The Jim Crockett Promotions Era

Throughout the history of professional wrestling, many different eras have occurred. The Golden Age of Buddy Rogers, Lou Thesz, and Georgeous George occured during the 1940s and 1950s. The Second Golden Age occurred when Hulkamania was running wild and Vince McMahon was destroying the territorial system. The New Generation happened because of a steroid trial and McMahon lost many of the superstars to other promotions. The Attitude Era and the Monday Night Wars is what most readers remember. The era we are now in is yet to be defined. Is the era the McMahon Era, the PG era, or whatever cute name can be applied?

The era I enjoyed the most was the Second Golden Age, but not for Hulk Hogan and the WWF, but because of Jim Crocket Promotions (JCP). The era started after JCP was able to buy back the TBS time slot and ran through 1989, the year Ric Flair turned good.

JCP produced some of the most exciting matches and brutal storylines in the history of wrestling. Fans actually believed Dusty Rhodes wanted to kill Ric Flair. The people came to the arenas to watch if Dusty or Magnum T.A. could take the belt away from Flair.

The promos from every wrestler seemed sincere and from the heart.

The wrestlers from this era included not only Flair and Rhodes, but Rick Rude, The Road Warriors, Jimmy Valiant, Tully Blanchard, Barry Windham, etc.

The shows emanated from the Turner studios and the major house shows were held in places like the Omni and Greensburo Auditorium. Being in such a small locale as the studio, the show had a unique feel and even fans at home felt like they were part of the show.

The top feuds during this heyday included Tully Blanchard vs. Magnum T.A., The Russians vs. The Road Warriors, The Rock n Roll Express vs. Midnight Express, and Jimmy Valiant vs. Paul Jones.

The greatest clique ever came out of this time, the Four Horsemen. The Horseman at one point held all the gold in the promotion, copied later by Evolution later in the WWE. The Four Horsemen were the perfect group. The World Champion, Ric Flair, who the group swore to protect. The secondary champion who could be a contender and the tag team which was expected to wear tag team gold.

Even when the people started to cheer the Horsemen, the group would do something heinous to make sure they would be booed the following week. Some of the groups dastardly deeds included Tully slapping Baby Doll, the gang parking attack on Dusty Rhodes, and the attack on Ricky Morton leaving his face scarred and bruised.

Tully Blanchard was easily the most hated of the group. For every cheer Flair would receive, Blanchard would hear 100 boos.

Blanchard and Magnum had one of the most brutal and at the time innovative matches, the I-Quit match. When T.A. broke off the chair and rubbed it into Tullys eye, the fans wanted Magnum to permanently blind the hated Horseman.

Matches to come out of this era and are being copied in some ways still today are the Wargames, I-Quit, best of seven, and Bunkhouse Stampede. Even the Dusty finish is still used to this day. For those who do not know the Dusty finish, it is when a match appears to go to the fan favorite, but a stipulation causes the match to go back to the bad guy. A recent example is when Jericho beat HHH for the title, but the next week HHH demanded the belt be returned.

JCP perfected the supercard idea. Without Starrcade, there was no blueprint for Wrestlemania. Summerslam may be the biggest summer card for the WWE, but the Great American Bash is where it all began.

This is just a small history lesson about my favorite era in professional wrestling, the JCP era in the 1980's. There is so much more to tell about this era, but I thought this would be a nice little introduction.