Crockett Cup (2020)


The Fifth Annual Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup Tag Team Tournament, also known as the Crockett Cup , is an upcoming Professional wrestling tag team tournament produced by the National Wrestling Alliance. The event was going to take place on April 19, 2020 at the Gateway Center Arena in College Park, Georgia but postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition to the tournament, the event will see NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion Nick Aldis defend the championship against Ring of Honor representative Marty Scurll, with the latter agreeing to pay Aldis $500,000 if he should lose the match.

Production

Background

The Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup Tag Team Tournament is a tag team tournament first held in April 1986. National Wrestling Alliance member Jim Crockett Promotions, headed by Jim Crockett Jr., hosted the Crockett Cup, held in honor of Crockett's father, JCP founder Jim Crockett Sr. and saw participation of teams from various NWA territories. JCP held the tournament again in 1987 and 1988, before JCP was sold to Ted Turner later that year. In July 2017, the Crockett Foundation, with Classic Pro Wrestling, held the "Crockett Foundation Cup Tag Team Tournament" in New Kent, Virginia, which was not affiliated with the NWA. Bobby Fulton, The Barbarian, and The Rock 'n' Roll Express, all former Crockett Cup participants, took part in the event as a link to the original tournaments.
The original concept of the Crockett Cup was a single elimination tag team tournament, with the storyline prize of $1,000,000.00 given to the winning team along with a large trophy. The 1986 and 1987 tournaments featured 24 teams, while the 1988 version had 22 teams competing. Each tournament was split over 2 shows to encompass all 23 tournament matches as well as non-tournament matches, in 1986 JCP held a show in the afternoon and another in the evening, while the 1987 and 1988 the tournament was spread out over two days instead.
The Crockett Cup returned in April 2019, after a thirty-one year absence, and was jointly promoted by the NWA and Ring of Honor. As such, the winning team would also win the vacant NWA World Tag Team Championship. In the end Villain Enterprises defeated Royce Issacs and Thomas Lattimer to win the cup and the championship. During the NWA's Hard Times pay-per-view in January 2020, it was announced that the Crockett Cup would return for its second consecutive year and would be held in April.

Storylines

The event will featured a number professional wrestling matches with different wrestlers involved in pre-existing scripted feuds, plots and storylines. Wrestlers are portrayed as either heels, faces or tweeners as they follow a series of tension-building events, which culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches as determined by the promotion.
In the main event of last year's Crockett Cup, Marty Scurll had challenged Nick Aldis for the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship in a losing effort. On December 14, 2019, Scurll made a surprise appearance at NWA's Into the Fire PPV, after Aldis successfully defended the championship against James Storm in the main event. Scurll laid out a challenge to Aldis, which Aldis did not respond to during the show. Over subsequent episodes of NWA Power, Scurll continued to challenge Aldis, leading to Aldis, Royce Issacs and Thomas Latimer, known as "Strictly Business", to make appearances at recent ROH events, where they attacked Scurll and other members of Villain Enterprises. At NWA's Hard Times pay-per-view. Aldis defeated Villain Enterprises stablemate Flip Gordon. In subsequent interviews, Aldis stated that he would not grant Scurll another title match unless Scurll promised to refund everyone's ticket purchases if he lost the match. Scurll later countered the stipulation, stating that he would personally pay Aldis $500,000 if he lost the match.

Participants