LA Park is the King of Lucha (aka 2018 is weird)

[sek69]

AAA announced the four participants in the main event mask match for Triplemania: Psycho Clown, Hijo del Fantasma, Pentagon Jr., and....... LA Park! Not the AAA La Parka, the actual OG LA Park who is also feuding with Rush in CMLL which everyone assumes is leading to a mask/hair match at the 85th Anniversary show.

 

According to Park it's still on for CMLL, and if he loses the Triplemania match it will be hair vs hair.

 

 

Also Rey Fenix (and probably Penta) are going to be making apperances at Arena Mexico for CMLL while also appearing for AAA.

 

Literally everything that was always considered impossible in lucha pretty much since the day AAA was born all seems to be happening at the same time.

[Matt D]

For a week or two.

[SteveMPunk]

And AAA want to run MSG? Sunday's main event was a shit show but they're certainly not boring.

[sek69]

Sunday's show was very reminiscent of peak WCW, the first couple matches were all good to excellent and the main event was a trainwreck.

[Mrzfn]

From what I heard the Jarrett thing was a Roldan executive decision when Wanger decided to leave, whereas the rest of this stuff is hopefully a more accurate representation of what Konnan is going to be allowed to do most of the time. I know, it's AAA, but I'm cautiously optimistic.

[sek69]

It's all connected. The original deal with Wagner was he'd lose the mask and in turn they'd do a title program with him and his son to make Hijo a star. Konnan coming back scuttled those plans so Wagner bounced, and Dorian brought back Jarrett in response to that.

 

I'm just hoping Konnan's booking will be more than "take the most violent aspects of ECW and imagine if it survived and moved to Mexico" style that seemed to take over the last time he booked.

[NintendoLogic]

I actually enjoyed the main event quite a bit. WWE is so stagnant right now that crash TV feels like a breath of fresh air. I certainly wouldn't want to watch it all the time, but it's fun in small doses.

 

Is there any chance of Park losing his mask at Triplemania? I'm sure he would if the price was right, and Wagner got a nice chunk of change for losing his at last year's show. But that was a match with a year-long build and not a hastily thrown together four-way.

[Mrzfn]

I figure Fantasma is losing the mask for sure, out of the four involved. I could see him taking a massive payday for losing it in CMLL against Rush though.

[sek69]

I actually enjoyed the main event quite a bit. WWE is so stagnant right now that crash TV feels like a breath of fresh air. I certainly wouldn't want to watch it all the time, but it's fun in small doses.

 

Is there any chance of Park losing his mask at Triplemania? I'm sure he would if the price was right, and Wagner got a nice chunk of change for losing his at last year's show. But that was a match with a year-long build and not a hastily thrown together four-way.

 

 

If he's not losing at Triplemania, he's certainly losing it to Rush if that match takes place in CMLL. He was always holding out for the mask match with Wagner, and now that it's no longer an option he might as well cash out to the highest bidder now.

[klhare]

I'm hoping Park pulls this off so badly. Two major Park mask matches within weeks of each other would be incredible.

[SteveMPunk]

Really psyched for this tonight

 

CARÍSTICO, REY FÉNIX Y MÍSTICO

vs

ÚLTIMO GUERRERO, NEGRO CASAS Y CAVERNARIO

[drokk]

So Park was actually advertised and showed up tonight. Had another great brawl. Is there any chance the CMLL office knew he was going to do the AAA deal and just let him go ahead and do it as long as they get the apuestas match at Aniversario? If that's the case, isn't a little soon to be running three weeks straight of La Familia Real Vs. Ingobernables when the payoff would presumably not be for another three months?

[Grimmas]

LA Park should be the front runner of Flair/Thesz WON Award if these two matches happen.

[sek69]

Park said CMLL knew about it, but it's Park saying it so who knows (they did bring him back after the announcement so that does imply they at least had an idea it would happen).

[Cap]

I can't express how excited I am for all this. I am sort of trying to keep my expectations down until I actually see it happen because ya know... its Park... and lucha...

 

I am guessing the mask goes at CMLL, which would be out of this world insane. I am trying to imagine what that psychopath will do during a match that he is going to lose his mask in... its going to be crazy.

[Viking Hall]

What do I need to be searching out for L.A. Park recently? Sounds like he's having a bit of a renaissance but I never know where to start with Lucha.

[Cap]

What do I need to be searching out for L.A. Park recently? Sounds like he's having a bit of a renaissance but I never know where to start with Lucha.

What do you mean by recently? Last year or two? Last 5-10?

[Viking Hall]

 

What do I need to be searching out for L.A. Park recently? Sounds like he's having a bit of a renaissance but I never know where to start with Lucha.

What do you mean by recently? Last year or two? Last 5-10?

 

You tell me... is there a point where he's kicked up a gear in the past couple of years? I know his matches with Rush have been pretty crazy and the CMLL/AAA deals certainly sound really interesting, just wondering if this is a recent rejuvenation or if he's been doing crazy matches for years now and it's just gone totally under my radar.

[Cap]

So, despite my avatar, I am not the best person to ask in terms of timelines for his career. I cherrypick lucha big time. Below are some great Park performances post 2000 that i think are all available on youtube.

