Court Bauer Discusses History Of LA Park And La Parka, Putting Together Teddy Hart Vs. Austin Aries

It's been a steady rise for MLW amongst pro wrestling promotions and they have their first PPV airing tonight. MLW Court Bauer talked about how he's feeling when he spoke to Wrestling Inc. on our WINCLY podcast.

"Pretty good. From a production point of view, we've been doing live programming for about a year on BeIN so the live component doesn't have a sweat," revealed Bauer. "Then with FITE TV?they gave me an assessment of our pre-orders and said it's off to a great start. They have a sense of what's 'off to a great start' in wrestling so that's a great start for us."

MLW's Saturday Night Superfight will feature Jacob Fatu vs. LA Park in the main event and Bauer discussed why he chose this as the headliner.

"I started the road to this tentpole event in February and we had just signed Fatu. Then LA Park, who had been with MLW since he was La Parka back in 2002, and now he's changed it back to LA Park. He's a different LA Park than AAA's LA Park who was injured recently. Two of our biggest brawlers on a collision course was real interesting to me," stated Bauer.

He added that their audience is half Mexican-American so Park has a huge appeal to their fan base. Also, this is a story about a legend chasing an undefeated monster for the MLW title.

"Just two great wrestlers from different generations who can throw down. You can't top that in terms of your main event. It was really a match that encapsulates what MLW is," said Bauer.

He mentioned that MLW's LA Park is different than AAA's LA Park and then there's La Parka as well. Bauer broke down the lineage of La Parka and LA Park.

"The original La Parka, who is now LA Park, started in 1992 in AAA?For about the first 10 years, La Parka was La Parka and then he had a falling out with AAA. They had the trademark so when he left, he couldn't call himself La Parka. So, he just modified his character, his mask, his gear just enough to slide by the trademark laws and named himself LA Park," said Bauer.

"Since 2002 he's been LA Park and AAA then re-casted the character with another luchador as the La Parka AAA. There's been some other Parkas along the way to create the whole Parka family?

"Unfortunately, the La Parka AAA, not the one in MLW, suffered a horrible injury two weeks ago on a spill outside the ring. He tripped on the second rope and hit his head on the barricade."

He clarifies that MLW's LA Park is the original La Parka from WCW. He also revealed that in Mexico this happens often as there's a different Konnan, there's El Hijo de Rey Mysterio and other variants.

"It's a totally different business in a lot of ways. To be the son of certain wrestlers in America probably wouldn't fly the same but in Mexico it's very common," stated Bauer.

Another high-profile match on the card is Teddy Hart vs Austin Aries and Bauer discussed his expectations for that match.

"You have two guys of the same generation that are very intense personalities. They're on a collision course and if you look at their styles, styles make fights. This is one that's gonna be excellent because they can fly and they can go to the ground," Bauer said before noting Hart's Golden Gloves boxing background.

"Austin Aries has cleared out our Middleweight Division and he's defeated everyone since he came back to the company. He's been calling out Teddy and hit a brainbuster on him denying him becoming a two-time tag team champion in MLW. There's a lot of juice on this match and that's the design of this tentpole. I looked back on it in February and I was like by the time we hit November, I'm gonna have enough on paper to not just have a one-hour live special, but enough for our PPV."

Bauer added that he's had this match planned for months and MLW has been lucky because they haven't encountered a lot of injury issues. He also talked about putting together a match with these two personalities.

"I've known Teddy for too many years but we have a shorthand that develops over time," said Bauer. "You kinda know how to operate amongst each other and get a sense of how they are wired. Austin Aries since coming into MLW has been phenomenal. I can't speak highly enough of him. He's been amazing and his matches have been really good."

Bauer admitted that he probably wouldn't want to deal with them both in the same room because they are such intense guys while also mentioning that if you have an actual Persian cat in the room, then Hart is much easier to work with.

"A lot of people have opinions about Aries but he's been such a great asset to our company. He's done unlimited media for us and whatever we've asked, he's been down to do. He's been great in the locker room and just across the board. He's always welcome in MLW because he's done a great job," stated Bauer.

MLW Fusion can be seen every Saturday night, 8/7c, on BeIN Sports. MLW presents Saturday Night Superfight tonight and can be viewed via PPV and FITE.tv. Court's full interview with Wrestling Inc aired as part of Friday's episode of our WINCLY podcast. It can be heard via the embedded audio player at the bottom of this post. Featuring Court discussing MLW's debut PPV Saturday Night Superfight, why Jacob Fatu vs LA Park for the MLW World Heavyweight title is the main event, the La Parka – LA Park lineage, putting together Teddy Hart vs Austin Aries, The Von Erichs turning down NXT for MLW, how AEW books MJF and Jimmy Havoc, MLW closing a chapter with it's first PPV and more.

You can check out past episodes of the WINCLY here. Subscribe to Wrestling Inc. Audio on iTunes or Google Play. Listen to the show via Spotify here or through TuneIn here.