Crockett Cup (1988)

The Third Annual Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup Tag Team Tournament, also referred to as the Crocket Cup (1988), was an event held over two nights: April 22 and 23, 1988. Scheduled to feature 24 teams, the tournament included a few changes to the original lineup and ended up with only 22 teams. The team of Sting and Lex Luger was formed specifically for the 1988 Crockett Cup and ended up winning the tournament by defeating Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard in the finals.

Crockett Cup (1988)
Cover of the official VHS release.
PromotionJim Crockett Promotions
Date
  • April 22, 1988
  • April 23, 1988
City
  • Greenville, South Carolina (April 22)
  • Greensboro, North Carolina (April 23)
Venue
Attendance
  • 4,440 (April 22)[1]
  • 6,300 (April 23)[1]
Event chronology
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The Great American Bash
Crockett Cup chronology
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1987		 Next →
2019

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 1988 Crockett Cup shows featured a total of 21 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.[2]

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.[3] 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.[1][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.[3] Koloff was then given a match for Ric Flair's NWA World Heavyweight Championship, to take place on the second night of the tournament.[1]

On the first night of the tournament, between the first and second rounds,[3] 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.[3] This left Sting also without a partner for the tournament,[1] with the announcement later on[3] 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.[1]

Event

Tournament participants
Team Notes Ref(s).
Johnny Ace and John Savage   [1][4]
Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard First-round bye [1][4]
Brad Armstrong and Tim Horner   [1][4]
Chris Champion and Mark Starr   [1][4]
Tiger Conway Jr. and Shaska Whatley   [1][4]
The Cruel Connection (#1 and #2)   [1][4]
Joe Cruz and Ricky Santana   [1][4]
The Fantastics (Bobby Fulton and Tommy Rogers) First-round bye [1][4]
Ron Garvin and Sting Unable to compete as Garvin was injured [1][4]
The Green Machine and The Terminator   [1][4]
The Italian Stallion and Kendall Windham   [1][4]
Rocky King and Nelson Royal   [1][4]
Ivan Koloff and Dick Murdoch   [1][4]
Sting and Lex Luger First-round bye [1][4]
Lex Luger and Barry Windham Barry Windham turned on Luger shortly before the tournament [1][4]
The Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane) First-round bye [1][4]
Mighty Wilbur and Jimmy Valiant Note [1][4]
Al Perez and Larry Zbyszko   [1][4]
The Powers of Pain (The Barbarian and The Warlord) First-round bye [1][4]
The Road Warriors (Animal and Hawk) First-round bye [1][4]
The Sheepherder] (Butch Miller and Luke Williams)   [1][4]
Ron Simmons and Steve Williams First-round bye [1][4]
The Twin Devils (#1 and #2)   [1][4]
The Varsity Club (Mike Rotunda and Rick Steiner) First-round bye [1][4]

Results
No. Results Stipulations
1 Jimmy Garvin defeated Kevin Sullivan Single match Blindfold match
2 The Midnight Rider defeated J.J. Dillon Bullrope match (April 23, between quarterfinal and semifinal rounds)
3 Nikita Koloff defeated Ric Flair by disqualification, with Flair retaining Singal match for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship

Tournament brackets
  First round Second round Quarter Finals Semi Finals Final
                                               
Ace/Savage  
Lightning Express W  
  Midnight Express W  
    Lighting Express
Sheepherders		  
Cruel Connection
Sheepherders W  
  Midnight Express1  
  Luger/Sting W  
Koloff/Murdoch W  
Wilbur/Valiant  
  Koloff/Murdoch
    Luger/Sting W  
     
       
  Luger/Sting W  
  Powers of Pain  
       
       
  Powers of Pain W
    Champion/Starr  
Champion/Starr W
Twin Devils  
  Powers of Pain W
  Road Warriors  
King/Royal  
Conway Jr./Whatley W  
  Conway Jr./Whatley
    Road Warriors W  
     
       
  Luger/Sting W
  Anderson/Blanchard
       
  Anderson/Blanchard W  
    Stallion/Windham  
Machine/Terminator
Stallion/Windham W  
  Anderson/Blanchard W  
  BYE2 N/A  
       
       
  BYE2 N/A
    BYE2 N/A  
     
       
  Anderson/Blanchard V
  Fantastics  
Cruz/Santana  
Perez/Zbyszko W  
  Perez/Zbyszko
    Fantastics W  
     
       
  Fantastics W
  Varsity Club  
       
       
  Varsity Club W
    Simmons/Williams  
     

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.[3] Earlier in that round,[3] 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.

References
  1. "3rd Annual Crockett Cup". Wrestling Supercards & Tournaments. Retrieved August 23, 2009.
  2. Grabianowski, Ed (13 January 2006). "How Pro Wrestling Works". HowStuffWorks. Discovery Communications. Archived from the original on November 18, 2013. Retrieved March 5, 2012.
  3. Cawthon, Graham. "1988 Jim Crockett Promotions ring results". The History of WWE. Retrieved August 23, 2009.
  4. Cawthon, Graham (2013). the History of Professional Wrestling Vol 3:Jim Crockett and the NWA World Title 1983-1989. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. ISBN 978-1494803476.
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