Part of every battle is psychological. If you can get into your opponent’s head, they become much easier to defeat. That is why fighters often try to have an intimidating presence before the fight begins. La Parka tried to strike fear into the hearts of opponents, but he captured the hearts of fans instead.
Contrary to pop culture myth, Halloween was created by the Catholic church in Europe. One of their core beliefs is that while death and evil still exist in this life, they are ultimately defeated.
Originating in the fourth century, Hallowmas is the three-day period surrounding the Feast of All Saints. The festival celebrates those who have been martyred for their faith.
One of the enduring practises is the act of guising. Celebrators would dress up as demons and evil spirits, as well as depictions of death, in order to mock the defeated enemies. It is the same logic as when the villains in war movies are depicted as inhumane or buffoonish.
There are variations to the tradition in each country that it is observed within. Most who participate in Halloween activities have little-to-no interest in the religious aspects. It is an excuse to have fun for one night. Traditions such as dressing up as monsters is purely for entertainment.
In Mexico, their version of Halloween is ‘Día de los Muertos’ (literally “Day of the Dead”). It incorporates elements of pre-existing indigenous festivities. In contradiction of the name, it is a light-hearted celebration of those who have passed away and moved into the afterlife. Participants also dress in costumes, but the depictions tend to be more family-friendly.
Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA) was founded by Antonio Peña in 1992. He would also create numerous original characters. Among the first was a persona based on the Grim Reaper.
They are a physical manifestation of death in the folklore of many different countries. They are often depicted as a skeleton in a robe.
Peña’s creation would be named “La Parka”, an intentional misspelling of the Reaper’s name in Spanish. He wore a full-size, black-and-white skeleton costume that appeared to have a hood. The design was based on common Día de los Muertos artistry.
LA PARKA / L.A. PARK
The character was given to Adolfo Tapia Ibarra first. He is from a large wrestling family that became known as “La Familia Real”. Tapia’s brother competed as El Hijo de Cien Cera.
They are no relation to the original Cien Cara. Their uncles are Volador, Johnny Ibarra, and Desalmado. Volador’s son competed as Volador, Jr. Volador’s grandson (not Jr’s son) competes as Flyer.
While Tapia is talented, the first decade of his career was plagued with characters that failed to get over with fans. At 6’ 1’’, he towered over most Mexican wrestlers. This helped La Parka appear more intimidating… or so Peña thought.
La Parka was an instant hit with fans. They loved his appearance, and the fact that he could move like a traditional luchador despite his size.
Peña decided to run with it and booked La Parka as a téchnico (babyface). He easily won crowd support with his natural charisma.
Parka’s habit of dancing was Tapia’s own idea. This was a comedic interpretation of the “Danse Macabre”, an allegory for everyone who inevitably encounters death.
In 1996, Parka was one of several AAA stars who competed in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) as part of a cross-promotional arrangement. Most of the luchadors were then poached by World Championship Wrestling (WCW) for their new Cruiserweight division.
Peña allowed Tapia to continue using the La Parka character as it served as good publicity for AAA. Parka was mainly a heel despite fans loving his physical comedy.
He was involved in an angle where he “injured” an opponent with a steel chair after a match. Carrying a chair would become one of Parka’s trademarks. The “Chairman of WCW” mainly used the chair as an entrance prop.
La Parka was mainly in Sonny Oono’s stable of foreign heels, teaming with either Psicosis or Silver King. He was also in the short-lived ‘Latino World Order’ stable, led by Eddie Guerrero.
The point of the group was that Guerrero claimed to be helping the members get respect in the U.S., but was secretly using them for his own gain. The stable fell apart when Guerrero was genuinely injured in a car accident.
Parka was a prop in two of WCW’s most famous angles. He seemingly scored an upset victory over Randy Savage. He then unmasked to reveal he was Diamond Dallas Page in Parka’s ring gear.
He was also Buff Bagwell’s opponent in the infamous match where Bagwell threw a (scripted) tantrum over being booked to lose.
He then had a gimmick where his backstage interviews and pre-match promos were badly dubbed. Kaz Hayashi was briefly part of the act too.
