411 Video Review: Jim Crockett Promotions Presents: Crockett Cup 88

Ah yes your humble tape reviewer Connor McGrath has returned after a (somewhat brief) absence, what can I say school is hell. I’m not Jay Bower here so I’ll cut to the point; tonight I’m going old school. Now old school marks beware I don’t know much about these old school JCP story lines so forgive me if I get some information wrong. Now on that note let’s head to the action…

Sorry but I got to delay the action a little bit by spewing some of the little JCP knowledge I have. The Crockett Cup was a big tag team tournament JCP held every year over two nights. Every tag team in JCP at the time was probably in this tournament from the Mulkeys to the Road Warriors. What was the prize some of you may ask? It was no scepter or big ass goofy crown, it wasn’t a stupid little ring…it was one million dollars and a big ass trophy. Highlights of the tourney are shown on this tape, not the full tape just to inform you Laser Tron marks. Now without further ado I present to you 411 readers: My take on Crockett Cup 88.

Live from Greenville, South Carolina and Greensboro, North Carolina.

We start off with an assload of cheesy commercials. Starrcade 86(Headlined by happy Russian Nikita Koloff Vs Ric Flair and Midnight Express Vs the Road Warriors in a scaffold match) Commercial for Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup tag team tournament (Hey its Kamala!). Ric Flair shills Great American Bash 86(Poor Shaska) available on Beta! Hey that made my day. Great American Bash 87 commercial, I have that tape I’ll do a review on that sooner then later. Commercial for the Danger Zone (Dusty Rhodes: I’ll rip your head off and dance on your tonsils!) Eww the men of NWA swimsuit calendar for 1988. Who doesn’t want to see Steve Williams in swim trunks? Commercial for Starrcade 87(Main evented by Ric Flair Vs “Hands of Stone” Ronnie Garvin…good god). 30 bucks for a tape bah that’s a worse deal then RF video!

Your hosts are JR and Tony Schivone

Jimmy Valiant and the Mighty Wilber Vs Dick Murdoch and Ivan Koloff

Wow weird teamings…. Jimmy Valiant and JCP’s version of Hillbilly Jim Vs Captain Redneck and an evil Russian. Just what I need to see after the assloads of commercials Jimmy Valiant’s arm flab waving in the air. Wilber and Koloff start, both men tag out soon after. Valiant with a back body drop on Koloff. Tag out to Murdoch, Murdoch elbows Valiant and tags out to Koloff. Wilber hits him with the world’s weakest clothesline, it hit but it looked like it barely tapped the evil Russian. Koloff hits Valiant with the Russian Sickle for the three. DUD, I’m glad that ended as fast as it did. I would have delved into the negative stars for sure on this one. Russian and Redneck go onto the second round.

Steve Williams and Ron Simmons Vs the Varsity Club (With Kevin Sullivan)

Hey remember when The Varsity Club reunited for a month in 2000 in WCW and were managed by Kimona? Well I remember for sure…somewhere someone marked out when the Varsity Club reunited. Williams and Rotunda do a wrestling sequence to start by Williams says screw that and decks Rotunda. Clip job. We flash to Steve Williams applying a headlock to Rick Steiner. Football tackles to Rick Steiner but he misses one and Steiner takes control. Williams with a big clothesline, tag to Simmons. Man the sad thing is this match could probably headline a Tokyo Dome card. Rotunda with a bodyslam on Simmons. Man JR and Tony haven’t yelled one time during this match. Simmons with a hiptoss on IRS, The Varsity Club double-teams poor Farrooq. A close-up on Williams ass makes me close my eyes disturbs me which makes me miss a portion of the match. When I open my eyes again it’s a pier-six brawl. Rick Steiner throws Simmons out of the ring for a count out. *1/4, hossarific but not terrible due to the match being clipped well. The Varsity Club advances to the second round.

