Adolfo Margarito Tapia Ibarra (born November 14, 1965) is a Mexican Professional Wrestler best known as La Parka. He started his career in the 1980s and worked under the names El Gringo and El Minero until he lost the El Minero mask. He changed to El Asesino de Tepito until he lost that mask. Then he tried Principe Island, until he lost that mask. He joined AAA when it was starting up in 1992, and the promoter Antonio Peña came up with the idea for the La Parka gimmick, which stuck. He mainly competed for AAA with a quick side trip in 1995 to ECW. He made his PPV debut at AAA When Worlds Collide in a Trios match teaming with Jerry Estrada and Blue Panther in a loss to 2 Cold Scorpio, Tito Santana and Pegasus Kid (Chris Benoit). He arrived in WCW in late 1996, debuting on the November 18, 1996 WCW Monday Nitro with a win over fellow luchador Juventud Guerrera. While he never won a title in WCW, he was very popular due to how exciting and entertaining he was. He left WCW in 2000. He was forced to change his name to L.A. Park because Peña had introduced a second La Parka and, after the regular La Parka signed with AAA's rival CMLL, Peña filed an injunction preventing him from being billed as La Parka in Mexico. He also made some unsuccessful appearances for TNA and a variety of independent promotions in the U.S. and Mexico. In 2010, he returned to AAA, though he left three years later. Among his in-ring achievements, he is a former IWC (Mexico) World Heavyweight Champion
, a 1x CMLL World Tag Team Champion with Shocker, a 4x National (Mexico) Light Heavyweight Champion, and most recently MLW World Tag Team Champion with his son El Hijo de L.A. Park.
"Tropes asociados con La Parka":
- AAA Owns This Name: He had to change his name because AAA wouldn't let him use it after they gave the La Parka gimmick to a different wrestler. After Parka II's death resulting from an accident in the ring, L.A. kept the new name as a form of tribute.
- Air Guitar: With the steel chair during his ring entrances.
- Alternate Company Equivalent: La Parka Jr. while he wasn't in Mexico and La Super Muerte in Bolivia
- Arch-Enemy:
- In Mexico, Dr. Wagner, Jr.
- In WCW, Disco Inferno
- In MLW: Sabu (in the Underground years), Jacob Fatu (in the revival).
- La Parka II for a while once they were actually in the same promotion together.
- The Dead Can Dance: He's a guy in a skeleton costume who would dance on the chair he brought with him.
- Dem Bones: His whole costume is of a skeleton.
- Distaff Counterpart: La Novia De La Parka in AAA, Rosetta Par-K in Lucha Libre USA
- Dreadlock Warrior: In AAA as La Park
- Easily-Distracted Referee: Parodied in the WWL, where he interrupted one of Blue Demon Jr's pin fall covers by slowly walking in front of the ref and nothing else.
- Finishing Move: La Parkinator (Corkscrew moonsault)
- Funny Background Event: In WCW, when La Parka and Silver King would be on the same side in tag matches. La Parka would do the La Parka Dance in the ring, and on the apron Silver King would either freak out over how awesome the dance was, or dance along with him.
- Gag Dub: In WCW in late 1999 when he was a member of Vince Russo's the Powers That Be group. Ed Ferrara provided his voice for the part in Jive Turkey.
- Gimmick Matches: Defeated Sabu at MLW Revolutions on May 9, 2003 in a "Mexican Massacre Match." He also defeated Pentagón Jr. in his MLW Fusion debut in 2018, in the same match.
- The Grim Reaper: His ring name and attire invoke this.
- Hard Head: Matched headbutts with a freaking Samoan in Jacob Fatu. While his head was bleeding from a spike attack.
- Improbable Weapon User: Uses his belt as a weapon, but like a club instead of like a whip.
- In the Hood: His mask had a hood over it.
- Large Ham/Spotlight-Stealing Squad: He has a cool mask and costume, does Air Guitar with a chair on the way to the ring and dances on the chair. He also has a tendency to smash both his opponents and teammates with the chair if his team loses, and then dance some more.
- Lightning Bruiser: The biggest of WCW's luchadores, he was well over the size limit to be considered a cruiserweight. This didn't stop him from busting out corkscrew sentons and split-leg moonsaults. Even in his 50s, he still pulls them off on occasion.
- Masked Luchador: Not just a mask but a whole body suit in this case.
- Meaningful Name: His name translates into 'The Mask'. It is also a modified spelling of the Spanish work Parca, which translates into 'The Reaper'.
- Meaningful Rename: After AAA took away his right to the name he renamed himself L.A. Park which is short for La Auténtica Park ("The Original/Authentic Park").
- Mini Mook: Mini L.A. Park, rest in peace.
- Not Now, Kiddo: His attitude toward Extreme Tiger in AAA
- Power Stable:
- (in WCW): Latino World Order (LWO)
- The Powers That Be
- (in AAA): La Sociedad
- (in MLW Fusion): Promociones Dorado.
- Ramming Always Works: Has in his later years began using the spear as a Finishing Move.
- Red Baron: "The Chairman of WCW" (though now he is he is just The Chairman of wherever he goes now). He is also known as "The Destroyer" in MLW Fusion.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: His outfit in AAA is full of red eye spots
- Ring Oldies: Holds the MLW tag team belt at age 55.
- Rudo: Almost always. The most notable exception being during his feud with Disco Inferno.
- Shoulders of Doom: At times as part of his entrance attire, he'd come out in gigantic shoulderpads.
- Spikes of Villainy: At times as part of his costumes, though he didn't wrestle wearing them.
- Tournament Arc
- Won AAA's 1994 Torneo de Parejas with Jerry Estrada
- Won AAA's 1996 Torneo de Parejas with Máscara Sagrada Jr
- Won CMLL's last Torneo de Parejas 2007 with Dos Caras Jr.
- Trolling Translator: He would take the mic and make an outrageous statements, but it wasn't him talking. The voiceover would happen even if Parka didn't have the mic in his hand; towards the end of the bit's run La Parka brought a sign out to display while the voiceover happened saying "this is not my voice" or words to that effect.
- Wearing a Flag on Your Head: He has recently been wearing the Mexican flag as a cape.
- With Friends Like These...: While teaming with Psicosis in WCW, he spent more time hitting Psicosis with his chair than they spent winning matches. Psicosis wasn't above returning the favor, and neither of them was above clobbering the other over botched teamwork or misunderstandings.
- The Worf Effect: Many of his moves proved ineffective against the Psycho Circus to later emphasize how large and athletic Marco Corleone was when he managed to hurt them with the same moves La Parka failed with.
- Wrestling Family: A big one. His brother Eustacio Jiménez Ibarra worked as El Hijo del Cien Caras until his death in 2010. Parka's son wrestles as, of course, El Hijo de L.A. Park, and the pair won MLW's tag team title in January 2021. Three of his uncles were also wrestlers, one of whom (the original Volador) started going by "Super Parka" to cash in.
