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. 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.
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 TeamNotes and Kevin SullivanArn 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 TakagiFirst-round bye and Bill Dundee and Lex LugerFirst-round bye, Blanchard held the NWA World Television Championship and Todd Champion and Rick RudeFirst-round bye. Held the NWA World Tag Team Championship (Jimmy and Ronnie Garvin) and Nelson Royal and Mike RotundaRotunda held the NWA Florida Heavyweight Championship and Ricky Lee Jones and Rocky KingKing replaced Dutch Mantell and George South and Shaska Whatley and Jimmy ValiantLazor Tron held the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship and Baron von Raschke (Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane)First-round bye (Basher and Spike)Held the NWA Florida Tag Team Championship (Bill and Randy Mulkey) (Animal and Hawk)First-round bye, held the NWA International Tag Team Championship (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 (#1 and #2)
Results Non-tournament matches Ole Anderson defeated Big Bubba Rogers in a Last Man Standing Steel Cage match Ric Flair defeated Barry Windham to retain the NWA World Heavyweight Championship 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.
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