[2000-12-03-Monterrey] Dr Wagner vs La Parka

[ohtani's jacket]

Parka vs. Wagner? Didn't see this coming.

When they weren't stalling, dancing or playing to the crowd the match was decent. They didn't bother with a classic title match build and cut to the power moves straight away but Wagner did use a lot of castigos in the second fall to try to win the bout and they tried to milk as much drama as they could out of the tercera. It wasn't always smooth as Parka's not the greatest technician in the ring but the focus was interesting. The segunda caida was unusually long as Wagner tried to pile the pressure on Parka. Everything was going along fine -- albeit not great -- when the bullshit kicked in. I don't think I've seen a worse finish in a lucha libre title match in all my years watching them. I won't even begin to describe it. We've seem this type of crap before with Konnan'a booking but this is what I imagine it would be like if Konnan's booking got high. Historically poor finish that spawned years of crap between Wagner and Parka. 

Don't get your hopes up for this match. Smarter folks would have seen the crap coming from miles away. I'm interested to see how Parka evolves as a worker in 2001 as he hasn't been great in 2000 and failed to deliver in his singles bouts. We'll see if I hop on the Parka bandwagon in the coming months. Right now I'm still salty over that finish.

[soup23]

Around 15 people take a mark pic in the ring with Parka. Wagner is not impressed. The outfits here are boss. Knowing their brawls throughout the years, this starting as a title match with some chain wrestling felt like the opening scene of a long book. The work here isn’t as crisp as the maestros like Panther, Solar, etc but just seeing Parka work in this environment was engaging. The Wagner bomb to end the first fall was nasty. The second fall was really lengthy and had some good teases were it seemed somewhat reasonable it would only be a two fall match. The third fall has a board being used on Parka’s leg and foot and that is a focal point for the remainder. Wagner hits a brutal kick right to Parka’s face when they get back into the ring. Parka goes for broke and hits a tope to turn the tide. Really good nearfalls and then a cheap finish that isn’t actually the finish where Wagner gets a foul but presents it like it was an accident. Referee gets bumped and here comes Damian with the bullshit. Zumbido also tries his hand and gets taken out. That does provide an aopening for Wagner to attack and hit the Michinoku Driver to gain the advantage. Instead of covering, he places a towel over Parka and walks away. Once he wonders back, Parka gets the flash roll up and win to a huge pop.  Really close to verging on great for me. ***3/4 (7.5)