#her MIL basically raised my grandmas kids too! and their cousins!

[5-htagonist]

man something fucked up and twisted about existing in a space where i was completely physically cared for like 100% opposite of physical neglect but emotionally HOO WHEE !

[micromanfever]

Leyendas del Deporte: LA Park

LA Park [Leyendas del deporte]

The thing is, I grew up in wrestling. I grew up watching wrestlers live their lives. It was something to see these people of wrestling. My family were made up of wrestling people. Gigante Blanco (White Giant), Juan Ibarra Banda. After a while he turned into and became a promoter for a local arena. Arena Deportivo 47. There was also a wrestler that came out of there, La Bestia, his brother. Him and the giant Ibarra were know together as Mundo Ibarra. Also coming out from that arena was Remo Banda. Known as the Northern Flash and now known as Volador.

He is my uncle. I grew up with them. All my life I grew up with them. They trained together at the arena. They trained and I would always watch them. I had to be 8 or 9 years old. That’s when I started to like it. Once a while some wrestlers would tell me to help them out with drills. Basically use me as a dummy or an extra body. I was like their sparring partner. Little by little I got into it. I was outside the arena helping my grandmother sell concessions when they would put on shows.

In reality, I never idolized a wrestler when I was a kid. At that time there were Santo movies going on and him versus the mummies, or the werewolf, or the zombies. And the movies would all be released at the movie theaters. So I was very young and I would tell my grandmother that I wanted to see El Santo. So she would take me, and she wouldn't go in with me. It was at a mall and she would stay outside. Sometimes there would be double showing and poor her. She would be outside all this time waiting.

We would get there at 10 in the morning and I wouldn't end up getting out until 4. My grandma would stay out there and not move. I would be in there catching all the Santo movies. I saw all of them.

By then I was into it. I watched it and would go to school and try to do wrestling on the kids there. Because when a child loves something they want to emulate it. I imagine that's how it is with kids in other sports too. I would go there and grab the other kids by the neck and put on holds. I ended up getting kicked out of many schools.

In Monclova, Coah (where he's from) I went to every school there. It was because I kept hurting other little kids. I always wanted to be playing wrestling with them. I was really rough. I would always want to be fighting. We would organize fights and you know how it is. Kids from one room would fight the other room. And I was always the one main eventing these fights. I believed that I was a wrestler and I wasn't even training.

That was a bad habit. So kids out there, make sure you practice your discipline in the appropriate area. If you do it out there because you think your hot shit, do not. You will only end up hurting the other kids. Or problems will come to you. And you will get kicked out of school just like me.

I remember my grandmother, who was very old, would beg me to not get into fights. My school was passing two hills from our home. And grandma would always complain about body aches from the commute. So I would promise her that I would not get into fights.

"I don't have the age to be going back and forth" "Yes mother."

It was as if somebody told me to do it again. I would get into even more trouble. This is how I was as a kid. Very abusive.

At 8 months, I lived with my grandparents. They raised me from that time on. I thought they were my birth parents. At 11, my mother showed up and I met her as my mother. I was in shock when this happened. I was convinced my grandparents were my parents. My mother showed up to claim me, and take me home with her. She did not take me. I was crying, kicking, screaming trying to stay.

It was difficult. Since I was a child, I would be working. At a young age I would be selling food at the bars. Beef Chicharones. On Sundays we would sell beef tacos. I would wake up at 4 AM to get my food ready to sell. At 6 AM, I would be out there catching all the people that worked third shift and sell them tacos.

On those days I would sell at the arena. All my life, I have worked. Since I was 8. At 14, that was when I got to take part in my first match. I covered for someone in a midgets match. There was one that couldn't make it. So I got to go on and they put a beating on me. I was not ready for what happened. So I met Herodes. I asked him for the chance to go to Arena Mexico. He said he would help me. With the money I had saved up, I was going to try to make it out there.

At 14, I was already living on my own. Having bought my own house with my own money. I had my own car. A  64' Dodge Coronet with the button shift. I had to sell all those things to go to Mexico City and make it there with the help of Herodes. So thats what I do. And I get there and I was not ready at all.

