Lucha Libre Thread - AAA, CMLL, & the rest of the masked lads

[BomberPat]

I tried to find the old thread, and looks like it was maybe closed, or otherwise just long dead. 

AAA have announced the first of three Triplemania cards for this year - for the uninitiated, Triplemania is their big Wrestlemania-like show, at least in theory. Since 2022, they've split it across three events over the course of the year - one in Tijuana, one in Monterrey, and one in Mexico City - with an overarching theme or tournament; in 2022 it was a "Reverse Mask Tournament", where the losers advanced to the next round, culminating in a Mask vs. Mask match at the Mexico City show (if you saw photos of Pentagon Jr. soaked in blood holding Villano IV's mask, that's where that comes from), and last year's was a similar gimmick of tag teams of rivals where losers progressed into a mask/hair match in the final (though that was one fucked around by Rush playing politics, so the final ended up as a four-way).

This year's theme is "Origenes" - effectively a '90s nostalgia gimmick, bringing in a bunch of old names from that era. Given how often AAA brings old-timers in for major spots, it's not that clear how much different this is than anything else they do. There's no tournament or through-thread beyond that, so it's likely to be even more of a mess than the last couple of years.

El Hijo del Vikingo is currently out injured long-term, so has had to vacate the Mega Championship, after a record-setting 833 day reign. During that time, he had no meaningful feuds, very few memorable matches beyond the kind of moves that would have been GIFed and gone viral even if he were in an opening match, and now had to vacate without losing the belt.

 

So the title is now vacant, and will be on the line in the main event of Triplemania between Nic Nemeth and Alberto del Patron. Alberto is semi-regular with AAA now, but is not good. Nemeth is a guest, and likely won't show up again - if he wins, he might pop back in to drop it at a future show. The match was overdone and stale ten years ago, and I doubt it will attract much more attention from an international audience (which is usually the point of bringing in big US names to these shows, rather than appealing to the live crowd), to whom Alberto is more or less a non-entity now, and Nemeth can be seen in more potentially interesting matches in TNA, NJPW, and on the indies. The only positive here for AAA is that circa 2011 is when WWE TV was arguably at its hottest in Mexico with Del Rio on top, and Ziggler as a recurring opponent, so they might be hoping they can do something with that.

Here's the whole card:

 

Vampiro was in the worst match I saw last year at a Triplemania, and one of the most illogically booked matches at another Triplemania. He has since quit and returned to AAA, and is now on a "retirement tour", with the largest possible air quotes. Latin Lover is in his corner - they set up a match pitting Lover and Vamp against Jeff Jarrett and someone in 2022, it never happened. He's teaming with Pagano, who has been his on-again off-again partner, rival, protegé for the last couple of years, and none of it makes sense.

Psycho Clown is one of AAA's biggest stars, but they have utterly run out of ideas for what to do with him. He and Sam Adonis blew off their long-lasting feud in the hair vs. mask final of last year's Triplemania, and to thank them - and Sam especially - for going through with that, for Sam losing his hair, and putting up with the Lucha politicking of Rush and L.A. Park that led in and out of that match, they're just in a meaningless "US vs. Mexico" match. 

Negro Casas was a huge signing when he jumped ship from CMLL to AAA; he was seen as a CMLL lifer. The tide has turned completely the other way since then, and AAA is losing talent constantly. He allegedly jumped ship because he wanted to team with his family (including Psycho Clown), and do intergender matches alongside his wife Dalys, which wasn't an option in CMLL. He's not really been treated as a major star in AAA, and has largely been an odd fit for their style of Lucha. For the most part he was feuding with Nicho el Millionaro, the original Psicosis, and while he has tagged with Psycho Clown, it's been on lesser shows, never Triplemania. The surprise partners here are unlikely to be anyone of note - it was implied that they might be relatives of Casas and Wagner, which gives quite a few options, but it will likely be whoever happens to be available. The last time Dr Wagner Jr showed up at Triplemania, it was him and Andrade El Idolo assaulting Psycho Clown in 2022, and that got no follow-up and he just randomly showed up again last month. I expect this is aiming for a Wagner/Casas family feud leading through the three shows, but I'll be amazed if Dr Wagner Jr makes all of his bookings.

Edited March 19 by BomberPat

[Merzbow]

6 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

Nic Nemeth and Alberto del Patron.

Jesus Christ, that would be a channel changer in WWE for me a decade or more ago..

[BomberPat]

6 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

Jesus Christ, that would be a channel changer in WWE for me a decade or more ago..

it's atrocious. The only appeal Nic Nemeth has at this stage is to see him outside of a WWE environment with fresh opponents, not rehashing a match we were already sick of in WWE ten years ago, and with Alberto thoroughly checked out and the worst he's ever been. Even aside from everything he's alleged to have done out of the ring, he's shit.

