From the late 1980s to the early 2000s, wrestling world championship was the other major professional wrestling promotion in the United States, often competing with WWE, especially once WCW Monday Nitro coiled around. But the promotion had been around for decades before it became known as WCW. Prior to 1988, it was known as Jim Crockett Promotions.
As part of the National Wrestling Alliance, JCP featured many of the biggest stars in the NWA over the years, including Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes, Harley Race, and many others. Fans may not know much about the days leading up to WCW, so let’s take a look at the history of Jim Crockett Promotions.
10 Founded in 1935
The history of Jim Crockett Promotions dates back to the 1930s, when Jim Crockett himself worked as a promoter for concerts, plays, sports and other forms of live entertainment. At the time, “The Golden Greek” Jim Londos was the hottest star in wrestling, and promoters across the country began working together to share Londos’s bookings. Crockett, in his early 20s at the time, decided to get into the wrestling business and established JCP in Charlotte, North Carolina as his dedicated wrestling business.
9 Joined the NWA in 1952
The regional association over Jim Londos sowed the seeds of a more formal group that would go on to organize the various North American wrestling territories. As a result, the various promoters formed the National Wrestling Alliance in 1948. It was only a few years before Jim Crockett Promotions joined the NWA in 1952, securing Crockett’s territory in the Carolinas and Virginia as part of the organization. Over the years, JCP would become a crucial part of the NWA.
8 Operated under various names
While Jim Crockett Promotions was the company that hosted the wrestling shows, JCP was not typically used in advertising or on the promotion’s various television shows. At first, JCP ran shows under the Eastern States Championship wrestling brand, but there were many others.
JCP’s programming was spread all over the place, so the shows had different names depending on where they aired, such as All Star Wrestling, World Wide Wrestling, and NWA Pro Wrestling. However, the biggest brands were Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling and later NWA World Championship Wrestling.
7 Jim Crockett Jr. took over the family business
When Jim Crockett died in 1973, Jim Crockett Promotions initially intended to go to Crockett’s son-in-law, John Ringley, but a messy divorce caused succession plans to change. Instead, the business was taken over by Crockett’s son, Jim Crockett Jr., who helped bring JCP more success in subsequent years. Under the new leadership, JCP became a major player in the National Wrestling Alliance, with the younger Crockett serving as NWA President on three separate occasions.
6 Began to expand in the late 1970s
Jim Crockett Promotions became dominant territory under Jim Crockett Jr. thanks to an expansion effort when the company began doing shows in the Midwest and even had a syndicated show airing in upstate New York. Crockett Jr.’s reigns as president of the National Wrestling Alliance also helped JCP’s high profile. He licensed the NWA name for his own promotions and ensured that when the NWA World Heavyweight Title changed hands, the new champion would also sign with JCP.
5 starrcade
The 1980s saw a major change in professional wrestling with the rise of pay-per-view events, which proved to be a solid way to carry out star-studded “supercards”. While the 1983 program promoted by JCP starrcade It wasn’t the first super card by any means, it was influential. Broadcast on CCTV instead of PPV, starrcade ’83 offered great fights like Roddy Piper vs. Greg Valentine in a classic Dog Collar Match, and it became an annual tradition from December until 2000, when WCW went inactive in March 2001. While wrestling it quickly took the crown as the biggest wrestling show of the year, JCP getting there a year and a half before WWE.
4 Bought WWE’s TBS schedule
Of course, wrestling in the 1980s was also defined by WWE’s aggressive expansion under the promotion’s new head, Vincent K. McMahon. In 1984, WWE purchased the regional promotion Georgia Championship Wrestling, thus taking over the 6:05 p.m.
In the aftermath of what is known as “Black Saturday”, the WWE show was not successful in the place of GCW. McMahon ended up selling the time slot to Jim Crockett Promotions, making TBS the home of what would become World Championship Wrestling.
3 bought other territories
Given the aforementioned expansion of WWE, Jim Crockett Promotions could not help but expand either. In addition to holding shows and broadcasting in new regions, JCP also purchased some major territories in the 1980s. Along with Georgia, St. Louis, and Kansas City, JCP purchased Championship Wrestling From Florida and the Universal Wrestling Federation (formerly Mid-South Wrestling). , drawing many of its stars into the JCP fold. The most notable of these talent acquisitions was a tag team specialist in the UWF named Sting, who was quickly marked down to become a major star in JCP.
2 Sold to TBS and became WCW in 1988
While the expansion of Jim Crockett Promotions certainly brought the company some success, it was also expensive and perhaps too fast for its own good. WWE was so aggressive that it ran events that directly competed with JCP’s, and Crockett was spending extravagantly to keep talent happy in case they decided to sign Vince McMahon. Furthermore, JCP’s territorial expansion was not as financially lucrative as expected. As a result, Crockett decided to sell JCP to TBS in 1988, who changed the company’s name to World Championship Wrestling.
1 Revived in 2022 for Ric Flair’s last match
After the early 1990s, Jim Crockett Promotions as an entity is long gone, but the name was revived in 2022 for a very special and nostalgic purpose. July 31 of that year brought Ric Flair’s last game, a unique show that fondly recalls the good old days of JCP wrestling, whose main event with Flair wrestling in the supposed last match of his career. To promote the show, wrestling podcast mogul (and Flair’s son-in-law) Conrad Thompson registered a trademark for Jim Crockett Promotions and subsequently gave ownership of the trademark to Jim Crockett Jr.’s brother, David Crockett. .