A Pay-Per-View Event by the NWA

It’s been a while since my last NWA Wrestling review, but here we are again for the first time in 2022! Rather than doing monthly shows, NWA has largely been recording pop-up events as of late (for their TV shows), so I’m happy it’s back, and what a return! The NWA Crockett Cup is a two-day tournament packed to the brim with new faces in Day 1, and some big title matches to come. About a month ago, I dropped the 50 dollars for a membership to NWA All Access, and what a steal that membership is after this weekend.

In a similar way to how much I have enjoyed MLW bringing back The Opera Cup, NWA bringing back The Crockett Cup, and showing love to the past, has been awesome. Perhaps it’s due to my slant towards history and tradition, but I feel like more companies should work in this way instead of acting like the past is somehow cursed. Corgan has brought back original belts, original tournaments, and old-school match concepts making it a traditional fan’s dream.

The history of the Crockett Cup according to Wikipedia:

“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. JCP held the event every April in 1986, 1987, and 1988 before selling the company to Ted Turner (via TBS) in November 1988. […] On October 1, 2017, William Patrick Corgan’s purchase of the NWA (via his company Lightning One, Inc.) was finalized. In October 2018, during the NWA 70th Anniversary Show, it was announced that the Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup Tag Team Tournament, now simply called the Crockett Cup, would be returning in April 2019. Thirty-one years after the previous event, the fourth annual Crockett Cup was held on April 27, 2019.”

For anyone wanting to watch this, I would recommend Fite.TV. you can get some FITE credits (10 dollars I believe) with the following code: “6m6lyyn”. I’m sure there are other ways to watch it, but FITE has a solid interface and has been worth it so far.

The Card:

• 1P Magic Jake Dumas defeated Captain YUMA (with Danny Deals and Jeremiah Plunkett) by pinfall Singles match
• 2P The Bad News Boyz (Brandon Tate and Brent Tate) defeated Violence Is Forever (Dominic Garrini and Kevin Ku), The Rip City Shooters (Joshua Bishop and Wes Barkley), and The Heatseekers (Elliott Russell and Sigmon) by pinfall Four-way tag team match
• Play-In Match to determine the 16 seed in the Crockett Cup tournament
• 3P The Briscoe Brothers (Jay and Mark) defeated The NOW (Hale Collins and Vik Dalishus) by pinfall Crockett Cup first round match
• 4 Hawx Aerie (Luke Hawx and PJ Hawx) defeated The End (Odinson and Parrow) by pinfall Crockett Cup first round match
• 5 The Cardonas (Mike Knox and VSK) defeated Matthew Mims and The Pope by pinfall Crockett Cup first round match
• 6 The Dirty Sexy Boys (Dirty Dango and JTG) defeated Aron Stevens and The Blue Meanie by pinfall Crockett Cup first round match
• 7 Gold Rushhh (Jordan Clearwater and Marshe Rockett) defeated Strictly Business (Chris Adonis and Thom Latimer) by pinfall Crockett Cup first round match
• 8 Doug Williams and Harry Smith defeated The Ill Begotten (Alex Taylor and Rush Freeman) by pinfall Crockett Cup first round match
• 9 La Rebelión (Bestia 666 and Mecha Wolf) defeated The Bad News Boyz (Brandon Tate and Brent Tate) by pinfall Crockett Cup first round match
• 10 The Cardonas (Mike Knox and VSK) defeated The Fixers (Jay Bradley and Wrecking Ball Legursky) by pinfall Crockett Cup quarterfinals tag team match
• 11 The Briscoe Brothers (Jay and Mark) defeated The Dirty Sexy Boys (Dirty Dango and JTG) by pinfall Crockett Cup quarterfinals tag team match
• 12 La Rebelión (Bestia 666 and Mecha Wolf) defeated Hawx Aerie (Luke Hawx and PJ Hawx) by pinfall Crockett Cup quarterfinals tag team match
• 13 Doug Williams and Harry Smith defeated Gold Rushhh (Jordan Clearwater and Marshe Rockett) by pinfall Crockett Cup quarterfinals tag team match

My Thoughts:

As I’ve stated before, my methodology for this is to avoid giving arbitrary star ratings or anything resembling the typical ratings people give in wrestling reviews. I usually go through the show and pull a half-dozen or so things that I thought were significant or that I liked. You might think some of my choices are dumb and that’s okay – we all like different things!

