Crockett Cup (1987) Explained

The Second Annual Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup Tag Team Tournament, also referred to as the Crocket Cup (1987), was an event held over two nights: April 10 and 11, 1987. The tournament included 24 tag teams.^{[1] [2]} The tournament was won by "The Super Powers" (Dusty Rhodes and Nikita Koloff), who defeated Lex Luger and Tully Blanchard in the finals. Their victory was dedicated to Magnum T. A., who was forced to retire due to a near-fatal car accident.

Production

Background

The Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup Tag Team Tournament was created by Jim Crockett Jr. of Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP) in honor of Crockett's father, JCP founder Jim Crockett Sr. The tournament format was single-elimination with a promoted prize of $1 million (U.S.) awarded to the winning team.

Storylines

The 1987 Crockett Cup shows featured a total of 25 professional wrestling matches with different wrestlers involved in pre-existing scripted feuds, plots and storylines. Wrestlers are portrayed as either heels (those that portray the "bad guys"), faces (the "good guy" characters) or tweeners (characters that is neither clearly a heel or a face) as they follow a series of tension-building events, which culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches as determined by the promotion.^[3]

Aftermath

Stan Lane was announced as the replacement for Dennis Condrey (who suddenly left JCP) in the Midnight Express on April 4, 1987 on an episode of World Championship Wrestling, and would win the vacant NWA United States Tag Team Championship in May of 1987. After the tournament ended, Rick Rude would leave JCP for the WWF and the NWA World Tag Team Championship would be won by the Rock & Roll Express in a phantom match in Spokane, Washington when Ivan Koloff "substituted" for Rude. Manny Fernandez would also leave JCP for the AWA.

Jim Crockett completed his purchase of Bill Watts' UWF in April, 1987, but it would take a few months for the UWF wrestlers to make their way to JCP television, though some of them went to WWF, including Ted DiBiase and (earlier) Hacksaw Jim Duggan. Crockett also took over operations of Championship Wrestling from Florida and some of their wrestlers would begin to be on JCP's TV programs, including Mike Rotunda and Kevin Sullivan.

Event

Tournament participants

Team	Notes
and Kevin Sullivan	Arn was originally supposed to team up with Ole Anderson, but the Horsemen kicked Ole out of the group prior to the tournament.
(Brad and Bob Armstrong)
and Isao Takagi	First-round bye
and Bill Dundee
and Lex Luger	First-round bye, Blanchard held the NWA World Television Championship	[4]
and Chris Champion
and Rick Rude	First-round bye. Held the NWA World Tag Team Championship	[5]
(Jimmy and Ronnie Garvin)
and Nelson Royal
and Mike Rotunda	Rotunda held the NWA Florida Heavyweight Championship	[6]
and Ricky Lee Jones
and Rocky King	King replaced Dutch Mantell
and George South
and Shaska Whatley
and Jimmy Valiant	Lazor Tron held the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship	[7]
and Baron von Raschke
(Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane)	First-round bye
(Basher and Spike)	Held the NWA Florida Tag Team Championship	[8]
(Bill and Randy Mulkey)
(Animal and Hawk)	First-round bye, held the NWA International Tag Team Championship	[9]
(Robert Gibson and Ricky Morton)	First-round bye
(Ivan Koloff and Vladimir Petrov)	Petrov replaced Dick Murdoch who was suspended for 30 days for performing a brainbuster on Nikita Koloff on a concrete floor.
(Nikita Koloff and Dusty Rhodes)	First-round bye, Koloff held the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship	[10]
( 1 and #2)

Results

Tournament brackets

† The Rock 'n' Roll Express were unable to compete due to an eye injury to Ricky Morton. Baba and Takagi won the match by forfeit.^[11]

Notes and References

1. Web site: 2nd Annual Crockett Cup . Wrestling Supercards & Tournaments . August 23, 2009.
2. Book: Cawthon, Graham . the History of Professional Wrestling Vol 3:Jim Crockett and the NWA World Title 1983-1989 . CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform . 2013 . 978-1494803476.
3. Web site: How Pro Wrestling Works . Grabianowski. Ed. HowStuffWorks . . March 5, 2012 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20131129050844/http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/pro-wrestling.htm . November 29, 2013. 2006-01-13.
4. Book: Gary Will and Royal Duncan. Wrestling Title Histories. (United States: 19th Century & widely defended titles – NWA, WWF, AWA, IW, ECW, NWA) NWA/WCW TV Title. 19–20. Archeus Communications. 2006. 0-9698161-5-4.
5. Web site: NWA World Tag Team Championship Title History (1975-). Wrestling Title Histories by Royal Duncan and Gary Will . Solie's Title History. November 15, 2008.
6. Web site: Florida Heavyweight Title . February 1, 2019 . wrestling-titles.com.
7. Book: Gary Will and Royal Duncan. Wrestling Title Histories. (United States: 19th Century & widely defended titles – NWA, WWF, AWA, IW, ECW, NWA) NWA World Junior Heavyweight Title. 21. Archeus Communications. 2006. 0-9698161-5-4.
8. Web site: NWA Florida Tag Team Title . Wrestling-titles.com . February 1, 2019.
9. Web site: NWA International Tag Team Title . February 16, 2019 . Wrestling-Titles.com.
10. 2002 Wrestling Almanac and Book of Facts. The ... Wrestling Almanac and Book of Facts. London Publishing. Ambler, PA. This match was the final bout in a best-of-seven series to fill the vacancy created in May 1986 when Magnum T. A. was stripped of the title for attacking NWA president Bob Geigel.. 120. 1043-7576. 2002.
11. Web site: 1987 Jim Crockett Promotions ring results . Cawthon . Graham . The History of WWE . August 23, 2009.