NWA Crocket Cup 2019

So NWA brought back the Crockett Cup in 2019, which was a staple of the old Jim Crockett Promotion before they got bought by Turner and they were poised to make it an annual event before Corona struck. The uptick is that this show was posted onto their Youtube page for free (until it was taken down, along with everything else), so here we are.

Better late than never, I suppose.

So since there's a tournament for the Crockett Cup, we'll do the tournament matches and bunch those up together before taking on the non-tourney matches.

But before that, we have an eight-team battle royal to determine the No. 8 seed in the brackets, which is won by the team of Royce Isaacs and Thom Latimer. It was short and sweet, with the whole point being to add a team to the last slot.

I should also probably bring up the set design, which made to look as old school as possible. The lighting is minimal, the ring is made up to look the old Jim Crockett NWA ring from the 1980s. the graphics are basic and simpler, and there is an attempt to try and get an old-school vibe to it that I thought was pretty cool.

Round 1 Quarterfinals

Bandido & Flip Gordon (both wearing sombreros) defeated Stuka Jr. & Guerrero Maya Jr. in a fun little lucha-libre style match.

Royce Isaacs/Thom Latimer defeated Jax Dane/Crimson... this was a thing that happened, but hey, the battle royal winners got a win to justify their place in this tournament. It's a small little detail to note, but it means the battle royal wasn't a complete waste of time.

The Briscoes defeated the Rock N Roll Express in a short but sweet match. Despite their advance age, Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson looked fine out there and managed to hold their own against the younger, more intense Briscoes before taking the fall. See, just because you're old doesn't mean you're completely useless. You just have to work within your means.

Speaking of old folks holding their own, Villain Enterprises (comprising the team of PCO and Brody King - the only "young" guy here) defeated Satoshi Kojima and Yuji Nagata in a perfectly fine little match. The story of PCO and his career resurgence is a fascinating one and almost tempts me to try out the ROH service so I can check out his ROH World title win or something. Hey, I'm giving Impact a shot, why not ROH?

Round 2 Semifinals

Thom Latimer & Royce Isaacs defeated Flip Gordon and Bandido.

Villain Enterprises defeated the Briscos to advamce to the finals... and then Briscoes beat up the Villains and one guy gets his arm hurt. What sore losers them Briscoes are.

Finals

Villain Enterprises defeated Thom Latimer & Royce Isaacs to win the Crockett Cup and also the NWA World Tag-Team Championships.

Non-Tournament Matches

Allyson Kay defeated Santana Garrett to win the vacant NWA Women's Championship. The title was vacated due to former champion Jazz having some medical issues to deal with at the time. She would eventually return to action, participating in AEW's All Out Casino Battle Royale match later that year, so that's something.)

Colt Cobana defeated NWA National Champion Willie Mack to win the title in a perfectly acceptable wwrestling match.

NWA World Heavyweight Champion Nick Aldis defeated Marty Scurll to retain the title in what was probably the best match of the night. That's a good thing, because the main event should be the best match and it felt like a big deal.

For what it's worth, this is a damn good show that, maybe in hindsight, I wished I could've ordered on PPV last year, but I'm glad I was to watch this regardless. The focus was on the tournament and for the most part, it was a solid collection of matches with nigh a sour note throughout. Even the title matches were good, giving the impressions that these are highly-esteemed prizes to be contested for, not meaningless participation trophies that are given to you because the fans think "you deserve it."