La Parka

Adolfo Margarito Tapia Ibarra (November 14, 1965) is a Mexican luchador enmascarado (masked professional wrestler), who currently performs as L. A. Park for Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide (AAA) in Mexico and various other independent promotions in Mexico and the United States.

He is best known throughout the world as La Parka, especially from his many years in the American World Championship Wrestling promotion.

He has worked for every major and multiple minor wrestling promotion in Mexico, as well as participating on multiple wrestling tours in Japan.

He is a three-time world heavyweight champion, having held the IWC World Heavyweight, IWC World Hardcore, and IWL World Heavyweight championships all once.

He is also a two-time world tag team champion, having held the MLW World Tag Team Championship and the CMLL World Tag Team Championship each once.

Adolfo Tapia made his professional wrestling debut in 1982 at the age of 16, using his real name.

Later on he would wrestle as the masked El Gringo in the Monclova, Coahuila region and as El Minero in Mexico City.

Tapia lost his first Lucha de Apuesta, or bet match, to Climax II and was forced to take off the El Minero mask and reveal his real name, as per Lucha libre traditions.

As Principe Island he won the masks of wrestlers Gran Cóndor, Principe Judas, Guerrero Negra and Bestia Negra I. On November 21, 1987, he lost the Principe Island mask to El Hijo del Santo.

Following his mask loss he started working as the masked Invasor del Norte I as well as still taking bookings as Principe Island.

In 1988 he changed his ring character to El Asesino de Tepito ("The Assassin from Tepito"), a rudo (villain) character he used in 1988.

He lost the Asesino de Tepito mask in an Apuesta match against Astro de Oro at some point in 1988.

The double bookings came to an end on June 26, 1991, when Stuka unmasked the Invasor del Norte character, revealing that Tapia played both characters.

Following the mask loss Tapia adopted a character called Principe Island ("Island Prince"), a character he would use until 1992.

In 1992 Antonio Peña founded a new wrestling promotion called Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA), signing Tapia to a contract early on.

Peña came up with the idea to repackage Tapia as "La Parka" (an altered spelling of La Parca, Spanish for "The Reaper"), a character who wore a full bodysuit and mask that resembled a skeleton like the ones used in Mexico's Day of the Dead ceremonies.

The character was an almost instant success with the fans, the imagery combined with Tapia's charisma and flamboyant actions in the ring made him a big crowd favorite despite La Parka initially being a rudo character.

One of his initial storyline feuds was with Lizmark, a feud that resulted in a match for the Mexican National Light Heavyweight Championship at AAA's inaugural Triplemanía event, in which Lizmark successfully defended the title against La Parka.

In August 1993 La Parka won his first championship when he defeated Lizmark for the WWA Light Heavyweight Championship on a WWA/AAA co-promoted show.

The title reign lasted until October 23, 1993, when Lizmark won the title back.

The feud between the two saw La Parka defeat Lizmark for the WWA title for a second time on June 20, 1994.

La Parka was one of the wrestlers that worked the When Worlds Collide show, a joint AAA/World Championship Wrestling (WCW) pay-per-view where he teamed with Jerry Estrada and Blue Panther, losing to the team of The Pegasus Kid, 2 Cold Scorpio, and Tito Santana.

On September 9, 1994, La Parka won the Mexican National Light Heavyweight Championship that he had been chasing for over a year when he defeated Lizmark for the title, finishing off the storyline between the two.

La Parka held the title for 200 days losing it to Jerry Estrada.

In 1995 he would make an appearance for Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) in the United States, teaming with Psicosis, losing a tag team match against Konnan and Rey Misterio Jr..

La Parka would wear the Mexican National Light Heavyweight championship two further times while working for AAA, in 1995 and in 1996 until he lost the belt to Pimpinela Escarlata on May 13, 1996.

When WCW began using a number of AAA wrestlers for their cruiserweight division in mid to late 1996, La Parka gained worldwide exposure by appearing on WCW's weekly television shows and PPVs.

La Parka often wrestled against other AAA Luchadors such as Juventud Guerrera or Super Caló and often teamed with Psicosis (known in WCW as Psychosis).

Due to La Parka's more comedic style he stood out from the rest of the AAA wrestlers who were generally high fliers.

He was nicknamed "the chairman of WCW" due to the fact that he often carried a chair to the ring, play air guitar on it during his entrances and generally use it both in matches and in post match celebrations.

At one point he and Psychosis were managed by Sonny Onoo, although the team failed to achieve much success as a unit.

He later dropped Onoo as a manager and begin to feud with Psychosis and Disco Inferno.

While La Parka often wrestled on WCW's Monday Nitro show his PPV appearances were rare.

Tapia was forced to change his ring name from "La Parka" to "L.A. Park" (short for La Auténtica Park; "The Original Park") in early 2003 when AAA owner Antonio Peña asserted his copyright claims to the La Parka character, barring Tapia from using the name as he promoted his own version of the gimmick with this new wrestler being known as La Parka.

In March 2010, L.A. Park returned to AAA and started a storyline with AAA's La Parka, pitting the original and the new La Parka against each other.

At Triplemanía XVIII, Park defeated La Parka and earned the rights to once again be known as "La Parka".

The result, however, was later thrown out.

Tapia's uncle changed his character to Super Parka after Tapia gained worldwide fame.

Several of Tapia's other family members are or have been professional wrestlers, including his sons El Hijo de L.A. Park and L.A. Park Jr., brother El Hijo de Cien Caras, nephew Volador Jr., and great nephew Flyer, among others.

L.A. Park's family is referred to in Mexico as La Familia Real.