The voice-over would often make comments that got Parka in trouble with his opponents. He then became an enforcer for Vic Venom (an off-camera Vince Russo).
When Venom cracked his knuckles, Parka was under instructions to strike the person he was looking at with a chair. He was one of the last luchadors to leave WCW.
La Parka featured in five WCW video games; ‘Nitro’, ‘vs nWo Revenge’, ‘vs nWo Thunder’, ‘Mayhem’ and ‘Backstage Assault’. In BA, he was unlocked by knocking out an opponent with a steel chair in ‘Hardcore Challenge’ mode.
After Tapia left WCW, Peña allowed him to keep using the La Parka character in the US. The deal was broken when Tapia signed with rival Mexican promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL).
Peña sought legal action and prevented Tapia using the character or costume again. To solidify the point, he shortened Huerta’s ring name to La Parka. The latter was also pushed to a higher level within AAA than before.
Knowing that he would not be as successful without the character that made him famous, Tapia created his own version. He wore similar costumes, but influenced by his own designs. The first mask strongly resembled Darth Maul from the Star Wars franchise.
Tapia’s creation was named “L.A. Park”. It was still pronounced the same way as La Parka. It stood for “La Autentica Park” (or “The real Reaper”). Park alternated between working for CMLL and travelling the independent circuit.
Park (Tapia) returned to AAA in 2010. He spent his time as a rudo (heel) to help differentiate himself from the téchnico La Parka (Huerta, see next).
Park would have an extensive rivalry with Parka, claiming the younger star to be an “imposter”. Park even won a match where he regained the rights to the character, only to have it be overruled.
Park still competes, but almost exclusively in tag team matches. He has teamed with nearly every other version of La Parka multiple times each. He has also been in over thirty matches where his own mask was on the line, winning most of them.
WCW fans rarely got to see his finishing moves. On the rare occasions he attempted the La Parkinator, a corkscrew body block from the top rope, he usually missed for comedy reasons. He frequently used his Skull Bomb, a sunset flip powerbomb, but rarely won matches with it.
He is the most decorated of all the La Parka variations. He has won the AAA Latin American Championship and IWC World Heavyweight Championship, and is a four-time Mexican National Light Heavyweight Champion in AAA.
Park has also held the main championships in DDT Pro Wrestling, Genercion XXI, International Wrestling League, Independent Wrestling Revolution,
The Crash, World Wrestling Association, Xtreme Latin American Wrestling, and Xtreme Warriors Wrestling. He was inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame in 2018.
La Parka (AAA)
While Tapia was in WCW, Peña created a variation of the character called ‘La Parka, Jr.’ As the name suggests, the character was the son of the original La Parka. The only connection Jesús Huerta Escoboza had to Tapia was that he also spent the first ten years of his career on characters that had flopped.
Huerta was the same height and behaved similarly to Tapia’s interpretation of the character. While Tapia was a popular heel in WCW, Jr. was a techníco in AAA. Tapia’s success on US television boosted Huerta’s appeal in Mexico.
After Tapia broke his agreement with Péna, Peña shortened Huerta’s ring name to La Parka. The latter was also pushed to a higher level within AAA than before. He was booked as one of AAA’s top stars for years to come.
In 2010, other variations of the character would compete in the company. They would all feud with Huerta’s Parka at some point. Parka would be booked to look strong against them all.
His only significant loss was when he lost the rights to the character to Park, but it was overruled. Parka would also team with his former rivals frequently.
Parka had his final match on October 21, 2019. He performed a dive through the ropes to the outside. He missed his opponent and collided with the steel crowd barrier before landing face-down on the concrete floor.
He was immediately paralyzed, but did regain feeling in his extremities. He had surgery on his neck and cervical fractures to relieve pressure.
AAA had to release a statement contradicting false reports that Huerta had died. Then less than three months later, they break the news. Huerta genuinely died on January 11, 2020.
His official cause of death was lung and kidney failure. Both were directly connected to the injuries he suffered in his fall. His brother Taboo passed away that year too.
Parka is one of the most decorated stars in AAA. He was posthumously inducted into their Hall of Fame in the year he did. He also competed in ten lucha de apuestas matches where he successfully defended his mask.