Kendall Windham and The Italian Stallion Vs Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson

Kendall Windham is currently spending time in a Florida State Penitentiary and is best known for being part of the West Texas Rednecks. The Stallion is best known for screwing Carolina Indy wrestlers out of their money most noticeably the Hardy Boys. At this point the two are just cannon fodder for the Horseman. Blanchard and Windham start, Blanchard gets taken down with an armbar. Tag to Arn who gets hiptossed and then arm dragged. Tag to Stallion who chops Anderson but Arn comes back with a shoulder block. Tag out to Tully, Stallion slugs him. Tag back out to Kendall, who elbows Tully. Kendall with a small package for two. Kendall comes off the ropes and gets a spine buster from Arn. Hot tag to Stallion who gets an elbow. Stallion throws Arn into the ropes but Arn comes back with DDT for the three. **1/4, surprisingly fun match. Arn and Tully sold well for the jobbers and made them look like they had a legit chance of winning the match. Arn and Tully go on to the third (?) round.

The Road Warriors Vs the Jive Tones

The Jive Tones are jobbers Pez “Shaska Baby” Whatley and Tiger Conway. The Road Warriors are idiots who still think they should make seven figures a year. Animal no sells Pez’s offense and attacks him with his slow plodding offense. The Jive Tones double team Animal and Animal somewhat sells. Tag out to Hawk and Tiger, Hawk with a kick to the nuts and press slam. Tag out to Animal, clipped to the Jive Tones double teaming Animal. Tag to Hawk who gives Pez a dropkick (!) and Tiger a shoulder block. Hawk blows a spear spot (Ha ha ha). Hawk with a flying shoulder block for the win. ј*, the last match was an example on what a squash should be, this match is an example of what a squash shouldn’t be. Poor selling, weak offense and no effort. The Road Warriors go onto round three.

The Fantastics Vs Al Perez and Larry Zybysko(With Gary Hart)
Ah this is more old school then the jar of milk in my fridge(snare drum sound effect). The Fantastics entrance would get them over huge as heels if they were around today, hugging old ladies, thirteen-year-old boys. Rodgers and Perez start off, Perez kicks Rodgers in the gut. Perez and Zybysko double-team Rodgers. Everyone involved in this match has a mullet with the exception of Gary Hart. Dropkick to Zybysko, tag out to Fulton. Tag out to Perez, who attacks Fulton in the corner. Perez and Fulton trade arm bars. German suplex by Perez for a two. Fulton misses a cross body block. Perez tags out to Zybysko, who briefly stalls. Tag to Perez who hits a flying jalepeno. Small package on Zybysko and Perez tries to break it up but gets dropkicked out of the ring. Fulton gets the win. ***1/4, man that was great for a four or five minute match, Zybysko didn’t even stall that much!

Lex Luger and Sting(With Magnum T.A.) Vs Redneck and Russian(With Paul Jones)
Luger and Sting get a huge pop during there entrance. I don’t know why they’re coming out with Magnum T.A., I guess Magnum needed something to do. Koloff and Luger start off with a shoving match. JR calls this the young vs. the old. Luger with a back body drop and hip toss on Koloff. Luger with a really crappy dropkick, that hits Koloff in the hip. Luger with a gorilla press slam, Sting tags in. JR: The Sting ray tags in!(what the hell?). Sting gets double-teamed but fights his way out of the corner. Murdoch with a cross arm breaker, Sting gets out of it by elbowing Murdoch in the eye. Murdoch chokes Sting with a chain. Koloff knocks Sting out and Murdoch elbows him in the throat. Magnum T.A just looks on while Sting gets pummeled, jeez I know he almost died less then two years before but couldn’t he do something to help the Stinger? Sting gets tossed out of the ring, Murdoch gives him a weak chair shot. Luger throws Sting back in the. Murdoch shoots Sting to the other side but Sting reverses and delivers a Stinger splash. Figure four on Sting and a pier six ensues. Sting reverses a bodyslam into a pin for a three count. *1/2, the first portion of the match sucked a dick, but it was getting good before it ended. Sting and Luger go on to round three.

Midnight Express (With Jim Cornette) Vs the Sheepherders (With Rip Morgan)
All four men slug it out to start off the match. This is the Stan Lane-Bobby Eaton version of the Midnight Express btw. This is also a rare heel-heel match. Stan Lane and Luke start out. Lane tags out to Eaton, Eaton runs off in fear of the Sheepherders. The Sheepherders double team Eaton. Butch throws Eaton into the railing. Luke and Bobby Eaton brawl outside, Stan Lane throws him back in the ring. Pier six brawl, Butch tries to make a pin on Sam but Tommy Young is distracted. Cornette hits Butch with the tennis racket and Eaton pins him. *1/2, this looked like it had potential to be pretty good. A wild brawl done well due to the Express’ bumping. Midnight Express advances into round three.