I did not have the proper preparation at a real gym like one is supposed to have. I would go to train there at some gyms and I was not good enough to be there. Some time passes and Herodes contacts me to let me know that I am too skinny and not trained properly enough to be there right now.

Since he was spending money on me for hospage and meals, he would tell me that it would be better for me to return to Monclova and train some more there.

So I meet Jerry Estrada. Who invites me to go live with him. I go with him and he puts me up at his place for 4 years. At this time I was getting more into football than wrestling. I was going out and playing football instead. There was an important team in the area where I wanted to try out for. And I got in.

The training for that team was an hour away. I would have to be paying for my trainig and transportation so I wasn't wrestling anymore. I was living on Jerry's money. He was paying for everything. There came a moment where Jerry tells me that he would stop funding me because I was not worthy of being a wrestler. I got cut off.

I didn't want to go back home. I stopped the football thing and started focusing on wrestling. I left Jerry's to give live on the street. It was at the historic tourist spot Garivaldi where I lived homeless. I would be around and there were waiters there that would support me at this time. They would give my food from the place they working. I would get these leftover appetizers .

There at the benches is where I would be sleeping. I spent a long time there. It wasn't until I started training at Arena Mexico. I asked for a spot in the school. I trained with Rafa Salamanca. From there, I was getting bookings. I was booked for all the smaller arenas. Rafa Salamance showed me what it was to be a wrestler.

One of the promoters that helped me a lot was Capulina's body double. (A famous comedy actor in Mexico) He wrestled as Gory Medina. When he filmed that one movie where they were on the catwalk, he would fill in for him or any time they would do something physical, he would get in the scene.  Because he was big and strong, he could take it. He wrestled all over the place, Tampico, Salamanca, Celaya, Irapuato. He woul always be wrestling against Mil Mascaras or Huracan Ramirez.

He pulled me in and guided me. When I was Principe Island. He would tell me how he's noticed that I'm a real bad guy. That every time he booked me, someone would get hurt. I used to always grab a chair. It has been something that keep doing to this day. It's a bad habit. The chairs.

He would tell me that it would cost him more to heal the injured wrestler than what he would pay me. I would promise him constantly that I wouldn't hurt anyone. It was like this back and forth all the time but I kept doing it. So he passes away and I tie up to another promoter, Raul Reyes. He would book me in his circle of small arenas.

I would be wrestling the stars from Arena Mexico at the time. Like El Vampiro. All of them. I was to be the local promotion star that was going to give these guys war. So I get experience from there wrestling them and I eventually meet Antonio Pena at Arena Patlaco. He invites me to pertain to his group of wrestlers at Arena Mexico.

He still hadn't formed AAA. This was in November 1991. They fired him. I was going to be presented as La Parka there in the main event match. But since they fired him, all the plans fell threw.  I stopped believing in Antonio from that point on. It wasn't until he called me in May of 1992 where he asks if I had made the Parka suit.

"I didn't make shit. I think you are all talk" I said. "You told me you would get me into Arena Mexico and you didn't. You want a suit with the bones and there was already the Death Brothers out. So who is going to make me a suit of bones? Fucking stupid suit. I am not making shit."

He told me to have it made and that I would start with him at Veracruz. So I had it made and I started with AAA. My life turned around completely. Its that Antonio Pena is man with great vision. He got together 200 wrestlers. He would always ask them what their interests were to get a feel for them.

For example Eric Casas. He was a big fan of rock group El Tri. He would sing at this bar and Eric told him that he was into heavy rock and liked to sing. So Pena told him to go get gear that was like a rockstar and that his name would be Heavy Metal. Another one was his cousin that wrestled as Espectro. His name got changed because he would always get into trouble and form problems with people. That's why he became El Picudo.

Another kid, the son of Bello Greco. He would always dance whenever anything would happen. So he got named Super Calo. They got the permission from the name from the orginal Calo. He would take from the person and form their gimmick from that. When I started with him, he wanted a clean slate to turn me into what he wanted.

