Video link to the event over at Youtube, timestamped to the start of this particular match: https://youtu.be/EpPBIIgNZvU?t=2660



Cagematch page for this match/event.



Who’s Who?

Ultimo Guerrero

Making his debut in 1990 the first part of that decade he would be off the radar. His first wide exposure coming in the short lived Promo Azteca promotion that ran for a few years in the late 1990′s before making his way to CMLL in 1998 where he has been ever since, doing independent dates as well.

At this point the gold on record for Ultimo Guerrero was the CMLL World Tag Team Champion which Ultimo was in his 2nd reign with. His longest with his more common tag partner Rey Bucanero, who makes an appearance here at ringside. Ultimo being the de facto leader of his rudo stable Los Guerreros del Infierno.Ultimo had also captured at the tail end of 2002 the CMLL World Light Heavyweight Championship, which he is defending here.

3-0-0 was his luchas de apuestas record at the time. His 1st unmasking being Mr. Aguila at 1998′s CMLL Anniversary while the other was less important unmasking Difunto II in 2001 and Cuchillo in late 2002.

This match is one of the matches that made Ultimo Guerrero such a standard bearer for CMLL. Which would be more cemented in the coming years.

La Parka

La Park made his debut in 1982 a decade before AAA would be founded. He would hold no titles in that time. Before the La Parka(The reaper) gimmick Parka was most notably Principe Island a mask he lost in 1987 to El Hijo del Santo. ending his 5-0-0 streak. I’m sure he had his fans, but he wasn’t super well known at all as those gimmicks his first decade in the business.

1992 came around and the AAA walkout happened. Antonio Pena, the leader and head booker of AAA who use to be a CMLL booker came to La Parka with the idea for the gimmick. The skeleton based loosely on the Day of the Dead tradition Mexico practices each year. The character was a hit out of the gate and the first major match was vs Lizmark at the first ever Triplemania for Lizmark’s Mexican National Light Heavyweight Championship. Not covering that match because I talked about it last year when highlighting Lizmark.

That belt would be around Park’s waist before too long. That and the WWA World Light Heavyweight Champion were the only 2 belts Parka had held at this point in 2001. He held the Mexican National Light Heavyweight Championships 3 times and the WWA title 2 times.

1992 to 1996 he worked with AAA until 1997 came around and the peso crashed. Like many people he left the company at that time following many other luchadors to bolster WCW. Where despite becoming a household name and one of the most memorable guys on the roster… he never really won any accolades. After his run in WCW he would return to Mexico working indie and CMLL dates from 2000-2008.

Which is when clashing between La Park and AAA happened. They debut a new La Parka while he was doing dates for WCW as La Parka Jr. the two didn’t clash in the late 90′s because Parka wasn’t working with CMLL or rival companies instead being a WCW ad for their character and working US indie dates. So around this time in the early 2000′s La Parka would go from that name to La Park which is what he has used for the last 15 years or so.

This match is one of many indie dates La Park did in the early 2000′s after WCW which raised his stock and took him from a person CMLL called in from time to time, to someone who they used more regularly on TV as demand for the chairman grew thanks to some of the classics he had in smaller promotions outside of CMLL and AAA ontop of having more mainstream exposure from his time in WCW when they were using luchadors most weeks.

Additional info : Not too much had changed from yesterday for both these men. La Park/Shocker in early 2004 took the CMLL tag titles off Guerrero/Bucanero, but they won it back shortly after at the spring Homage to 2 Legends event. So Ultimo/Park spent much of 2004 feuding before meeting here at CMLL’s Annual supercard.

How is the match?

Fantastic, another great match from La Park this one being less of a brawl than the last 2. It hangs onto some Lucha tropes that I’m not fond of. The main one that bugs me being the fast 1st and 2nd round. It’s worth the tradeoff, though as I’d rather have a predictably quick first 2 rounds over the run-ins and confusion that happened in both the Santo and earlier Ultimo match. With this contest having a more definitive ending than the other two which were both muddied by outside interference/weapons and the like.

La Park really gets to shine here doing some great acrobatics, but also getting to steal Ultimo Guerreros finish. It was a cool moment and at first looked a little strange/off because he transitioned it straight into a submission. Was a really cool moment and move from La Park who was on point for the entirety of this match. Ultimo had a good time in this match too, but with the exception of a cool powerbomb facebuster(?) it was mostly things you see from Ultimo most of the time like his finisher and Ultimo Bomb. Nothing wrong with that, as Ultimo normally acts as a base for guys to do impressive thing. Which he did in spades here basically doing anything Park needed to get his offense in and reacting in kind. For instance this move is notoriously hard to hit, which is why AJ Styles doesn’t do it as often anymore in the WWE.

Glad to see this match, as I had a hard time finding it. I think it’s better than the match they had they year prior thanks to a belt being on the line and not being hampered by interference. I’d highly recommend it, but I am an unabashed fan of both men and this is the biggest match featuring the two facing off and will probably always be that way unless Park’s current run in CMLL has him take Ultimo’s belt or the two meet in hair vs mask or if Park loses his mask hair vs hair. My apologies for how the gifs look, I saved them on the wrong setting. Good news is I did this before getting gifs of Friday’s show so I won’t be making the same mistake for that album.