10 Things Wrestling Fans Should Know About Jim Crockett Promotions

From the late 1980s to the early 2000s, World Championship Wrestling was the other major pro wrestling promotion in the United States, often competing with WWE, especially once WCW Monday Nitro rolled around. But the promotion had existed for decades before it was known as WCW. Before 1988, it was known as Jim Crockett Promotions.

As part of the National Wrestling Alliance, JCP featured many of the big stars of the NWA over the years, including Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes, Harley Race, and countless others. Fans might not know much about the pre-WCW days, so let’s take a look at the history of Jim Crockett Promotions.

10 Founded In 1935

The story of Jim Crockett Promotions goes way back to the 1930s, when Jim Crockett himself was working as a promoter of concerts, plays, sports, and other forms of live entertainment. At the time, “The Golden Greek” Jim Londos was the hottest star in in wrestling, and promoters across the country began to work together to share Londos’ bookings. Crockett, in his mid-20s at the time, decided to get in on the wrestling business, and set up JCP in Charlotte, North Carolina as his devoted wrestling business.

9 Joined The NWA In 1952

The regional partnership concerning Jim Londos sowed the seeds for a more formal group that would continue to organize North America’s various 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 of the Carolinas and Virginia as part of the organization. As the years went on, JCP would become a crucial part of the NWA.

8 Operated Under A Number Of Names

While Jim Crockett Promotions was the company that put on the wrestling shows, JCP wasn’t typically used in advertising or the promotion’s various TV shows. At first, JCP put on shows under the brand Eastern States Championship wrestling, but there were myriad others.

JCP programming was syndicated all over the place, so shows had different names depending on where they aired, like All Star Wrestling, World Wide Wrestling, and NWA Pro Wrestling. The biggest brands however, 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 was 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 further success to JCP in the years that followed. Under the new leadership, JCP became a major player in the National Wrestling Alliance, with the younger Crockett serving as the president of the NWA on three separate occasions.

6 Began To Expand In The Late 1970s

Jim Crockett Promotions grew into a dominant territory under Jim Crockett Jr. thanks to an expansion effort as the company began putting on 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 helped JCP’s high profile as well. He licensed the NWA name for his own promotions and ensured that when the NWA World Heavyweight Title changed hands, the new champion was also signed to JCP.

5 Starrcade

The 1980s saw a major change in pro wrestling with the rise of pay-per-view events, which proved to be a solid way to run star-studded “supercards.” While the JCP-promoted 1983 show Starrcade wasn’t the first supercard by any means, it was an influential one. Broadcast on closed-circuit TV rather than PPV, Starrcade ‘83 offered big matches like Roddy Piper vs. Greg Valentine in a classic Dog Collar Match, and became an annual December tradition until 2000, as WCW went dormant in March of 2001. While WrestleMania quickly took the crown as wrestling’s biggest show of the year, JCP got there a year and a half before WWE.

4 Bought WWE’s TBS Timeslot

Of course, wrestling in the 1980s was also defined by the aggressive expansion of the WWE under the promotion’s new boss, Vincent K. McMahon. In 1984, WWE bought the regional promotion Georgia Championship Wrestling, thus taking over GCW’s 6:05pm ET time slot on Turner Broadcasting System and replacing it with WWE programming — much to the chagrin of fans who preferred GCW’s Southern wrestling style.

In the aftermath of what’s become known as “Black Saturday,” WWE’s show proved unsuccessful in GCW’s place. McMahon thus ended up selling the time slot to Jim Crockett Promotions, making TBS the home of what would become World Championship Wrestling.

3 Purchased Other Territories

Bill Watts in Mid-South Wrestling with Jim Ross

In the face of WWE’s aforementioned expansion, Jim Crockett Promotions also couldn’t help but expand, too. In addition to running shows and broadcasting in new regions, JCP also purchased some major territories in the 1980s. Along with Georgia, St. Louis, and Kansas City, JCP bought Championship Wrestling From Florida and the Universal Wrestling Federation (formerly Mid-South Wrestling), bringing many of its stars into the JCP fold. Most notable of these talent acquisitions was a tag team specialist in UWF named Sting, who was quickly flagged to become a major star in JCP.

2 Sold To TBS And Became WCW In 1988

While Jim Crockett Promotions’ expansion certainly yielded the company some success, it was also costly and perhaps too fast for its own good. WWE was so aggressive that it would put on events that directly competed with JCP’s, and Crockett was spending extravagantly to keep talent happy lest they decide to sign with Vince McMahon. Additionally, JCP’s territorial expansion wasn’t as financially lucrative as expected. As a result, Crockett decided to sell JCP to TBS in 1988, who rebranded the company into World Championship Wrestling.

1 Revived In 2022 For Ric Flair’s Last Match

JCP Ric Flair's Last Match matchup graphic

After the early 1990s, Jim Crockett Promotions as an entity was long gone, but the name was revived in 2022 for a very special — and nostalgic — purpose. July 31st of that year brought Ric Flair’s Last Match, a one-off show fondly looking back on the old days of JCP wrestling, which main evented with Flair wrestling the supposed final match of his career. To promote the show, wrestling podcast mogul (and Flair’s son-in-law) Conrad Thompson filed a trademark for Jim Crockett Promotions and subsequently gave ownership of the trademark to Jim Crockett Jr.’s brother, David Crockett.