He would ask what I liked. I told him that I was having this dream. He asked about what. I told him that I was running away from death. I was running and running untill I ran into the Arena 47. The arena my uncle owned. This death was very mobile and would move very sharply. I kept running until I trapped it in the arena. I closed the big metal door and when I did, Death was in front of me.

It was gold. I was so scared of it. I was questioning what I had done. At that moment I remembered my granddad told me to curse at a ghost if I ever encountered one. So I was there all asleep and started to scream all these curse words in my sleep. Next thing I felt a smack across my head. It was my mother.

"WHY ARE YOU CURSING!" "MA IT WAS DEATH" "WHAT DEATH? YOU SHOULD BE OUT THERE DOING SOMETHING PRODUCTIVE" "COME ON MA. YOU TOLD ME TO DO THIS. IT WAS DEATH"

Go get up now child is what she ordered. From that time I had already gone to Mexico City and come back to work for Raul Reyes. This is when I met Pena and we got together and he told me to make the suit with the death character.

"Of death?"

I did not like the idea. He drew it out and gave me details. I was like, yes, sure I can get that suit made no problem. I grab the sketch and take it with me. I stop at the bathroom. Crumple it up and throw it away. How the fuck was this going to work. So many death characters had come out. I was completely in doubt.

Oh and he said to have it ready for Friday's main event. Me, I had no money. Nothing. But there was one wrestler that I had started training with and he made masks and tights. I begged him for his help to make me a death suit. I would pay him for it once I wrestled. Since I was about to start with them I convinced him to make it for me. The first payday would go to pay for the suit.

He makes it for me. Tonio asked about it and I told him it was done. I had these white boots. So I covered them with tape and stenciled bones on them to spray them over with black. They looked like little bones. That one guy hooked it up with everything. Gloves, suit, mask. The mask was very simple. It was a round face with a triangle and teeth.

But they fired Antonio Pena. I was betrayed. But he called me and set me up for my debut in Veracruz. That's when I got to wear my gear for the first time. From that point forward things went really well for me.

I got that stuff from Flama Dorada. Bless that man. He stills sells masks.

My character was meant to be a scary gimmick. But when the children saw me, it was the exact opposite. The kids loved me. A producer got in Antonio's ear. If I was this well liked as a rudo. Then just imagine how it would be as a tecnico. So I got switched over. I objected. But he ordered me to switch and when I did, it was like a boom for me.

From there, I got invited to be part of this telenovela that Yuri was on. (famous pop star Yuri) "Volver a empezar" I got a bunch of media appearances from this. He began meeting these American celebrities once he started for WcW in 1996.

When I met Jean Claude Van Damme, we were in Dallas. He was filming a movie. It was a martial arts movie. "Universal Soldier" His son was a very big fan of mine. The son asked his father to come to the show and meet me. Once they were there, JCVD asked if I could take a picture with his son.

I took the picture because I was his idol. But when I saw JCVD, I was just like the son. In awe. I asked for a picture with him in return.

I had left AAA in 1996. People out there all reiterate the wrong facts about this. It was November 1996. I was out in the US for 6 years. When I returned there was another Parka. La Parka Jr.

To me, it didn't matter. I was very thankful to have gotten what he had given me. I didn't want to go back to wrestle for anyone. At the time Promo Azteca was around and they were backed by TV Azteca. Konnan and Ricardo Reyes were in charge. Son of Raul.

They would try to convince me to wrestle. I didn't want to. With what I was making from WCW was enough. Tonio had treated me greatly so I didn't want to offend him. One day though, I receive a cease and desist at home. Over the name from Antonio.

Promo Azteca were in my ear, telling me that they would support me in this and offer all the help I needed. I accepted to get their support. I counter sued and we went to court for 16 years over this matter. The first laywer sold out to them. I almost lost it with him. I managed to find out what he had done. The next one was only taking my money. Many lawyers later until I found a good one here in Monterrey.

