[1998-01-24-WCW-Souled Out] Juventud Guerrera & Super Calo & Lizmark Jr & Chavo Guerrero Jr vs La Parka & Psicosis & Silver King & El Dandy

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[soup23]

Fun opener with not a lot of substance but a ton of cool moves mixed in. I think what I appreciated most about this match was the antics of La Parka and the brutality and laying in of the strikes. Silver King was vicious with the chops he was giving. The dive sequence was great and played right into the finish of Chavo and Psychosis being the only two guys left. Chavo picks up the duke with a tornado ddt. Afterwards, La Parka lays out everyone, including his teammates with a chair. Now, i don't want to be that guy and this match was good, but I do feel if you have watched a lot of lucha, this is not groundbreaking stuff. I perused a lot of reviews for this show and was pretty surprised to see this match ranked ****. As an opener, it accomplished its task perfectly but I cant classify the match as great. (***1/4)

[bradhindsight]

I liken this match to a Lucha appetizer sampler.Good work all around with Silver King, El Dandy and La Parka really standing out. Everyone got their dives in. Really the only part that wasn't as tight was Juvy/Silver King, which led to a 450 that Juvy took on his face. It didn't come close to "great" for me either Chad, but as an opener with a different flare, it was well done. ***1/2

[Zenjo]

Got to love the bookers approach here. Just stick 8 (or 7.5) random Mexicans together and tell them to fly around for a bit. Fortunately they were able to get on the same page and provide an entertaining PPV opener. Some of the execution early on was a bit dodgy, but business picked up with the dive train. People are only going to rate this highly if they haven't watched any authentic Lucha.

[Loss]

This was a really fun way to start a pay-per-view, and I miss WCW when I see stuff like this because they were willing to showcase styles that hadn't always been part of the American presentation. So while I give them credit, I wish they had taken it even farther, giving these guys 25 minutes and three falls to work with. But I'll take what I can get.

 

La Parka's chair rampage got over big with this crowd.

 

Bobby Heenan's repeated "OH!" on highspots is annoying the fuck out of me and I refuse to let it go.

[Superstar Sleeze]

Juventud Guerrera/Super Calo/Lizmark Jr/Chavo Jr. vs Psicosis/La Parka/Silver King/El Dandy - WCW Souled Out 1998

 

Perfect opener in getting the crowd energized for the rest of the card. I always thought Super Calo was anything but cool with his silver surfer mask and shades, but he was not half-bad. It may have been that Psicosis was bumping for him. Psicosis was great as usual bumping around for everybody and wish we got more of him. Surprisingly what really grabbed this crowd's attention was a wicked intense chop exchange between Silver King and Lizmark Jr. I know that Silver King is known for working a bit of a stiffer style in Lucha and have always wanted to check more of him out, but Lizmark really surprised. I thought he was easily the second best guy in this match. He was kicking ass in there. Juvy got his 450 splash in, but I was a bit surprised he did not get more time to be featured. I know everybody loves El Dandy, but this match did not showcase his talents. The dive train was fucking excellent and definitely the best part of the match. Chavo really did not do much besides get the win to set up his big push into an angle with Uncle Eddie. Without a doubt, the big star of the match was La Parka. Even though, I have not watched La Parka's new Lucha stuff, I am always so happy to hear how well he is doing because he is always one of my favorites as a child. He just owned this match with all his antics. It was so immediate how much charisma this guy had and the crowd totally latches onto him. I loved him falling flat on his the apron. The corkscrew Asai moonsault was sick. The crowd ate up La Parka's chair rampage. Doing his strut on the chair and then the way he walked away so proud was hilarious. La Parka is the MAN! Very fun spotfest. ***1/2

[tim]

Really fun match and a great way to open a PPV. Lizmark Jr. and Silver King sure did lay it in on their exchanges. The match falters just a little toward the end as there's a run of some miscommunication and spots that don't quite hit with the crowd, but it's quickly followed up by a hell of a dive train. Post-match with La Park is a blast.

[PeteF3]

Good opener and the kind of thing you were only going to see from WCW in a PPV or Monday night setting. Chad mentioned this already but what struck me is how much some of this stuff looked like it *hurt*--they really lay in some of the chops and punches to a degree not normally seen in lucha, and even a lot of the dives and misses were high-impact, particularly Silver King's fall to nothing on the floor and Dandy's tope. Sadly the #1 takeaway of this is that La Parka should have been pushed way harder than he was. His charisma and antics transcend any language barrier.

[TravJ1979]

Not the best multi-man lucha match WCW put on, but it was a fun opener no doubt. La Parka being the star of the whole thing. Pretty by-the-numbers until the ariel show.

 

RATING: Viva La Parka