 

vs El Hijo Del Santo (1/23/2001)

w/ Haloween and Rey Mysterio Sr. vs Rey Mysterio Jr, Damian 666, and Vampiro (10/26/2001)

vs el Mesias (6/18/2011)

vs Dr. Wagnar Jr (5/11/2013)

vs Rush (7/14/2016 - air: 7/16/2016)

w/ Rey Ecorpion vs Penta el Zero and Daga (3/1/2017)

vs Rush (3/11/2017)

w/ Volador Jr and Flyer vs Rush, La Bestia del Ring, and Terrible (5/25/2018)

 

You could sort of take those in chapters. Those are two all time individual performances from him in 2001 where he is still relatively thin and athletic. His strength here is playing to the crowd and the strength of his opponents. He really is the glue that holds this stuff together. The 2011 and 2013 matches are ape shit brawls after he has put on some weight, but still gets around pretty well. They are, to me, some standout matches from the time period and really just based on crazy bloody brawling. It has been quite a while since I have seen them, but Park at this time was a peak brawler and made everything so visceral and malice. The four matches from these past two years are contemporary Park being a fat crazy man. There are lots more matches you could watch, but those would give you a little taste of Park coming into this exciting CMLL/AAA stuff, I think. I would say his greatest strength is bringing a feeling of absolute chaos to matches right now.

[elliott]

I guess you could point to inconsistency over the years, but is Park the best brawler of the past 20 years? Who am I forgetting?

[bucky]

LOL at Park having a "resurgence". Dude has literally ripped it up consistently for his entire career, and his very best stuff has been within the last ten years while everyone's just been watching Okada matches and pretending lucha doesn't exist.

[Cap]

Yeah, I think Viking Hall acknowledged this was likely under his radar and that it was always challenging for them to dig into lucha. Even for me, and I fucking love Park and Lucha more broadly, it can be hard to dig in and keep up over large swaths of time. Like I said, I wind up cherrypicking more often than not, but that holds true with most wrestling for me. There is just too damn much for me to really keep pace.

 

I can see how this might seem like a resurgence to someone who hasn't had time to follow his career closely (which isn't exactly the most linear and easy to follow for a variety of reasons) rather than surge in hype for a dude that has been out there crushing it for 20 plus years.

 

 

Anyway, yeah, Park has been doing great stuff for a long while. This "resurgence" is as much as anything people catching up on his greatness as more fans become deep divers into wrestling over the past couple years and his buzz travels a little further into various wrestling circles.

[Cap]

I guess you could point to inconsistency over the years, but is Park the best brawler of the past 20 years? Who am I forgetting?

If you are factoring longevity I am not sure there are too many that could really compete. Necro Butcher might have some claim, but doesn't have the longevity. Peak Black Terry - particularly those 2016 performances - might be an untouchable brawler, but again, putting that up against 20 years is tough to do. I am sure there is someone I am not thinking of and there are probably a ton of under the radar people to consider.

[Viking Hall]

So, despite my avatar, I am not the best person to ask in terms of timelines for his career. I cherrypick lucha big time. Below are some great Park performances post 2000 that i think are all available on youtube.

 

vs El Hijo Del Santo (1/23/2001)

w/ Haloween and Rey Mysterio Sr. vs Rey Mysterio Jr, Damian 666, and Vampiro (10/26/2001)

vs el Mesias (6/18/2011)

vs Dr. Wagnar Jr (5/11/2013)

vs Rush (7/14/2016 - air: 7/16/2016)

w/ Rey Ecorpion vs Penta el Zero and Daga (3/1/2017)

vs Rush (3/11/2017)

w/ Volador Jr and Flyer vs Rush, La Bestia del Ring, and Terrible (5/25/2018)

 

You could sort of take those in chapters. Those are two all time individual performances from him in 2001 where he is still relatively thin and athletic. His strength here is playing to the crowd and the strength of his opponents. He really is the glue that holds this stuff together. The 2011 and 2013 matches are ape shit brawls after he has put on some weight, but still gets around pretty well. They are, to me, some standout matches from the time period and really just based on crazy bloody brawling. It has been quite a while since I have seen them, but Park at this time was a peak brawler and made everything so visceral and malice. The four matches from these past two years are contemporary Park being a fat crazy man. There are lots more matches you could watch, but those would give you a little taste of Park coming into this exciting CMLL/AAA stuff, I think. I would say his greatest strength is bringing a feeling of absolute chaos to matches right now.

 

Cheers for this mate, looks like I've got some watching to do. I actually watched the 6-Man last night after posting this, and while you can certainly see the years catching up with Park he was still able to do some cool stuff and the crowd were absolutely crazy for him. The heat between him and Rush was red hot too and the spot where he's getting whipped with the belt had me cringing, especially when it looked like his face was whipped. Looking forward to digging deeper into someone who I've always found pretty fascinating but lost track with since his days in the U.S. looks like I'm in for a treat.

[Rah]

I guess you could point to inconsistency over the years, but is Park the best brawler of the past 20 years? Who am I forgetting?

I'd take Butcher and Black Terry over LA Park in terms of grittiness and true to form brawling, but Parka is the most consistently entertaining. There's something about his dickbaggery to referees that cracks me up every time.

 

Sangre Chicana could also fit here, no?