Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup Tag Team Tournament

The Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup Tag Team Tournament (also known simply as the Crockett Cup) was a tag team professional wrestling tournament held annually in the month of April from 1986 through 1988. Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP), headed by Jim Crockett Jr., hosted the Crockett Cup, held in honor of Crockett's father, JCP founder Jim Crockett Sr. The tournament format was single-elimination, with a US$1 million (kayfabe) prize awarded to the winning team.

The Crockett Cup events were headlined by matches for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.

List of winners

• 1986: The Road Warriors (Animal and Hawk)
• 1987: The Super Powers (Nikita Koloff and Dusty Rhodes)
• 1988: Lex Luger and Sting

1986

The first Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup Tag Team Tournament was held on April 19, 1986. The tournament featured 24 tag teams.^[1]

Participants

Teams shown in bold received first-round byes.

Bracket

Non-tournament matches

• Jim Duggan defeated Dick Slater to retain the Mid-South North American Heavyweight Championship (afternoon)
• Ric Flair defeated Dusty Rhodes by disqualification to retain the NWA World Heavyweight Championship (evening)

1987

The second Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup Tag Team Tournament was held over two nights, April 10 and 11, 1987. The tournament included 24 tag teams.^[2]

Participants

Teams shown in bold received first-round byes.

Bracket

† 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.^[3]

Non-tournament matches

• Ole Anderson defeated Big Bubba Rogers in a Last Man Standing Steel Cage match (April 10)
• Ric Flair defeated Barry Windham to retain the NWA World Heavyweight Championship (April 11)

1988

The third and final Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup Tag Team Tournament was held over two nights, April 22 and 23, 1988. Scheduled to feature 24 teams, the tournament included a few changes to the original lineup.

Lex Luger, scheduled to partner with Barry Windham in the tournament (as they had been the NWA World Tag Team Champions), lost his teammate. Windham turned on Luger just two days before the tournament.^[5] The betrayal caused Luger and Windham to lose the title to Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard, and Windham became the new fourth member of the Four Horsemen, actually taking a spot Luger had been kicked out of months earlier.^[4]

The Super Powers (Nikita Koloff and Dusty Rhodes) were also removed from the tournament. Rhodes received a 120-day suspension on April 15 for hitting Jim Crockett with a baseball bat on the March 26 edition of World Championship Wrestling, and was also stripped of his NWA United States Heavyweight Championship.^[5] Koloff was then given a match for Ric Flair's NWA World Heavyweight Championship, to take place on the second night of the tournament.^[4]

On the first night of the tournament, between the first and second rounds,^[5] Jimmy Garvin defeated Kevin Sullivan in a Blindfold match. Sullivan and Rick Steiner perpetrated a post-match attack on the still blindfolded Garvin. Garvin's brother, Ronnie, attempted to save Jimmy, but during the course of the ensuing brawl, sustained a chest injury due to Sullivan's Golden Spike.^[5] This left Sting also without a partner for the tournament,^[4] with the announcement later on^[5] that Lex Luger and Sting would team up, a partnership that would continue off and on for nearly 15 years.

All of these events left the final tournament field at 22 teams.^[4]

Participants

Teams shown in bold received first-round byes. Entries crossed out were scheduled teams that were split up.

Bracket

The Garvin/Sting and Luger/Windham teams splitting up resulted in the following:

• ¹ The Midnight Express defeated The Sheepherders in the final second round match.^[5] Earlier in that round,^[5] The Sheepherders defeated Armstrong and Horner. This filled the empty 23rd spot in the bracket.
• ² Anderson and Blanchard received a bye to the semifinal round to make up for the empty 24th spot in the bracket.

Non-tournament matches

• Jimmy Garvin defeated Kevin Sullivan in a Blindfold match (April 22, between first and second rounds)
• The Midnight Rider defeated J.J. Dillon in a Bullrope match (April 23, between quarterfinal and semifinal rounds)
• Nikita Koloff defeated Ric Flair by disqualification, with Flair retaining the NWA World Heavyweight Championship (April 23, between semifinal and final rounds)

References