I don't remember his name. He didn't sell his ass. We went into the next phase with evidence of copyright and right of author. The evidence was there. The AAA shows always advertised me by the La Parka name. There are photos of me with the mask ripped wide open. You could see my face. That was all the evidence they need to confirm it was me all those years ago.

The judge awarded me the name. But the case would continue because AAA appealed and we were going in for more court. I met with Dorian to negotiate a settlement. We agreed on a match between me and his parka. If he beat me, I would give him his name. If win, I would keep the name. So we agreed on the match.

We did it for his PPV. I won. A couple days after I won. I got a call from the commission where they failed to award me the win and give me the rights to my name. It was because the Perros del Mal ran in. But they ran in towards the end. I didn't care at that point. I let the fans determine the true winner.

That's why I decided to go on as LA Park. Not as La Parka. So me and Dorian Roldan make an agreement. For me to keep my new name. I wish I could be that name again because I see the way it is now and it's fallen a long way from where it was before. He can't even lift his arm anymore. He does clown comedy. I care about his health. I see him dragging my name like that and I don't like it. I wish I could get in the suit again to make it shine like it used to and give it back when I'm done.

Then let me hand it to someone new. I would do it. That name and suit gave me everything. I gave me happiness, a home, a family. If AAA let me be them again for a year, I would. I would leave forever if they let me do this. I respect the man who wears the suit.

I respected Pena a lot. I didn't believe all this bad intentions. I killed myself to make the name what it was. To come back to this. To be told what I did did not count was the biggest insult to me. I made it but there was a paper saying otherwise. I didn't know any of this. I didn't know about copyrights or brands. But now I learned. Little by little. It hurt a lot. I felt very betrayed. People talked a lot of shit.

At the start I idolized Pierroth Jr. and Sabu. When Sabu would come down, he would wipe the mat with all my friends. They were the first to do death matches here. I watched how he would make them bleed and suffer. Pierroth was really tough. He left my chest in blood. I would chop him back and it would hurt my hand more. How was I going to end this dude.

A long time later, I got put in a mask match with him. Something that I did not put together. Konnan and Damian 666 put the mask match together. I remember it was them who found me and brought this paper to me. They had gone to Mexico to relax in their down time and do some secret wrestling.

We were prohibited from working matches outside of WCW. Damian got to me with the paper.

"We did it! We got your match!" "What match fool?" "Didn't you want to unmask Pierroth?" "Me? Are you serious?" "Yes daddy, and don't you let us look bad."

They got the contracts written up. In July we were to go mask vs mask. Damian was trying to motivate me and all I could do was take it and be like...fuck it. The only problem was WCW not letting me go to wrestle on this date.

The deal for the mask match was made in March and set for July. I was really nervous and thought it was a joke. Not that they really set the deal up. But the day was coming closer and 2 weeks before I had a match with Goldberg. I knew I had to do something. I knew WCW were not going to let me go that easy.

So in the Goldberg match. Goldberg does the spear and I think, this is it. I start grabbing my leg and scream in pain.  They told me I was going to get checked out by doctors in Atlanta. We were in Orlando. I didn't have anything wrong.

I was in my room. Silver King was my roomate. I grabbed a bottle and wrapped it in a towel. I started smacking my knees. I knew nothing was wrong. So I was very worried about getting fired if I went to the doctors and they found nothing wrong. So that's what I did.

I got huge bruises from this. I was in a lot of pain. Hitting myself in the knees. One strike left a huge bump from the swelling. I think went too hard and started to panic. The next day I had a hematoma. The next day I went into the doctors.

The doctor said I had torn acl and mcl.

I was very surprised. Like for real doc?

"Yes that is what you have." "Are you sure? Cause look how I can move it."

He says that I should have surgery immediately. I convince him that he shouldn't because my wife was pregnant and she would have to take care of the baby on her own without my help. She needed my help and doctor finally gave in.

He told me to return in 3 weeks after the swelling had gone down.

I was so relieved.

