The Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup Tag Team Tournament (also known simply as the Crockett Cup) is a

professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring or ...

event produced every April by the professional wrestling promotion, National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). The event features a

tag team Tag team wrestling is a type of professional wrestling in which matches are contested between teams of multiple wrestlers. Tag teams may be made up of wrestlers who normally wrestle in singles competition, but more commonly are made of establish ...

tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

with the Crockett Cup awarded to the winning tag team.

Event history

The Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup Tag Team Tournament was created by Jim Crockett Jr. of

Jim Crockett Promotions Jim Crockett Promotions Inc. is a family-owned professional wrestling promotion headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States, restarted by Jim Crockett's son and Jim Crockett Jr's brother, David Crockett. Founded in 1931, the promot ...

(JCP) in honor of Crockett's father, JCP founder

Jim Crockett Sr. James Allen Crockett Sr. (June 2, 1909 – April 1, 1973) was a professional wrestling promoter and professional sports franchise owner sometimes known as Jim Crockett Sr., or to people within the business simply as "Big Jim". Early life Crockett ...

The tournament format was single-elimination with a promoted prize of $1 million (U.S.) awarded to the winning team. JCP held the event every April in 1986, 1987, and 1988 before selling the company to

Ted Turner Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III (born November 19, 1938) is an American entrepreneur, television producer, media proprietor, and philanthropist. He founded the Cable News Network (CNN), the first 24-hour cable news channel. In addition, he fo ...

(via TBS) in November 1988. In July 2017, the Crockett Foundation, with Classic Pro Wrestling, held a spin-off version called the Crockett Foundation Cup Tag Team Tournament in New Kent, Virginia.

Bobby Fulton James Hines (born October 4, 1960) is a retired American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Bobby Fulton. He was one half of the tag team The Fantastics with Tommy Rogers. Professional wrestling career James Hines started wr ...

, The Barbarian, and

The Rock 'n' Roll Express The Rock 'n' Roll Express is a professional wrestling tag team consisting of professional wrestlers Robert Gibson and Ricky Morton. The duo began teaming together in Memphis in the early 1980s, followed by Mid-South Wrestling (later to be known ...

were previous tournament wrestlers that took part in the event. The Geordie Bulldogs (Mark Denny and Sean Denny) were the tournament champions. On October 1, 2017, William Patrick Corgan's purchase of the

NWA NWA or Nwa most commonly refers to: * N.W.A ("Niggaz Wit Attitudes"), a hip hop group from Compton, California, US * National Wrestling Alliance, a professional wrestling organization NWA or Nwa may refer to: Music * New Weird America, a subgenr ...

(via his company Lightning One, Inc.) was finalized. In addition to ending its operation as a governing body, the NWA vacated all titles, except for the

NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship The NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship is a world heavyweight professional wrestling championship owned and promoted by the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), an American professional wrestling promotion. The current champion is Tyrus, who is i ...

and the

NWA World Women's Championship The NWA World Women's Championship is a women's professional wrestling world championship created and promoted by the American professional wrestling promotion National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). The title was first won by Mildred Burke in 193 ...

, and all licenses with previously-affiliated promotions expired. From that point on, NWA gradually became a singular wrestling promotion. In October 2018, during the NWA 70th Anniversary Show, it was announced that the Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup Tag Team Tournament, now simply called the Crockett Cup, would be returning in April 2019. Thirty-one years after the previous event, the fourth annual Crockett Cup was held on April 27, 2019. In June 2019, the inaugural event from 1986 was uploaded to the

WWE Network WWE Network is a subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and digital television Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of television signals using digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television t ...

. In January 2020, during NWA's NWA Hard Times, Hard Times pay-per-view, it was announced the Crockett Cup would be returning again in Crockett Cup (2020), April 2020, thus confirming the Crockett Cup as an annual event held by the NWA. On February 18 the NWA announced the date of April 19 for when the Cup would be held and they announced the venue would be the Gateway Center Arena in College Park, Georgia. However, the 2020 event was canceled due to the global pandemic.

Tournament winners

* 1986: The Road Warriors (Road Warrior Animal, Animal and Road Warrior Hawk, Hawk) * 1987: The Super Powers (Nikita Koloff and Dusty Rhodes (wrestler), Dusty Rhodes) * 1988: Sting and Lex Luger * 2019: Villain Enterprises (Brody King and Carl Oulette, PCO) * 2022: The Briscoe Brothers (Jay Briscoe and Mark Briscoe)

Dates and venues

References

External links

* {{Portal bar, 1980s Crockett Cup, Jim Crockett Promotions shows National Wrestling Alliance shows Recurring events established in 1986