Goody Bag 68: Crockett Cup ‘87

All matches from the Crockett Cup in Baltimore, Maryland on April 10-11 1987.

 

From Day One

Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup Tag Team Tournament Second Round Match: The Road Warriors v Shaska Whatley and Teijo Khan: The Warriors are the NWA International Tag Team champions, and received a bye. They’re also crazy over with the crowd here. Whatley and Khan attack before the bell, but the Warriors are in no mood, and clean house. Dust settles on Hawk and Khan, and Khan tries a cross corner whip, but Hawk rebounds with a clothesline. Overhead backbreaker follows, and it’s over to Animal for a press-slam. Bodyslam sets up an elbowdrop, but Khan dodges, and passes to Whatley. They throw stereo backelbows to put Animal in trouble, and they go to work on him. They try doubling up in the corner, but Animal casually chucks them both across the ring, only for Khan to cut him off before he can tag. Khan with a bodyslam to set up an elbowdrop for two, and he tags to Whatley for a tandem vertical suplex. Splash, but Animal lifts his knees, and makes the tag! Hawk comes in with a dropkick on Khan, and a neckbreaker sets up a fistdrop. Powerslam, and that’s it at 3:45. This was a fun little match. * ½ 

Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup Tag Team Tournament Second Round Match: Ron Garvin and Jimmy Garvin v The Midnight Express: The Express got a bye here, and this is notably one of their first few matches as a team, following Stan Lane taking Dennis Condrey’s place. They’d only worked their first bout as a team days before this, in fact. The Garvins attack before the bell, and whip the Express into one another to kick start the match. Bobby Eaton tries grabbing Jim Cornette’s tennis racket to shake them off, but that backfires on him, and the Express end up on the outside for some stalling. The dust settles on Ron and Eaton, and Garvin dominates. Tags all around, and Jimmy nails Stan Lane with a dropkick, so Lane tags right back out. Eaton forces a criss cross, but runs into a shoulderblock, so Cornette takes a cheap shot to help his men turn the tide. The Express go to work on Jimmy, but a miscommunication allows the tag, and Ron runs wild. He takes Bobby to the outside for a piledriver on the floor, but Cornette saves, and Ron is counted out at 6:30. Pretty weak outing here. ½*

Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup Tag Team Tournament Second Round Match: Arn Anderson and Kevin Sullivan v Bob Armstrong and Brad Armstrong: Anderson and Sullivan received a bye here. Arn in baby blue tights is a weird fit for him. Arn and Brad start, and a big criss cross ends in Brad hooking a drop-toehold. Anderson quickly fights him off, but Brad reverses a turnbuckle smash on him, and dives with a flying bodypress for two. Tag to Sullivan, and he tries to corner the youngster, but Brad holds his own in a slugfest, and tags to dad. Bob with a corner whip, and it’s back to Brad for a 2nd rope axehandle. Wristlock, but Sullivan quickly fights him off, and Arn tags in with a bodyslam to set up a kneedrop for two. Back to Sullivan and Bob, and they cut the ring in half on dad, but he fights Kevin off long enough to reach Brad - Roseanne Barr the door! Sullivan tries dumping Brad to the outside, but Armstrong comes back with a slingshot sunset flip at 5:25. *

Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup Tag Team Tournament Second Round Match: The MOD Squad v Tully Blanchard and Lex Luger: Blanchard/Luger received a bye, and the Squad are the NWA Florida Tag Team champions here. Tully starts with one of the MODs (I can’t tell them apart, and there’s no commentary here to help - anyway, do you really care?), and Blanchard gets powered around. The Horsemen sucker him into the corner to turn the tide, allowing Luger to work the arm. He takes it down in a headscissors hold, but MOD gets a tag out. Lex gets him in a wristlock as well, and he passes to Blanchard for a gut-punch. That pisses MOD off, however, and Blanchard eats some turnbuckle. The MODs abuse Tully some, but he slips away, and tags out to Lex. Luger comes in hot, and a bodyslam sets up an elbowdrop for him. The Horsemen corner the MOD and unload, but Lex gets his eyes raked, and the MODs turn it back around. They double up for some ropechoking, but Lex dodges a corner charge, and tags Tully. Blanchard hops right in to put the boots to the downed MOD, but that triggers a brawl, and Roseanne Barr the door. Tully lifts his boot to block a corner charge, and he capitalizes with a 2nd rope elbowdrop at 6:31. This was a total punch/kick affair. DUD