Kevin Sullivan (With Rick Sterner) Vs Jimmy Garvin (with Precious) (Prince of Darkness match)

This is one of the first blindfold matches to my knowledge. I won’t say first cause if I do I bet some old-school mark will come for my head. Rick Steiner helps Sullivan to the ring. Rick Steiner has a great porn star moustache, ala 80’s Scott Hall. Tony Schivone is the ring announcer here(I thought he was supposed to be in the announcing booth *sarcasm off*) . Garvin attacks Sullivan, both men look for each other for a while. Sullivan is really out of shape here, no muscle tone even. Garvin hammers away at Sullivan. Looking around period, really long one to boot. Sullivan kicks Garvin in the gut. A Sullivan bodyslam is reversed into an inside cradle for the three. After the match Jimmy Garvin gets beat down by the Varsity Club. Ronnie Garvin tries to make the save but he’s Ronnie Garvin and he won’t really help so he gets beat down too. Sullivan uses the spike on Ronnie Garvin. -**3/4, abomination of a match would have gotten a worse rating if it was any longer.

Bunkhouse Stampede

I think everyone here knows the back-story of this match, but here it is for those who don’t. JCP decided to run it’s second PPV the Bunkhouse Stampede after the disastrous first PPV (Starrcade 87). So just to a prick Vince McMahon put the first Royal Rumble on the SAME night as Bunkhouse Stampede. Except the Royal Rumble was for free, thus Bunkhouse Stampede got an ultra-low buy rate. The whole PPV sucked so much it wasn’t released on video except for the actual Bunkhouse Stampede, which is here.

The Bunkhouse Stampede is a battle royal…. In a steel cage. Now before you say that sounds like a cool concept Connor. You had to throw the person off the cage to eliminate them….and it was really long. Which is why the match is clipped to 15 minutes(thank god). We’ve got Dusty Rhodes(Head booker and top face), Lex Luger, The Powers of Pain, Road Warrior Animal, Ivan Koloff and Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson. Everyone hear is wearing “street clothes” yeah I’m sure wrestlers wear torn up tank tops, jean shorts and cowboy boots all the time. Rhodes, Blanchard and Anderson and Ivan Koloff are all bleeding. Blanchard chokes Koloff, Anderson teases an elimination. This is way too hard to follow, everyone is trying to tell a story at once. Animal throws Ivan Koloff off the cage. Blanchard wears pretty stupid street clothes, a teal T-shirt, tight jeans and cowboy boots. Not as bad as Dust’s tight jeans and bright yellow tank top. Animal and the Warlord fall out. It’s down to Blanchard, Anderson, Rhodes, Luger and the Barbarian. Luger torture racks Blanchard. Ewww Arn is wearing a half shirt with his gut hanging out. Luger saves himself from being eliminated. Luger fights off the Blanchard and Anderson. Luger, Blanchard and Anderson all fall out. It’s down to Dusty and the Barbarian (shudders). I wonder who’ll win this one? Barbarian hits Rhodes with two diving head butts. Crowd shots show that the crowd is bored as hell. Both men climb up to the top of the cage, Barbarian almost tosses Dusty over the top. Dusty saves himself and Dusty eliminates the Barbarian with two bionic elbow. **, not quite as bad as everyone says but the match was flawed. Everyone was trying to tell a story at once but it just doesn’t work out that way.

Powers of Pain(With Paul Jones and Ivan Koloff) Vs the Road Warriors(With Paul Ellering)
There was a feud of some sorts here, ah yes I believe the Powers of Pain cheated at a weightlifting contest. Animal and Barbarian start off with a lock up. Barbarian with a big boot. Barbarian throws Animal into the rope but Animal reverses with a power slam. Tag out to the Warlord, Animal with a double clothesline. Tag back out to the Warlord and Animal tags out to Hawk. Hawk clotheslines Barbarian over the top and it’s a pier six brawl. Hawk throws the ring steps at Warlord and somewhat misses. Hawk with a dropkick to the Warlord. Flying fist drop by Hawk, Barbarian accidentally hits Warlord with an elbow. Tag out to the Barbarian who kicks Hawk in the face. Hawk gets thrown out onto the floor. Back in the ring Barbarian hits Hawk with a chair, power slam by Barbarian for a 2. Tag out to Warlord who gives Hawk a bear hug. Barbarian tags in who gives Hawk a bear hug sigh. Tag out to Warlord, Barbarian accidentally clotheslines Animal over the top rope. Animal tags in, Animal with a dropkick and a power slam. Animal clotheslines the referee. Teddy Long runs out. Pier six brawl, double clothesline by the Road Warriors for the three….or so we think. *3/4, way better then it had any rights to be. The only problem I had was the long ass bear hug but other that kudos to the Warriors and Powers of Pain.