In that time I went to Tijuana to wrestle against Pierroth. I unmask him. Everyone was against me. We had the court case going on over the name. Everyone picked me to lose. Dr Morales and Arturo Rivera called me a fraud. I was threatened to be kidnapped.

https://youtu.be/Uyq8vXdJxhI

We had to go to all the patrolling authorities to get proper security measures in place. I got there a week before the show. Nothing ended up happening. Nobody thought I would win.

I beat Sabu for an Xtreme title. I beat Arandu, Pimpinela, Black Tiger, all his titles and hair matches he's won are listed.

I have won more hairs than masks. Black Tiger both. Mascara 2000 both. Bestia Salvaje, Mayflowers. All them. Very famous masks too.

If the people really want to hurt a wrestler. Than applaud them and that will make them find their true person. If they really are a rudo or a tecnico.  They applaud the rudo more. Tecnicos are not very well liked now. You have to be really great to be loved now.

I have a very big gripe against wrestling. My grandmother was someone that was out there every day fighting for what she had what she could give to us. She suffered. She was a seamstress. I promised to help her and take her out of that life. That gave me the courage to go out there and fight for what I wanted to make different. To go to Mexico City and make money to give her a better life....(begins to tear up)...but I couldn't. I was starving. Living in anyone's home. Fans would take me home. Anywhere I could stay. I couldn't give her anything. I would go to Tulancingo and work the first match for 1 peso.

I would make 2.50 pesos for a match in Neza. Gran Davis would transport us to there. He charged us 3 pesos for the fare. I made 2.50. He would give me the ride but I couldn't' send money home. Now that I made money, she is gone.

What good is it that I became this successful from wrestling? (cries) I can't help her anymore. I hate this about wrestling. I no longer have the one I love. From here on out, I stay thankful. I thank God for what he has given me.

I come from extreme poverty and worked very hard to make it to this point. I have family. I don't want them to suffer. I'm not a millionaire. They don't have everything. They go to government funded schooling. But they don't go around barefoot or wearing torn up rags.

I would wear sandals made from tires in the winter. I would get my foot traced and they made these sandals for me. In the cold. I don't want that for my kids. Wrestling has taken from me, but it has given to me too. I don't think they are lacking anything.

I have a gym. I am afraid of being poor again. What I make now, I save up and keep for my retirement.

WHAT WOULD YOU TELL YOUR GRANDMOTHER?

(struggles to find words and tears up)

LA PARK then promotes his school He will support any student that is willing to drop any vice or addiction in order to train. He thinks anyone that can learn can be part of his school. He needs 1 and a half years to train someone to be ready to wrestle.

He recalls fans recriminating his work because he doesn't give the same deathmatch spectacle every time he goes out there.

If I didn't give them that match. It means I’m not worth anything.

La Park listens to the crowd to tell him what to do during his matches.

He doesn't like to hang out with wrestlers. He does not allow his family to talk wrestling at home.

It's incredibly difficult to have friends. When I was coming up as La Parka. The people who said they were my friends...Antonio Pena showed me a book with all these signatures. It was a petition to get me fired. It was signed by all my "friends".

They wanted me fired because I "took liberties" on another wrestler. I was only defending myself. If you come at me. I will defend myself. He gave me the book. I asked if I was fired. He said I was not because I made him money. The book was mine so that I could see who my friends were. All of them were my friends.

I was in denial when I got home looking over this book. People that I had helped were trying to get me fired. I pointed at the name in the book and asked my wife, "how could he? he came to my home and ate with us.." "this one too" "this one owes me money".

That is when I stopped hanging out with any wrestlers.

You will live happily alone without wrestling.

Doors will open. I would get pulled over and police would not ticket me due to wrestling.

My son would be happy after learning some moves. Wrestling can be amazing too. So I love it too.

Pierroth left a lot on me. We always talk. He loves me and I love him. He's in a wheelchair after suffering a brain paralysis. What he wants is to walk. And I will help him walk.

Follow LA Park https://twitter.com/laparktapia