From Day Two

Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup Tag Team Tournament Quarterfinal Match: Bob Armstrong and Brad Armstrong v Tully Blanchard and Lex Luger: Brad and Blanchard start, and Brad wins the initial criss cross by shoulderblocking him down. Blanchard tries taking him into the corner, but Brad is too fast for him, and hooks a headscissors takedown, so Tully stalls to break the momentum. Brad grabs a standing side-headlock as they get going again, and unlike in the earlier match against the two MOD Squad losers, the crowd isn’t cheering the Horsemen this time around. Brad with an atomic drop and an armdrag into an armbar, then over to dad. Bob bootrakes Blanchard and works a wristlock, with Tully doing a great job of getting it over on his part. Oddly, the Armstrongs are cutting the ring in half, and doing switches without tags. In a funny bit, Blanchard gets so disoriented that he tries to tag out to Bob, but gets tagged with a punch instead. The Armstrongs continue working the arm, continuing to take cheap shots at Lex and make illegal switch offs, and now the crowd is getting behind the Horsemen as babyfaces. Tully finally slips away for the hot tag to Lex, but Brad is ready for him, not backing down. Luger shoves him across the ring a few times, and suddenly the Horsemen are full-on heels again. Great crowd control here, total Bret Hart level stuff. Brad manages to trip him up, and an armdrag sends Lex bailing to regroup. Luger comes in and starts pounding him, but Brad finds a bodypress for two, so Lex stalls. Luger manages to grab a wristlock, and he passes back to Blanchard, who immediately takes a cheap shot to make sure to rid the crowd of any residual sympathy. Corner charge misses, allowing Brad a missile dropkick for two, so JJ Dillon takes a cheap shot of his own to send Brad bumping over the top. Tully follows to the outside to send Brad into the guardrail, and inside, he delivers a side suplex for two. The Horsemen work Brad over, the crowd now fully behind the Armstrongs, until Brad counters a hiptoss from Blanchard with a backslide for two, and delivers an atomic drop to allow the tag - Roseanne Barr the door! Brad lands a dropkick on Luger to knock him to the outside, but that distracts the referee, and he’s not there to count a pin on the downed Blanchard. Cue interference from JJ, and Blanchard pins Bob at 17:13. Tully playing the face-in-peril role was actually a lot better than I was expecting, and I’m surprised he didn’t do more as a babyface. This whole match was like a master class in getting a crowd to do what you want them to, but the actual action was pretty basic. * ½ 

Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup Tag Team Tournament Quarterfinal Match: The Road Warriors v The Midnight Express: Hawk and Bobby Eaton start, and Hawk uses power so Stan Lane immediately runs in, but Hawk fights off the double team, and cleans house. Back in, Hawk press-drops Bobby into the top turnbuckle, and Eaton wisely tags out. Lane powers Hawk into the corner, but a cross corner whip gets reversed, and Stan takes a nice somersault bump into the buckles. Tag to Animal, and Lane eats a double backelbow, followed by a fistdrop for two. Animal press-drops him, and he grabs a wristlock, so Lane tries diving over the ropes to break, but Animal hangs on, and drags him right back in! Tags all around, and the Express stall, trying to figure out what to do with these two machines. Big Bubba Rogers tries getting involved, but Cornette manages to back him off before he can cost the team the match. Bobby gets killed in the Warriors corner once he engages, and man, Hawk just lets one rip with a slap to the chops. That one put the ‘tag’ in tag team wrestling. Animal with a powerslam for two, so Bobby goes to the eyes, and tags. Lane tries capitalizing, but gets reversed into the ropes, and Animal backelbows him out of the ring. Back in, Hawk delivers a gutwrench slam, and a 2nd rope elbowdrop follows, but Eaton breaks up the cover. That allows Lane to bite him in the eye, and the Express quickly get in some more double teams before the referee sees what’s going on. The Express manage to work every old school heel tactic in the book into about two minutes here, but Hawk manages to block a corner charge by lifting his boot, and it’s hot tag to Animal - Roseanne Barr the door! The referee gets bumped as he runs wild, allowing Cornette to run in with a fireball in Animal’s eyes! That draws Paul Ellering in to attack Jim, but of course that’s the part that the official catches, and the Warriors are disqualified at 11:28. Tons of energy here. ** ½ 

Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup Tag Team Tournament Quarterfinal Match: Rick Rude and Manny Fernandez v Nikita Koloff and Dusty Rhodes: Rude and Fernandez are the NWA World Tag Team champions at this point. Joined in progress with Manny working Dusty over, as the ring announcer notes that we’re five minutes into the match. And he’s been pretty accurate all night, so I think we can believe him. They cut the ring in half on Rhodes, until Dusty manages to catch Manny with a clothesline during a criss cross, and Koloff charges in to cut a Rude attack off. Everyone brawls, and Dusty rolls through a flying bodypress from Manny at 4:34 shown of 9:40. We lost kind of a big chunk of the match, so I won’t rate it, but it seemed pretty average.

Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup Tag Team Tournament Semifinal Match: Tully Blanchard and Lex Luger v Giant Baba and Isao Takagi: Baba wears Luger down in a hold for a while, and Takagi tags in to try the same with a front-facelock, but Lex sweeps him down, and holds a kneebar. Tag to Tully to help work the leg, but Takagi manages to get into his corner while in a hold, and passes to Baba. Baba tries grounding Tully in an armbar, but he reaches Lex, and seeing Luger and Baba’s arms at the same time is a very jarring thing, let me tell you. Baba dodges an elbowdrop and delivers a Russian legsweep, but he fails to cut the ring in half, and Blanchard tags in. Baba knife-edge chops him down and passes to Takagi, so Lex tries running in to take a cheap shot, but gets quickly dispatched. They work Tully over, but Lex saves him during a pin attempt, and gets the tag in. Lex dodges a corner charge from Takagi and hooks him in a brief torture rack as a wear down hold, then drops him to score the pinfall at 8:28. The finish felt really odd, with Takagi staying in the hold for all of two seconds, and then getting pinned with Baba barely even reacting to it all. DUD

Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup Tag Team Tournament Semifinal Match: The Midnight Express v Nikita Koloff and Dusty Rhodes: Bobby Eaton and Koloff start, and Bobby stalls him out, but Koloff brings him in from the apron hardway, then sends him right back to the outside with a dropkick. Tag to Lane, and he tries a hiptoss, but that promptly gets reversed on him, so he complains that Koloff hooked the tights. Nikita is so offended that he tags out to Dusty, and Rhodes bashes Stan with an elbowsmash, then gives one to Bobby just for good measure. Eaton tags in and eats more elbows, so he bails, but Rhodes is after him for a hiptoss on the floor. Dusty messes with Big Bubba while he’s out there, but Koloff falls prey to a double team, and the Express get control. They work Nikita over, but Koloff manages to reverse a whip into the ropes, and he catches Eaton with a clothesline. Stan comes in to try another double team to save things, but it backfires, and Koloff kills Eaton with the Russian Sickle at 9:23. Pretty basic, but not poorly worked. ¾*