The Midnight Rider Vs JJ Dillon (Texas Bull rope match)

The Midnight Rider was a mysterious masked wrestler who showed up in JCP one day to combat the Horseman. An overweight man with a southern accent and bad lisp, the Midnight Rider drew sell out crowds all over the south. No one ever really found out who he was, some speculated it was Steve Lombardi, some thought it was Bill Mulkey, most thought it was Giant Baba. Anyway here we are with this match.

JJ Dillon throws powder in the Rider’s eyes. Dillon gives Rhodes some weak bull rope shots. Dillon chokes the Rider. JR speculates the Rider is Dusty Rhodes….I personally don’t see the similarities. Cowbell to the nuts to Dillon. Dillon with a cow bell shot. Midnight Rider blades Dillon with the cowbell. This match is all cowbell shots. Man the Rider sure loved southern fried brawling much like….Gedo. The Rider with a flip, flop and fly a lot like…Bubba Ray Dudley. The Rider pins Dillon. The Rider tries choking Dillon with the bullrope. Another masked man attacks The Rider but Steve Williams makes the save. -*, a match filled with hundreds of cowbell shots, what fun!

Lex Luger and Sting(with Magnum TA) Vs Powers of Pain(With Paul Jones and Ivan Koloff) (Crockett Cup semi-finals)
Sting and Warlord start off. They lock up and do a stare down. Tag to Barbarian, hey remember when they tried to build the Barbarian up as a WCW world title contender? That didn’t work too well. Magnum T.A steals Paul Jones whip and whacks him with it. Jim Ross calls Jones a jackass. Test of strength, Sting wins and gives him a monkey flip. Dropkick by the Stinger sends the former #1 contender for the WCW title over the top rope. Luger tags in and slams Barbarian. Tag back in to Sting, power slam by Barbarian. Barbarian boots Sting over the top, Koloff kicks Sting. Back in the ring the Warlord tags and misses an elbow. Tag to Luger, who hits Warlord with a clothesline. Pier six brawl. Sting dropkicks the Barbarian while he’s about to body slam Luger and Luger pins him. 3/4*, lackluster match with a cool finish. Luger and Sting advance to the Finals.

Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson (with JJ Dillon) Vs the Fantastics (Crockett Cup semi-finals)
This should be really good, if it’s given enough time it’ll be **** easy. The Fantastics are wearing retarded matching outfits, I mean Well Dun bad. Blanchard and Rogers start off with a brawl. Rogers with a dropkick. Blanchard takes a breather. The Fantastics clothesline Blanchard out of the ring again. Tag out to Bobby Fulton, Anderson nails Fulton in the kidney. Anderson stomps Fulton, Fulton with a backslide but Anderson tags Blanchard. Blanchard throws Fulton out of the ring. Blanchard throws Fulton into the side of the ring. Anderson hits Fulton with some brass knuckles. Fulton gets back in the ring, Blanchard elbows him upon return. Tag out to Anderson, Fulton fights back. Anderson with a full nelson, tag out to Blanchard. Chin lock by Blanchard, Blanchard with a hair toss. Fulton with a face buster. Tag to Tommy Rogers, dropkicks for everyone! Rogers goes for a Rocket launcher, which gets a 2. Anderson whacks Rogers with a shoe and Anderson pins Rogers. ***, I’m slightly disappointed but this match was damn good just slightly boring. Blanchard and Anderson will face Luger and Sting in the finals.

Nikita Koloff Vs Ric Flair (With Barry Windham)(NWA world title match)

This match has a backstory, a crappy one but it’s a back-story dammit! Ric Flair was set to face Magnum TA at Starrcade 86 but Magnum TA got in a career ending car accident a few months before the match. So Magnum’s former enemy (and at the time evil Russian) Nikita Koloff took his place saying he had so much respect for Magnum that he would take his place. That’s right a fun loving Russian. Any who Flair and Nikita feuded on and off till Nikita left.