Pope Needs all the Gold:

One of the most under-rated wrestlers in the last decade or so has got to be The Pope. The dude is great in the ring and oozes charisma to such a degree, I can’t imagine why anyone would hate him. I still remember how mad I was at TNA Lockdown 2010, live in the audience, watching The Pope not win the big championship match he was in against AJ Styles. Sadly, it happened again tonight when he and Mims were unable to secure the win to move up the ladder in this tournament, but here’s hoping they can get some gold down the road. Mims is pretty impressive and will definitely learn a lot from Burke, so here’s hoping the tide will soon change. Hell, I want Pope to be TV champ again!

Da Blue Guy:

I know The Blue Meanie isn’t a huge marquee name to get too excited about, but Aron Stevens works best as the straight man with a goofy counterpart – this why Question Mark was so awesome. I also know it’s also probably not the best Scott Hall tribute that you can do, but Da Blue Guy was always a great parody of him. Just having him come out and flick the toothpick at the camera made my night. Having moves like multiple tickle attacks, and forced dancing took this match to the weird places that Dango’s “Let’s Get Weird” motto is made for.

Underrated Commentary Team:

I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about Velvet Sky on commentary when it was first announced, but she is growing on me a lot. She compliments Storm and Galli very well, and they have that old-school feel that you know Corgan is going for. The only thing better is when Velvet has to deal with Austin Idol and utterly destroys him at every turn. This show had a few Jim Ross style flubs by Galli, but with the addition of a TON of new wrestlers in the tournament, It is understandable. Overall solid job with commentary tonight.

I Can’t Wait for Captain YUMA to Snap:

The Ill Begotten was basically started by Captain YUMA, so to have it basically pulled out from under him is obviously weighing him down. It makes me wonder if we’re about to see him get nasty and take on his former “friends” as they make him stay backstage during matches and exclude him from any sort of help. Maybe a return of his former CZW Champion self is incoming?

When you have Ghost….

Being a fan of the hard rock group Ghost, I popped at this pretty hard at this entrance attire. I know Mecha Wolf has donned make-up inspired by King Diamond in the past, so seeing the trend continued here was awesome. I have a feeling this will be the NWA version of me watching any match with Erick Redbeard to see what metal band shirts he has on.

How Do They Work so Well?

Having a tag team consisting of Dirty Dango and JTG seems like it would be random and not work, but it’s very much the sort of “odd couple” pairing that works very well. I knew The Dirty Sexy Boys were likely to lose against The Briscoes, but they put on a Hell of a match either way. I was never the biggest fan of JTG in WWE, but as I stated in my review for a comic book he did, I respect him a lot and wish he wasn’t saddled with a stereotypical gimmick back then. In NWA he is doing an amazing job and shows yet again that WWE lost out on something special.

David Crockett:

It’s been a busy year for David Crockett, the former commentator for WCW Wrestling. Not only did he recently reunite with Tony Schiavone on a recent episode of AEW Dark behind the desk, he presented The Crockett Cup and did commentary during the main event on tonight’s show.

Conclusion:

Overall solid card for a tag tournament show. I know tomorrow is going to be the show to see, considering it will have all of the title matches, but this felt just as important as any “normal PPV.” Great showings from pretty much everyone involved and some surprises I was not expecting. Can’t wait for tomorrow to see who takes the cup! I’m honestly gunning for La Rebelión, but pretty much anyone will be awesome! Check back tomorrow for more!