Espectáculos Promociones Panama: Hombre Araña! Celestial! Androide! Joe Panther!

Hombre Araña/El Celestial Vs El Androide/Joe Panther - 2 October 1988

MD: This was a little dumb but a lot of fun. With the exception of Celestial, everyone was way over the top. Spiderman was something else. You have to love it when someone really works the gimmick into almost every movement they make. His natural stance was a deep crouch. He had this bit where he'd catch a leg on a dropdown as if he was "webbing" his opponent or sort of a sliding leg trip. He had a bunch of crazy hand motions. Even the transition to comeback was him rolling out of a submission basically. Androide did not act like an android but he did have a fun little dance he did a bunch. And of course Joe Panther is quite the stooge, bumping and selling all over the ring.

When the rudos were in charge they had a lot of atomic elbows (sometimes backfiring due to rudo miscommunication). At one point, they absolutely clocked Celestial with a chair or Joe Panther would wrap a terrible towel around his fist and nail him with it. Celestial was much more of a striker here than I remember, far more than he was anything else. He had one great flurry. Panther had some good shots too including some really mean sounding ones in the corner. Ultimately after a fairly straightforward match (tecnico advantage in the primera, beatdown in the segunda, comeback in the tercera) this ended with Spidey locking in a sticky looking small package and with just a taste of post-match chaos, followed by character-driven poses. A little Spiderman goes a long way but I'd still like to see him against the Gemelos or Galvez.

GB: Let’s chalk this one up as a llittle bit of a palette cleanser before the next big match in our journey. In a bit of luck, we managed to have reassurance of our first ever “full” card and it’s certainly a treat to witness:

On paper you might find it more loaded than it is in actuality. Satanico isn’t the Satanico you know. Neither is Impacto. However, Atila Jr is the returning Exterminador (falling way down the card but a few months later), Nacho Vega is Mascara Negra who’s run interference and played second on quite a few occasions in the matches we’ve watched. Eager to see them duking it out. I’m always partial to Baron and Africano. However, the big one is certainly the returning Parka “brothers”, reigniting the feud with Sandokan. For now, we have the pleasant surprise that is Spiderman in Panama.

When I saw the card, I was eager to see Tahur in this environment but Panther is much the better choice for this type of match. As much as I’ve researched out Exterminador and guys like Sandokan and Galvez, I feel I have by far the biggest grasp on Panther. He’s the most travelled of the troupe and it shows in his ability to coexist in pretty much any setting with ease. While his forte is certainly a chain around his fist, he’s not shy to lean into comedy. Also, as we saw in the Solar tag in our first ever post, he’s also got a knack for bumping huge and showing ass. I’m leaving off the career deep-dive until we get to a match that focuses solely on him but he’s definitely a wrestler you can imagine running roughshod in Arena Mexico or doing pratfalls for someone in Monterrey.

This week was a bit of a mixed bag on my front. I spent hours upon hours sourcing newspaper clippings, posts and interviews trying to track down who Androide and Spiderman were only to finalise my post and realise I didn’t comprehend “Dominicana”. Perhaps the billing (and our Youtube friend) are wrong, as they called Joe Panther “Tahur”, and it really is who I believed them to be but, lo and behold, there are also “Androide” and “Hombre Araña” in the Dominican Republic! As there is in El Salvador, Guatemala and, and, and… let’s just say I threw in the towel this week.

I guess we can add “terrible Internet meme” to the growing list of things South/Central American wrestling did first. Panama’s Hombre Araña on the left and Guatemala’s on the right, meeting for the first time in around March/April 1988. The eagle-eyed reader will notice Guatemala went to bat for their iteration of Spiderman, coveting him in three world titles. The exceptionally eagle-eyed reader will notice the bottom-most title is, in fact, the Panamanian championship! Panama would rather crown another country’s Spidey over theirs. That’s gotta sting, right?

On a serious note, Fulvio Erick Echeverría Guevara, Guatemala’s Spiderman, was somewhat of a national treasure. While not quite at the level of Astro de Oro, he rose to prominence thanks to his quickness, nimble athleticism and karate style. Fulvio (Spiderman) would fight evil gimmick upon evil gimmick from the lurches of every childhood nightmare you could imagine. He was the idol of children around Guatemala and the “leader” of their own “Justice League”, which included his brother, Edgar under the guise of He Man, as well as a third named Silver Man (not a Silver Surfer crib but, in fact, a Santito ripoff!). One of  the biggest matches of his career, and one we are fortunate to have somewhat on tape, is when he took the mask of Panama Kid who wasn’t actually from Panama (now do you see the difficulty I have?). Long story short, no diss on Panama’s Spidey, Guatemala’s just did it much better.

The reason for mentioning Guatemala is that just months prior to this match, Panama’s Hombre Araña and Mexico’s Androide had crossed paths. Androide had just lost his mask and turned tecnico when Araña debuted in March 1988. It would be a first that a programme swapped out the wrestlers themselves for a similar billing. As we’ve learnt, Guatemala is the stop before Panama on the Mexican’s journey home. Why did Mexico’s Androide skip Panama this time in exchange for the Dominican? Also, why would Panama, a country not known for running any “out there” gimmicks, mysteriously create their own in 1988 only to get an import on one of the biggest cards of the year? It’s all very confusing and nobody I’ve asked has the answer. None of the historians even knew Hombre Araña existed when I asked! Again, no diss from Panama I’m sure. Likewise for Dominicana’s Androide with the sole instance of his existence outside of this match being an unreplied Facebook comment translated as “anyone remember Androide?”. I guess not.

For the most part, the Dominican Araña wrestled under a very different looking costume but the only video we have of him looks the part here. He also seems to have the same spring in his step. Well, as much as we can guage from the 5-second clip. Let’s just play ball and accept, at the very least, this is the Dominican Spiderman. Because it would be the “childhood dream came true” moment for him.

The story goes that in a small town in the Cibao Central of the Dominican Republic, where the stars of "Dominicana de Espectáculos" performed, a tall young man named Isidro managed to sneak into the improvised dressing room of the tecnicos, his idols. Once inside, he approached Jack Veneno and quickly told him: "I have always dreamed of being a professional wrestler, and I want you to help me achieve this dream. I am willing to work hard and show you what I am capable of in the ring." It is said that the champion was so impressed by the young man's chutzpah that he promised to help him. Weeks later, he was working in the company's gym, and within just a few months, he was given the opportunity of a lifetime to embody "El Hombre Araña", a character known for his incredible agility and ability to walk on the ropes.

Well, 35 years later, two men on opposite sides of the world to each other, one in America and the other in South Africa, are having some dumb fun thanks to him and his wrestling. Godspeed, Araña, whoever/wherever you may be.