NWA World Title Match: Ric Flair v Barry Windham: Feeling out process to start, with Flair cheating to dominate, but Windham hanging through, and with the champion. Flair tries upping the ante with chops, but Windham no-sells them, so Ric pulls the hair to try and force him to sell, but Barry still isn’t keen. He takes Flair into the corner for a ten-punch, and a hiptoss leads to a dropkick for two. Criss cross sees Windham outsmart him and apply a mat-based side-headlock, but Ric fights to a vertical base. He forces another criss cross, but has Barry’s short stop trick scouted this time, and bails to the outside before Windham can trap him in another hold. Back in after breaking the momentum, and Flair grabs a hammerlock, but Windham reverses. Flair tries a takedown, but Windham holds on with the hammerlock, so Flair suckers him into a hotshot. That allows the champion a kneedrop, and he violently dumps Windham to the outside. Barry wasn’t afraid of the ball with that bump, and Ric follows to send him into the rail out there. The chops rattle the challenger this time around, but he beats the count, so Ric gives him some more, and takes him down in an armbar. Into the corner for more chops after a good wear down, and a snapmare allows Flair a kneedrop for two. He argues the count, but that brief breather allows Windham recover, and he wins a slugfest, flopping Flair. Ten-punch and a hiptoss work again, but Flair has the dropkick scouted, and dodges this time. That allows him to slap on the figure four, but Windham won’t submit, and Flair gets busted using the ropes. The referee breaks them up, so Flair cross corner whips the challenger, but Windham rebounds with a jumping clothesline. They spill to the outside, where Flair tries a piledriver on the floor, but the referee is again harshing his mellow. That allows Windham a slingshot sunset flip for two, so Flair tries cutting him off with a hiptoss, but Barry counters with a backslide for two. Ric wisely bails to break the momentum, and manages to corner him with a chop on the way back in, but it just fires Windham up, and he comes out of the corner with a flurry of fists for two. Mounted punches follow, so Flair tries bailing again, but Windham stays on him with a hanging floatover suplex for two. Flying senton splash, but Flair rolls out of the way, and the challenger wipes out in dramatic fashion. That allows Ric to go back to the figure four, but Barry counters with a cradle for two. Flair tries a sleeper, but Windham drops him into the top turnbuckle to shake it off, and a big right hand sends Ric right over the top. The referee literally pleading with Windham to take it easy is great, and one of the many minor reasons Tommy Young was such a master of his craft. Windham tries a piledriver of his own on the floor, but Flair backdrops him to block, and dives with a flying bodypress on the way back in - only for Barry to roll through for two. Cross corner whip flips Flair to the floor with authority, but Ric still has the sense to hit the challenger down low when he chases after him. Ric tries a suplex in from the apron, but Windham counters with a sleeper. Flair tries the turnbuckle trick, but Windham knows it well, and shoves him into the corner to block, then gets the hold back on. Windham rides him down in it, and Flair looks done, but gets into the ropes to save himself. He’s still spent, however, so Windham drags him to the middle for a splash - only for Ric to lift his knees to block. Flair blasts him with a chop and goes to the top for another dive, but stupidly wastes time playing to the crowd, and gets slammed off. That allows Windham a figure four, so Flair goes to the eyes to break. He forces a criss cross, but Barry gets the better of it with a powerslam for two. Back to the figure four, but Ric thumbs him in the eye before he can even get it locked this time. He dives with a bodypress, but both guys spill to the outside off of it (messing up the over the top spot), and Ric sends him into the post out there. He heads in to take his countout, but Windham is resilient, and rushes to the top with a missile dropkick for two - Ric in the ropes to save it. Windham stays on him with a jumping clothesline, but Flair gets the ropes again at two. Hook the leg, fool! Windham stays on him with a hanging floatover suplex for two, but Ric blocks another figure four, and they do a pinfall reversal sequence. Ric tries a kneebreaker, but Windham counters with a rollup for two - only for Flair to reverse with the tights at 25:39. This was a great match. I still think it tends to be overrated as flawless when there are some pretty obvious flaws (they messed up at least one big spot, and there were a lot of repetitive sequences that didn’t modify or improve upon earlier ones), but I definitely underrated it the first time around. **** (Original rating: *** ¼)

Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup Tag Team Tournament Final Match: Tully Blanchard and Lex Luger v Nikita Koloff and Dusty Rhodes: Magnum TA (in his first in-arena appearance since the car wreck that ended his career) is at ringside, and we get the awesome visual of Koloff embracing him to a massive pop. Blanchard and Rhodes start, and Dusty does all his usual half-comedy stuff. Tags made, giving us the Luger/Koloff power showdown, which mostly goes nowhere beyond posturing. Back to Blanchard, and Koloff gets more traction with him, using an atomic drop to send him to the outside. Blanchard tries using speed on the way back in, but gets caught in a bearhug, so Luger runs in to break it up. That allows Tully to try for the slingshot suplex, but Koloff blocks, and clotheslines him. Lex runs in, but eats one as well, and one for JJ Dillon as well - the Horsemen left looking up at the lights! Koloff vertical suplexes Blanchard for two, and a big clothesline sends both men tumbling over the top. JJ immediately capitalizes by ripping Koloff’s neck brace off, and the Horsemen go to work! Tully gets clobbered while trying a dive off the middle, allowing the hot tag to Dusty, and Roseanne Barr the door! The Horsemen do a really goofy job of selling for Rhodes, but Dusty ends up missing a charge, and taking a spill to the outside. That allows Dillon to pass Tully a weapon, and he blasts Koloff with it. Piledriver looks to finish, but Dusty fights Luger off long enough to dive off the top with a flying bodypress at 17:17. *