2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Park v. Rush 4

LA Park v. Rush Baracal Lucha 3/11/17

PAS: So glad to see these two guys back and brutalizing each other. I am continually amazed by what LA Park is doing at 51 years old, this isn't a guy working slick mat holds or even stand up brawling like Black Terry. This is a fat old man getting rolling drink carts hurled at his head and hitting flying full speed tope and mega height planchas, probably the most impressive post 50s wrestling performances I can remember, not only smart and awesome work, but athletic and dangerous too. Rush is a great foil for Park, smarmy, hateable and willing to bring the violence. I am not sure how much Rush has bladed before, but when Park breaks out the case of beer to the head, and the broken beer bottle to the forehead, Rush starts leaking like an old pro. I am really over lightubes, but an old fashioned broken beer bottle to the head still warms my heart. Finish was a bit of booking overload, but I did love some of the near falls, including Parks great spear. Nasty bit of violence and a real treat.

ER: Imagine this match running your town and you not going to see it? Too many empty seats in this arena, no way that many people had better plans on a Saturday night. The LA Park touring main event match is one of my favorite things ever in wrestling, as it just boggles my brain that he's still able to do what he does. He's been wrestling 35 years, he's as large as he's ever been, takes tremendous punishment in his matches, does huge dives onto concrete floors, takes big bumps onto hard rings, then somehow drives to the next town. I don't know how Park is possible. But I love what he does, body physics be damned. Park is one of the luchadors I most often go out of my way to watch, so I've seen the various formulas and know his patterns, can tell when he's taking a breather in a 3 way, and have seen enough of his main event epic singles matches to know that while there's going to be some wandering, and some awkward lying around, he also never ceases to be captivating. I just did a word search on Segunda Caida for "captivating", and three other LA Park reviews came up, as well as a review where I described Asuka's live entrance as such, and another where I call a Brutal Bob Evans promo the "least captivating" thing.
So Park is clearly a person I love and am fascinated by. He's able to draw sympathy, while coming across as a violent beast. When Rush is kicking him around an arena I flip out and practically beg for him to stop taking abuse from this punk, and then when he finally flips it and goes barreling high speeds into Rush I practically beg for him to go easy on his body. Rush is an easy guy to root against and draws great sympathy from Park, slapping him, kicking him in the face, whipping him with his own belt, ripping his mask, smashing his face into the ringpost, throwing a large beer cooler at Park's head, Rush being his typical repellant self. Park comes back with a huge dive into the entrance way, disappears into the crowd and emerges with a case of empty beer bottles which immediately get chucked at Rush's face, then expertly breaks one of the bottles on a ringpost the way a man familiar with breaking beer bottles would. He gouges at Rush's head right in the front row, while fans try to not get blood on their soccer jerseys. The home stretch is usually what makes a Park match, as you know he's going to break out some great stuff before that, and you also know there's going to be shenanigans and potential silliness with the finish. And this silliness isn't bad. I could've done without the blatant interference, but I kind of liked the ref involvement. The ref tries to break up the two men and Park turns around and belts him with a real mean shot. The ref sees red and tries to hold Park for Rush, Rush kicks Park onto the ref, and then Rush aims to hit a big senton on both but only hits the poor ref. We get some good nearfalls, more expected shenanigans, and then two awesome killers yelling at each other on the mic after the match. You know, everything exactly as you hoped it would be when you watched it.


2017 ONGOING MOTY LIST