Crockett Cup 1986

Crockett Cup 1986
Information
Promotion	Jim Crockett Promotions
Date	April 19, 1986
Venue	Louisiana Superdome
City	New Orleans, Louisiana
Attendance	3,500 (afternoon) 13,000 (evening)
Last Event	First
Next Event	1987

The First Annual Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup Tag Team Tournament, also referred to as Crockett Cup (1986), was held on April 19, 1986. The tournament featured 24 tag teams. The concept of the Crockett Cup was a single elimination tag team tournament, with the storyline prize of $1,000,000.00 given to the winning team along with a large trophy. The tournament was won by The Road Warriors (Animal and Hawk), as they defeated Ron Garvin and Magnum TA in the finals to win the tournament.

Production

Background

In early 1986, the professional wrestling promotion Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP) announced that they were hosting a 2-show, 24-team tag team tournament with teams from various National Wrestling Alliance territories. The Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup Tag Team Tournament (commonly known simply as the "Crockett Cup"), named in honor of JCP owner Jim Crockett Jr.'s father, "Big Jim" Crockett Sr. and the The Crockett Foundation, a non-profit organization founded by Crockett Sr. in 1933. The first Crockett Cup was held in New Orleans, Louisiana in collaboration with Bill Watts' Universal Wrestling Federation who normally promoted shows in New Orleans. The 24 team event was split over two shows, held at the Superdome, split between one show in the afternoon and another in the evening.

Each show featured one non-tournament match beyond the Crockett Cup tournament. The afternoon show drew 3,500 people, for a box office take of approximately $40,000, while the evening show sold 13,000 tickets for a total of $180,000. The two shows were not shown as part of JCP's weekly television shows, nor broadcast on Closed-circuit television at the time. The events were recorded, since JCP would later release the 1986 Crockett Cup as a commercial VHS videotape, featuring all tournament matches edited down due to time constraints.

Storylines

The 1986 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.

Event

Tournament participants

Team	From	Notes
Four Horsemen (Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard)	JCP	First-round bye; Blanchard held the NWA National Heavyweight Championship, Anderson held the NWA World Television Championship.
Giant Baba and Tiger Mask	AJPW	First-round bye
The Barbarian and Baron von Raschke	JCP
The Batten Twins (Bart Batten and Brad Batten)	CSW	The most recent Central States Tag Team Champions
Black Bart and Jimmy Garvin	JCP	Black Bart was the NWA Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Champion
Dino Bravo and Rick Martel	Lutte	First-round bye
Bill Dundee and Buddy Landel	CWA
The Fabulous One (Steve Keirn and Stan Lane)	CWF
The Fantastics (Bobby Fulton and Tommy Rogers)	UWF	UWF Tag Team Champions
Manny Fernandez and Jimmy Valiant	JCP
Ron Garvin and Magnum T.A.	JCP	First-round bye; Magnum held the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship
Los Guerreros (Chavo and Hector Guerrero)	CWF
Sam Houston and Nelson Royal	UWF
The Italian Stallion and Koko Ware	UWF
Bobby Jaggers and Mike Miller	PNW
Wahoo McDaniel and Mark Youngblood	JCP
The Midnight Express (Dennis Condrey and Bobby Eaton)	JCP	First-round bye; NWA World Tag Team Champions
D.J. Peterson and Brett Wayne	UWF
The Road Warriors (Animal and Hawk)	JCP	First-round bye
The Rock 'n' Roll Express (Robert Gibson and Ricky Morton)	JCP	First-round bye
The Russian Team (Ivan and Nikita Koloff)	JCP	First-round bye
Buzz Sawyer and Rick Steiner	UWF
The Sheepherders (Butch Miller and Luke Williams)	UWF
Terry Taylor and Steve Williams	UWF	Williams was originally scheduled to team up with Ted Dibiase but Dibiase was injured at the time of the tournament

Aftermath

On June 20, 2019 the tournament was added to the WWE Network as a Hidden Gem.

Results

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)

Tournament brackets

First round

Second round

Quarter Finals

Semi Finals

Final

1

Road Warriors

W

–

McDaniel/Youngblood

12:40

–

McDaniel/Youngblood

W

–

Jaggers/Miller

07:45

1

Road Warriors

W

3

Midnight Express

13:26

–

Houston/Royal

W

–

Batten Twins

08:17

–

Houston/Royal

3

Midnight Express

W

1

Road Warriors

W

–

BYE (double-DQ)

N/A

4

Anderson/Blanchard

14:36

–

Fantastics

W

–

Fabulous Ones

11:14

–

Fantastics

W

–

Fantastics

DDQ

9

Sheepherders

–

Guerreros

9:07

9

Sheepherders

W

9

Sheepherders

DQ

6

Rock 'n' Roll Express

10:38

1

Road Warriors

W

2

Garvin/Magnum

09:49

8

Russian Team

W

–

Fernandez/Valiant

–

Barbarian/Von Raschke

–

Fernandez/Valiant

W

8

Russian Team

Draw

10

Taylor/Williams

20:00

10

Taylor/Williams

W

Dundee/Landel

10

Taylor/Williams

W

5

Bravo/Martel

00:00

–

BYE (draw)

N/A

2

Garvin/Magnum

W

2

Garvin/Magnum

W

–

Sawyer/Steiner

–

Stallion/Ware

–

Sawyer/Steiner

W

2

Garvin/Magnum

W

7

Baba/Tiger Mask

–

Peterson/Wayne

–

Bart/Garvin

W

7

Bart/Garvin

–

Baba/Tiger Mask

W

External links

• Crockett Cup 1986 at CAGEMATCH.net