David Crockett reflects on the NWA and The Crockett Cup

Forney, TX – When it comes to the history of the National Wrestling Alliance, David Crockett continues that tradition as he appears at The OC Theatre for the 40th anniversary of The Crockett Cup.

This signature tournament, first held in New Orleans at The SuperDome in 1986, saw the inaugural winners, The Road Warriors, claim the Cup for the first time, and other stars would win the chalice afterward, including Lex Luger and Sting, and The Super Powers (Dusty Rhodes and Nikita Koloff).

Since then, in The Lightning One era of the NWA, the Crockett Cup has added more names to the list of winners, such as Brody King and PCO, The Briscoes, Mike Knox and Trevor Murdoch, and The Immortals (Odinson and Kratos).

As the event was getting underway, Slamwrestling.net had a chance to speak with Crockett, and we inquired about his thoughts on seeing The Crockett Cup thriving again.

“It’s fantastic. It really is,” Crockett marveled. “[NWA Owner] Billy Corgan, the National Wrestling Alliance associated with Jim Crockett Promotions. It’s a dream.”

As we spoke, Crockett looked over the roster and reflected on what this moment meant to him.

“Forty years and it’s great with all these young wrestlers, with, believe it or not, some of the original NWA wrestlers, some of them the old timers. Some of them are here that were at the original Crockett cup,” he noted as he spied Ricky Morton, who was one half of the Rock and Roll Express at the first event.

Crockett laid out the history of how Jim Crockett Promotions came to be, and what made the Cup come to fruition: it started with the passing of the patriarch himself, Jim Crockett, Sr.

“He passed away on April 1st,” he said with a wry chuckle, as this interview was conducted on April 4th. “April Fools, and it was no joke, but he passed away, and we were trying to figure out a way to honor him, because we were an entertainment company.

“[He] started a company in 1933 with the big bands; Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, Joe Lewis, Jack Dempsey, then wrestling…you know, you name anything in entertainment,” Crockett added. “We promoted Elvis Presley. We did it. We did rodeos, we did the circus, Ice Capades, [and the] Harlem Globetrotters. Really, anything in there. But wrestling was the thing that we always came back to. It was the thing that we enjoyed, you know, in the Carolinas and Virginia.

“It just clicked. And then TBS and our agreement with [Ted] Turner, and then we started at 6:05. You could set your watch, that show was so much fun.”

Then the idea of holding the tournament began to formulate. But the question came up of where to hold this event. “And then we started thinking, ‘Well, why not the Superdome?’ You know, at that time, it was the biggest place around, and Bill Watts was the promoter,” Crockett recalled. “Then he said, ‘Yes, come on down.’ And so that’s what we did. The rest is history.”

While there has been a gap between the last Crockett Cup in 1988 and its revival in 2019, we were curious about how he became involved with the Cup after so many years.

“It was Billy,” Crockett said. “Billy Corgan. He just said, ‘I’m doing it.” Would you like to come?’ And he invited me, and I said, ‘Yes.’”

Just as simple as that?

“Simple as that,” He confirmed. “I definitely wanted to be a part of it as my father was one of the founding members of the NWA, so why not?”

As we spoke, the tag teams backstage at The OC Theater were donning their gear and mentally preparing for their matches. We were curious about Crockett’s impressions of the teams assembled this evening.

“What impresses me is the youth and also the experience,” he said. “Some of the experience of others and the international experience has an edge. They definitely have an edge because they have a different style that most of the American teams are not used to.

You know, Americans wrestling Americans; you get used to that style,” Crockett elaborated. “But then all of a sudden, you got Japanese Tag Team Champions. I’m looking at them right now,” he added, gesturing toward the All Japan Tag Team Champions, The Titans of Calamity (Jack Talos and Ren Ayabe, who had yet to be declared the official sixteenth seed in The Crockett Cup at the time of this interview).

You can tell Crockett is enjoying watching how things unfold rather than dealing with anything else behind the scenes, like he used to back in the day. “I’m lucky. I don’t have to worry about anything. I don’t have to worry about the lights, the camera, the audience. You know, the production, anything; I just… I can enjoy the show.”

Considering the time when he and Tony Schiavone worked together for Jim Crockett Promotions, leading into its merger to become World Championship Wrestling, there is a reason he prefers this stage in his life.

“We laugh a lot about some of the things [and] situations that we ran into. We had a good time,” Crockett reminisced. “It was chaos. It was not controlled at all. And we always say, ‘I cannot believe we did it.’ Because really, we don’t realize how we did it, but we did, and we had so much fun doing it.”

What advice does he have for anyone who wants to pursue this type of business?

“Someone asked me that today, and I said, ‘Well, it’s not healthy.’ You know, the stress level,” Crockett chuckled. “My doctor said that when I retired from it, and he said, ‘That was the very best thing you ever did. Your stress just went totally straight down.’

And you got to remember, I was dealing with the budget for World Championship Wrestling; travel, lights, just name it. And the wrestling talent and just… There are so many things that were going on behind the scenes,” he continued, “and it was not fun at that time. The last three years at World Championship Wrestling, I was not having fun.

“I did not want to go to work, but you did. You were always hoping that something would change,” Crockett remembered, wincing at those memories, “but I knew it wouldn’t, because of the people around me, and I cared for a lot of the people that were there, trying to tell them, ‘You need to find someplace else to go. It’s not going to last.’”

Yet, some old habits die hard, especially for David Crockett. “I stick my nose where I shouldn’t, you know? I go out there and look where the cameras are, the lights, seats, things like that.”

A little hard to drop that side of pro wrestling completely, eh?

“Yeah, it is,” He admitted. “Once you’re part of it, it’s in your blood. You can’t help it.

“It’s like an addict. And once you’re part of it, you’re part of it. You can walk away, but if you come back, you’re already hooked. Now, I can walk away again and be all right. But once you’re here and you’re submerged in this, you’re part of it.”

You can watch the action of The Crockett Cup on Comet TV Saturdays at 4 pm ET.