AAA’s La Parka dies after never recovering from accident

AAA’s La Parka (real name Jesus Huerta Escoboza) died earlier today from complications after a ring accident in October 2019. He was believed to be 55 years old.

On October 21, 2019, in Monterrey, La Parka was injured doing a tope. He was aiming for Rush but missed and hit his head on the floor and the barrier. The impact was so severe that the La Parka was paralyzed. He was taken to Monterrey’s OCA hospital where he underwent surgery for his neck and cervical fractures as well as relieve pressure to parts of his upper body. The surgery was said to be lifesaving, but he never recovered from the injuries. A statement from AAA listed the cause of death due to lung and kidney failure.

La Parka is the second person to use the La Parka gimmick. The original La Parka (real name Adolfo Tapia), who wrestled in WCW and AAA in the 1990s now goes by the name L.A. Park.

La Parka began his wrestling career in 1987 as Bello Sexy and then later Maligno. In 1995 he joined AAA and began using the name Karis La Momia. Because the original La Parka (Tapia) was being used so much by WCW, and he was such a major part of AAA’s shows at the time, AAA gave Escoboza a gimmick change to La Parka Jr. so they would be able to keep using the gimmick while the original was in WCW.

After the original La Parka and AAA promoter, Antonio Pena had a falling out, the Jr. was dropped and Escoboza just became La Parka.

La Parka won AAA’s Rey de Reyes tournament in AAA five times and the Copa Antonio Pena in 2013. He also headlined six TripleMania shows between 2003 and 2010, including the 2004 TripleMania where he won a mask vs. mask match over Cibernetico in front of nearly 19,000 fans at El Toreo in Naucalpan. He won Muerte Cibernetica’s mask headlining the 2006 TripleMania, which also sold out El Toreo.

In all he won nine different masks as La Parka and one as Karis la Momia.

While La Parka only made a few appearances in Southern California in his career, in 2009 he headlined events at the Los Angeles Sports Arena and the San Diego Sports Arena. Those events are two of the biggest drawing non-WWE events in Southern California since the demise of WCW in 2001.

La Parka did wrestle frequently in Tijuana, BC, Mexico and Mexicali, BC, Mexico, having last wrestled in Tijuana less than a month before his injury on September 27, 2019, for an EMW event.

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Steve Bryant
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