When Konnan brought him back, he said in an interview that he was basically giving him one shot at redeeming himself. If that were the case, he should have been gone after AAA's Lucha World Cup in 2022, because he utterly shat the bed in that one. Carlito was wrestling on the other team, never removed his shirt or took a bump, and Alberto looked ten times more washed up and disengaged than he did. He managed to have a bad trios match despite teaming with El Hijo del Vikingo and Psycho Clown, a wrestler who that same year managed to have a passable match with El Canek, a man so old that he has a tag team match with Ivan Koloff on his record, once bodyslammed Andre The Giant, and holds a World Title victory over Lou Thesz.

The whole card is an uninspired, in places outright deranged, mess. AAA's big shows tend to be a clusterfuck, but there's always at least one match that's guaranteed to be an exciting mess of high spots, and I don't see that here. There's no Vikingo, no Komander, no Lucha Bros, and the only others that could step up to that level are Octagon Jr and Laredo Kid, and they're not exactly booked in a match that's likely to be a frantic spotfest.

I love knackered old luchadores, so I should be all in for the 90s nostalgia, but looking at that card just makes me feel tired.

[air_raid]

Do they still do those fucking awful finishes to trios matches where one guy gets an opponent in a submission hold in the ring, then inevitably all three of one team end up (gradually) tied up by the opponents before a decision happens? Really tough suspending my disbelief for those.

[BomberPat]

2 minutes ago, air_raid said:

Do they still do those fucking awful finishes to trios matches where one guy gets an opponent in a submission hold in the ring, then inevitably all three of one team end up (gradually) tied up by the opponents before a decision happens? Really tough suspending my disbelief for those.

that's generally more of a CMLL trope than it is a AAA one. It's born of Lucha trios matches historically being two out of three falls, or "captain's fall", where you win by either beating the team captain once, or beating both other members of a team, and quite often rather than actually bothering to go to all three falls, they'll just get a visual win over everyone all at once, which doesn't make much sense, but it's a trope that's been around for decades - you see it happen in the old El Santo and Blue Demon movies, even. 

[air_raid]

1 hour ago, BomberPat said:

Was about to register my shock that Sexy Star had been given another shot until I realized.... it's someone else in the same mask, isn't it? From the country where La Parka wrestles, but it's someone other than actual La Parka from WCW, and actual La Parka calls himself something else!

[BomberPat]

12 minutes ago, air_raid said:

Was about to register my shock that Sexy Star had been given another shot until I realized.... it's someone else in the same mask, isn't it? From the country where La Parka wrestles, but it's someone other than actual La Parka from WCW, and actual La Parka calls himself something else!

Yeah, it's a new (and better) wrestler, who's been doing the gimmick since 2021. It's not really an issue in Mexico, but every time she pops up elsewhere people need to do the full explainer job of how it's not that Sexy Star. 

It's a AAA thing even more than a Lucha Libre in general thing. Antonio Pena, who founded AAA, was a genius for coming up with gimmicks and characters, and generally ended up owning the rights to whatever characters he created. That way, whenever someone left AAA, he would give the gimmick to a new wrestler, and the "original" was forced to come up with a new name - the most recent instance is AAA having just debuted a new Taurus, while the original Taurus/Black Taurus is apparently under an AEW/ROH deal but won't actually re-debut until he's come up with a new gimmick, as they won't let him use any variation of Taurus on TV.

The WCW La Parka was the original La Parka, but has now been L.A. Park for a lot longer. The second La Parka passed away in 2020, after injuries sustained in a match. In one of those weird only-in-wrestling stories, he died the same day as the Japanese Kendo Nagasaki, so on the same day La Parka and Kendo Nagasaki had both died but were both still alive.

 

EDIT: Just to note, as much as it's a AAA speciality, it's not solely a AAA thing, as evidenced by the confused mess of Misticos, Sin Caras, Mytezizes and Dragon Lees that I once tried to diagram. 

Edited March 19 by BomberPat

[air_raid]

24 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

Yeah, it's a new (and better) wrestler, who's been doing the gimmick since 2021. It's not really an issue in Mexico, but every time she pops up elsewhere people need to do the full explainer job of how it's not that Sexy Star. 

Pat, come on.

Tell me if she's as Sexy.

 

[JLM]

Yeah I’ve seen posters for original Black Taurus as “Black Beast” for upcoming shows because apparently he owns that name to get around the AAA issues. 

Funnily enough given the timing of this thread, I went into a bit of a research dive on La Parka last night as I saw a poster for an upcoming show with RUSH vs L.A. Park. I knew what air raid mentioned was the case and that L.A. Park is OG La Parka but didn’t know the ins and outs of it. 
 

So… 

Adolfo Margarito Tapia Ibarra is the original La Parka. Created in AAA and later made famous outside of Mexico for his time in WCW. AAA owned the rights to the gimmick. La Parka very popular in AAA and quite a draw for them. 
 

With him spending more and more time in America, AAA exercised the right to use the gimmick and put Jesús Alfonso Huerta Escoboza (formerly working as Karis La Momia) under the mask. Confusingly initially called La Parka Jr. Some people call him La Parka 2 to avoid confusion.
 

