Jonathan Hood reflects on the life of Jim Crockett Jr, pro wrestling promoter for the National Wrestling Alliance.
You will hear from Ric Flair, Larry Zybyszko, JJ Dillion, Tony Schiavone and more about what Jim Crockett meant to the pro wrestling landscape.
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In 1980, Crockett was elected to his first term as NWA President, which ended in 1982. He had a working relationship with Maple Leaf Wrestling, based out of Toronto and owned by Frank Tunney, until Tunney's death in 1983. Tunney's nephew Jack Tunney switched Maple Leaf Wrestling's working agreement to Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation (WWF).[Crockett then formed a short-lived relationship with Verne Gagne and his American Wrestling Association (AWA) to form Pro Wrestling USA.
Crockett was elected to a second term as NWA President in 1985. He bought Vince McMahon's Saturday night TV time slot on Superstation WTBS and his business began to flourish. During that year, he organized the first annual Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup, in which wrestlers from eight NWA regional territories participated in a day-long tag team tournament at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans. The Road Warriors defeated Ron Garvin & Magnum T.A. after 7½ hours to win the tournament. Although Crockett had organized the tournament as a tribute to his father, several rival promoters suspected he was using the event to further his own plans for expanding his promotion nationally.
Their suspicions increased as Crockett began holding wrestling events in Memphis and Florida without contacting the local NWA promoters. He eventually purchased promotions based in Oklahoma and Kansas City in the Mid-South territory and began airing his own televised wrestling events, which were syndicated across the United States.