EL HIJO DE PARK
In January 2010, Park confirmed the rumour that Black Spirit was his real-life son. He had encouraged Spirit to be trained by someone else and forge his own path into the industry.
Park felt that this had been key to his own success. His son was only in his second year of his career when Park made the confession.
Spirit would compete as “El Hijo de Park” (literally “The son of L.A. Park”) from then on. Hijo appeared in a similar costume to his father, but with different colouring.
Whereas his father used red, white, and silver on his costumes, Hijo favoured gold for his. Many of Hijo’s storylines would involve either teaming with or feuding against other second-generation luchadors. Specifically, those whose fathers had feuded with his father in the past.
Hijo has held tag team championships with his father in Major League Wrestling, and Generacion XXI. In 2022, they were both fired from MLW after performing a genuine post-match assault on their opponents.
SUPER PARK
After seeing the success his nephew had in WCW, Volador began competing as Super Parka. It was an original idea with it’s won design. He legally owned it, and it did not infringe on Peña’s creation. The new character gave his career a minor boost.
LA PARK, JR.
There is one other official member of La Familia Real. LA Park, Jr. was introduced as a second son who wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps. He had competed as Exudus and Ùltimo Sandox before donning the skeleton costume.
It is presently unknown if he is a genuine relative of the Ibarra family. It is generally accepted he is the son of Park, and the brother of Hijo. When they team together, they are known as “Los Park”.
He has bounced around promotions in the US and Mexico, almost competing exclusively in tag team matches. He most commonly teams with Hijo, but he has won tag titles with other partners. He was fired MLW at the same time as his family.
LA PARKITA
One of the AAA’s unique gimmicks is the mini-estrella division. These are the wrestlers who are under 5’ tall that often compete as miniature versions of established AAA characters. There have been three men that portrayed ‘La Parkita’ over the years.
The first La Parkita was portrayed by Alberto Perez Jimenez. He was trained by his twin brother Espectrito. Alberto has portrayed both Espectrito and Especrito II.
He also substituted for the original Octagoncito while he was sidelined with an injury. Alberto’s other characters have included Mini Fresbee, Mini Nova, and Voladorcito.
Even though the Parkas all portrayed death, they were not immune to it. The Perez twins were found dead in a hotel room on June 29, 2009. The brothers had been approached by two prostitutes after a show. The women were invited back to their room.
One of the prostitutes would spike their drinks. The intention was to incapacitate them long enough to rob them. They theorised the men would be too embarrassed to admit they had been with prostitutes to report the robbery. They did not factor in their short stature.
The combination of drugs and alcohol consumed that night, combined with the substance used to spike their
drinks, proved to be fatal. Their deaths made headlines across the world.
One of the suspects were arrested a month later. The second was then traced through phone records. Both were convicted of murder on July 12, 2010. They were sentenced to 47 years in prison.
LA PARKITA II
The second La Parkita did not have dwarfism like most other mini-estrellas do. He was naturally small, and was allowed to compete on the main roster too. He only used the Parkita character for a short time. He became the permanent replacement for Octagoncito.
LA PARKITA III
Little is known about the most recent La Parkita. He is informally dubbed “La Parkita III” by fans. He is a student of Espectrito. A constant with all versions of La Parka was that everybody encounters death eventually. This was true for them too.
LA PARKA (III)
Three months before Huerta passed away, he introduced the wrestling world to Karis La Momia, Jr. He declared that his son was training to become the next La Parka. After Huerta passed away, Pena gave his blessing for Momia to use the character.
In 2025, WWE bought out AAA (now named Lucha Libre AAA World Wide). It was announced on the same day that talents from both companies would cross over.
Parka has made a few appearances on WWE NXT, and in the 2026 Rumble. Even though they do not look similar, announcer Wade Barrett keeps joking that he is the original La Parka that appeared in WCW (Tapia). A joke that too many fans fall for.
At the time of writing, this La Parka is set to make his video game debut in June 2026. He will be one of four characters released as downloadable content for WWE 2K26.
The legacy of La Parka is not that we should fear death. We should celebrate the life we have now. Our names and memories shall live on through our families and those we have brought joy to. Then when we do have to go out, we should go out dancing.
