World's Champion". WCW later renegotiated the use of the NWA name as a co-promotional gimmick with New Japan Pro-Wrestling and sued the WWF to stop showing Flair with the old NWA World Title belt on its programs, claiming a trademark on the physical design of the belt. The belt was returned to WCW by Flair when Jim Herd was let go. Flair eventually received his deposit which with interest was over $38,000. It was brought back as the revived NWA World Heavyweight Championship. Meanwhile, the WCW's product fell into a decline in 1991 and 1992 under the presidency of the Herd. Ric Flair, who had conflicts with Herd, once stated that Herd "knew nothing about wrestling, other than the fact that the station he ran had a hot show" (referring to the once-popular show Wrestling at the Chase. which was broadcast by KPLR-TV while Herd was manager there). According to Flair, Herd also wanted him to drop his entire "Nature Boy" persona, shave his head (even though Flair's bleach blonde hair was