Original La Parka returned to Mexico when WCW folded and was initially allowed to work indies and smaller Mexican shows calling himself La Parka. However, when he wanted to work for CMLL, AAA put the boot down and said he couldn’t use their gimmick any more. So Adolfo came up with L.A. park (standing for “La Authentica” as a nod to him being the original) and changed the outfit just enough to shut AAA up. The L.A. Park outfit has more of a Darth Maul look to the mask, I personally think it looks way better. 
 

Following this, AAA dropped the “Jr.” from their second version, so he was now even more confusingly simply called “La Parka”. All the Lucha nerds explaining this are quick to point out too, that the second La Parka was very popular and became a significant draw in his own right, so it was far from a fake Diesel/fake Razor situation. 

By all accounts, L.A. Park (Si!) had no ill will towards second La Parka but plenty towards Peña/AAA. However, they were eventually able to get back on terms and put on the match everyone wanted to see. LA Park vs La parka: Fight for the name!

 

This is quite a wild brawl with all sorts of shenanigans. LA Park won but they did some dusty finish shenanigans business and neither guy ended up changing their name. 
 

La Parka 2 sadly passed away following complications from an injury sustained from a botched dive to the outside. LA Park however, has said that he will never go back to the La Parka name, nor will his sons, out of respect for the deceased La Parka 2. 
 

LA Park has two sons, who also do the gimmick as El Hijo Del LA Park and LA Park Jr. Most notable outside of Mexico for being fired by MLW (along with LA Park himself) for stiffing the hell out of Alexander Hammerstone and Jacob Fatu during a post match angle. LA Park’s uncle also did a Super Parka gimmick. 
 

Lastly La Parka 2 has a son, but the son is working as Karis La Momia Jr. In honour of his father’s previous gimmick. However, it is thought that if he develops/gets good enough he may eventually become La Parka Jr. Which would also technically make him La Parka Jr Jr. 

Edited March 20 by JLM

[BomberPat]

  

3 minutes ago, air_raid said:

Pat, come on.

Tell me if she's as Sexy.

 

 

I'm reliably informed by the good people at Lucha Underground that Every Woman Is Sexy And Every Woman Is A Star.

 

@JLM it's one of my favourite Lucha things, and proof that AAA fuckery isn't a recent phenomenon, that LA Park won the rights to the name La Parka and then neither man changed their name.

Edited March 19 by BomberPat

[JLM]

Haha yeah it was an outrageously carny move. Also getting a +1 from Bomberpat for one of my most Bomberpat posts ever is a huge win for me. I will now be Bomber El Patron going forward. 
 
Also just to include it, the Super Parka outfit LA Park’s uncle used is fucking awesome: 

Also a huge fan of LA Park and his sons in their Los Parks gear: 

Definitely some of my favourite Lucha masks ever, totally  bad ass. 

[Carbomb]

28 minutes ago, air_raid said:

Pat, come on.

Tell me if she's as Sexy.

 

She's Sexier.

[BomberPat]

L.A. Park is up there with Atsushi Onita on my list of "if money were no object, and you actually didn't have to deal with the person but somehow still get them to wrestle for you" dream bookings, the absolute platonic ideal of the violent middle-aged lucha nutter. Only gets better the older and fatter he gets.

Super Parka was a tremendous bit too - he used to wrestle as Volador (his son is currently Volador Jr. in CMLL), but took one look at how much success his nephew was having as La Parka and thought, "I'll have some of that" and just copied his gimmick. He had a few matches against L.A. Park, all of which are just mad brawls, and eventually lost his mask, but kept the bodysuit, so you just have a middle-aged moustachioed bloke walking around in a full skeleton outfit. Lovely stuff.

[JLM]

Yeah LA Park is an absolute mad lad, nightmarish to work with but a next level performer. Even in WCW you could tell he was brimming with charisma and had a tendency towards excessive violence, but as you say the older and fatter he’s got the more he seems to up the violence. Even just the first few minutes of that fight for the name match he is whupping La Parka 2 with no mercy.  I need to see some of his wars with RUSH. 
 

On my La Parka search spiral I ended up watching him against Glacier from 1997. Five minute TV match to put over Glacier,  but La Parka walks him through it and makes it so much more fun than it has any right to be. Imagine watching this match and thinking Glacier should be the pushed guy of the two: 

 

[BomberPat]

4 minutes ago, JLM said:

Yeah LA Park is an absolute mad lad, nightmarish to work with but a next level performer. Even in WCW you could tell he was brimming with charisma and had a tendency towards excessive violence, but as you say the older and fatter he’s got the more he seems to up the violence. Even just the first few minutes of that fight for the name match he is whupping La Parka 2 with no mercy.  I need to see some of his wars with RUSH.

 

He had a phenomenal match with Villano V in the reverse mark tournament, that made people stand up and notice Villano as more than an obvious filler/eventual loser in that series, and him and Rush vs. Blue Demon Jr and DMT Azul last year was tremendous stuff; both teams spend the entire match beating the shit out of each other rather than their opponents, and the crowd are molten for Park the whole time.