Flair enters through the crowd, Barry Windham looks pretty snazzy in that suit…not really but it’s nice to see Windham wearing his Sunday best. Nikita’s crowd reaction is 50% face pop, 50% heel heat. Flair cuts a promo but I can’t hear a damn thing he’s saying. Barry Windham leaves ringside with the rest of the Horsemen. Koloff and Flair do some mat work. BORING. Although Flair’s facial reactions are always a hoot…did I just say hoot. Nikita punches Flair in the corner. Flair with an inverted atomic drop. Flair with a knee drop, he tries again but Nikita moves out of the way. Koloff crotches Flair on the ring post. Flair tries to get Nikita to stop…jeez I’m surprised it didn’t work. Nikita with a Figure four. Koloff works on the leg. Flair kicks Koloff in the Russian sickle. Koloff rams Flair’s head into the ring post. Koloff throws Flair back in the ring. Flair blades. Flair with some chops, Nikita no-sells and hits him with some UFC-style punches. Nikita bites Flair in the head. Nikita punches referee Tommy Young, Nikita goes off the top with the Russian sickle for a two count. Nikita clotheslines Flair over the top rope. Koloff with a lariat for a two. Nikita thinks he won the match, Flair ducks a clothesline and throws Nikita over the top rope. Damn NWA DQ rule. Flair gets DQd but of course retains the title. **3/4, the first half of the match was boring crap but it started to get rocking near the end.

Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard(With JJ Dillon) Vs Sting and Lex Luger(With Magnum TA) ( Crockett Cup finals)

This is for the $1,000,000 and the trophy. Sting doesn’t have “A man called Sting” as his theme music yet folks, he comes out to generic synthesizer music. Sting and Luger enter in a golf cart. Blanchard and Luger start, Luger whips Blanchard in the corner. Blanchard rolls out of the ring for a breather and tags Arn Anderson. Anderson grabs Luger in the air. Luger with a side headlock. Tommy Young breaks it up. Luger chokes Anderson, Arn backs off. Luger with a dropkick, Arn rolls out of the ring. Tag out to Blanchard, but Anderson isn’t allowed to tag him since he broke the ref’s count. Blanchard tags in and Luger slams him. Tag to Sting, JR: Here comes the Stinger man! Sting with a gorilla press slam on Blanchard. It’s a pier-six brawl, this early in the match. Anderson and Sting are in the ring, tag into Luger. Luger works on the arm. Sting tags in, Stinger splash misses due to Blanchard moving Arn out of the way. Outside of the ring Blanchard throws Sting into the guardrail. Luger gets Sting back in the ring. Blanchard with a backbreaker. Arn tags in and hits Sting with a spinebuster, which gets a two count. Test of strength, which Sting wins. Blanchard tags in, Blanchard punches Sting in the corner. Tag to Arn Anderson. Anderson tries to stomp Sting but Sting grabs his leg and clotheslines Anderson. Double knockout spot but Anderson tags Blanchard right in the nick of time. Blanchard whips Sting into the rope but Sting reverses and hits him with a Stinger splash. Sting attempts the scorpion death lock but Blanchard tags Anderson. Anderson punches Sting in the back of the head. Anderson with a DDT for a two. Sting fights back with some punches and tags Luger. Luger takes on the Brainbusters single handedly. Pier-six brawl says JR and I. Anderson with a body slam attempt on Luger but Magnum TA pulls his leg and Luger falls on him for a two count. Anderson grabs Magnum’s hair but Luger sneaks up from behind and school boys him for the pin. ***3/4, good wrestling, great drama and a hot crowd to boot. Finish could have been a little better though.

Lex Luger and Sting get the trophy, Jim Crockett and his mother Elizabeth Crockett present them the trophy and the $1,000,000 check. The tape ends as Luger starts making a speech, phew thank god for that.

Connor’s final word: Well this tape was a mixed bag, the crappy stuff was REALLY crappy and the good stuff was in the **-*** range. I’ll have to give this tape a mild recommendation for some good tag matches and a decent Flair-Koloff match.

In December, Connor reviews the cream of the crap Heroes of Wrestling and WrestleWar 91.