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.

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Espectáculos Promociones Panama: The Best Panama Match Yet? Parka! Sandokan! Celestial! Emperador! Idolo! Cirujano! Blood! Chaos!

Sandokan/Celestial/Emperador vs. Principe Island/Cirujano de la Muerte/Idolo

MD: Sometimes I'm cautious on these, because I'm just one voice, but in talking this one over with Graham, my initial thought was that this could have easily landed in the top 20 of the best of the 80s DVDVR Lucha set (you know, if anyone had voted on that). And that's probably too conservative. It's really, really good. If you guys have been on the fence on watching these, well, obviously we think it's all been a worthwhile exercise, but this is especially one to watch. This is a classic, no doubt about it.

Structurally, it's as straightforward as can be until the end. Exchanges, tecnico advantage, rudo beatdown, big comeback, finish. But it hits on all of the marks. Sandokan is such an ace and such a star. It's unquestionable here and he really overachieves even compared to what we've seen him in so far and my personal expectations for him. He's not just a slugger with a couple of big spots (though he IS a slugger with a couple of big spots), but he's on for the entire match. He kicks out multiple variations on armdrags and handsprings and one-against-two bits that I wasn't expecting at all. Everything looks smooth. Most things feel competitive. Even when he's obviously getting some assistance from the rudos, it still looks like he's switching his positioning about and working for it. During the primera exchanges everyone looked good except for maybe Idolo. His stuff was just a bit looser and he barely even eseemed to try in his first one with Emperador. He's supposed to be even a bigger star than Sandokan but we just haven't seen it in the footage yet. Meanwhile, Principe (being LA Park, of course) was flying all over the place and Cirujano was basing big for Celestial and others. Everything built to a raucious stretch of tecnico advantage including a huge wheelbarrow suplex by Sandokan.

The beatdown followed in the segunda, with Idolo getting an advantage in the ropes. They paired off with each rudo using different styles of offense. Idolo had big pro wrestling flourishes, slamming a head into the turnbuckle or leaping feet first onto shoulders in the corner. Cirujano just clubbere down and leaned on people. And Principe was a whirlwind of violence, much of which we miss as he was demolishing Sandokan on the ground. They closed this out with some stretches and a missile dropkick by Principe.

In between falls, Principe clobbered Sandokan with a chair and started to inhale his blood to spit it up into the air, which is about the most glorious and horrific rudo stylings imaginable. To say that Park understood this stuff from a relatively young age would be an understatement. He dove fully into getting as much visceral and visual heat as he possibly could. The match had started with trash strewn everywhere and it made for the perfect setting for this mauling.

Which, of course, led to a spirited comeback, Sandokan firing back and really working for it on the floor, with the crowd ebbing and flowing around him in excitement. We couldn't see everything but we could feel it all, and what we saw (with it seeming like Sandokan was clocking Principe with a shoe) was all great. Just when it seemed like the rudos were going to get their bloody comeuppance, Cirujano and Idolo snatched away Emperador and Celestial's masks and they had to scurry to the back, leaving an momentarily ascendant Sandokan to fight alone, to get the start of a visual submission on Principe, but to ultimately get swept under, absolutely clobbered by what looked to be a plastic drink holder. While I wish we could have more easily followed the action on the floor, if only because Park had a tendency to do outrageous things and take wild bumps, this had absolutely everything I would want from a match like this. The Principe Island vs Sandokan feud is such a lost classic.

GB: I honestly think Matt is underplaying just how great this match is. When he shot the idea to me that this could potentially make the top 20 of the DVDVR 80s Lucha set I said he was underrating things. This is easily the best match we’ve had so far and definitely something to go out of your way to see. An absolute whirlwind of a performance between Sandokan and Parka, who is a fresh 22 years old here. Over on the GWE Discord, this match actually prompted a little discussion that La Parka might actually need to be investigated further as a top 20 GWE case because he has all of these little pockets of matches throughout his career where he really looks like an all-timer. From this, in mid 1988, to the Villano IV match last year, we have 34 years of Parka being an absolute beast of an asskicker (though, albeit, he’s more the acrobatic chickenshit getting his ass steamrolled in Panama but you get the gist!).

Those firmly in his camp will protest that he’s more than just the “dancing skeleton” most mainstream fans know him as. I agree. However, there’s an element to that which makes Parka’s case ever the more compelling. He’s one of the very few wrestlers that can blend comedic wrestling and psychopathic brawling without the one smudging the other. In fact, he might just be the all-time greatest at it. Case in point, he sees his ass on a big tumble to the floor about 9 minutes in here. Fans swarm around him, he’s disoriented and lost so he plays into the moment. He hobbles to the wrong corner, where Sandokan is lying in wait like a shark smelling blood. He gestures his arms into the air with a groaned “dammit!” before a fan has to escort him back to the right side. This all goes on in the background of the match while Idolo and Celestial are trading moves in the ring. One of the biggest legends in Panamanian history, and a 22-year old Parka is stealing the audience’s gaze away from him. Unreal. It was this “IT factor” that helped Parka change a nothing 2-week stay in Panama to a 2-month major programme.

Looking at the history, the Parka in Panama matches are seemingly all across the board so it makes things a little difficult to recap and piece together (I’ll get to a potential stopgap later). It’s also promoted by Junior Mina’s Arena Panamá Mexico so there isn’t much out there.  However, what is crystal clear is that this is Parka’s debut match in Panama and we’re blessed to have gotten it as it kicked off one of the best feuds we’ve never heard of.

From interviews and matching up cards, Parka lost his mask to Sandokan a week before Father’s Day in 1988 at the Neco. That squares up with the 11th June date listed on the (very much incomplete) Sandokan Luchawiki profile. The next week, however, forces me to realise I had the Galvez/Solar feud down to the wrong year. Solar was in Panama in 1986 but feuding with Castro. The Galvez feud kicked off on the 17th of June 1988, the Friday after Parka lost his mask. Interestingly, Solar returned to Panama on the 17th in a tag at Neco opposite the team of Sergio Galvez and Blue Panther. The relation to the Park? Well, the Park/Sandokan feud would intertwine with the Galvez/Solar feud at this point with the tecnicos (Solar/Sandokan) having to stave off the violence of hell’s rudos (Galvez/Parka), a violence that Solar lamented would be him “encountering death”.

Despite losing it, Parka would still don his mask to interviews as a protest to the decision. He also carried with him a tape of the ending to the mask match in which he claims a conspiracy took place. It was all jingoistic bias on the part of the referee, who he says made a calculated, perhaps premeditated, “mistake” to allow Sandokan to win. Much protesting and epithets to Sandokan’s race later, Parka would remove his mask as he was doing so graciously as a “gentleman” that respected the traditions of lucha libre (and not because he agreed with the loss). Sandokan, Parka espoused, had tapped to his hold. All of Panama could see it, and their ruptured hostility was proof enough. The whole of Arena Panama could see it, except the one man that needed to most - Carlos Linares, the referee.

I’m unsure how much time had passed before the title matches against Super Parka and Sandokan but Parka now was scalped. I haven’t seen flyers nor articles to corroborate, but it appears that Super Parka took La Parka’s hair at some point in Panama. Weirdly, La Parka was billed as the older brother of Super Parka (his legitimate uncle). It’s one of the weirder tropes of Panama where names/gimmicks are sacred above logic, and once one gimmick has been debuted everything must follow suit. Much like Gemelos Infernales (Hell’s Twins) being a trio.

To my strained eyes, it appears that Parka’s hair is a smidge more grown out in the title match against Sandokan than it is against Super Parka. Again, this I’ll get to later. By this point, Super Parka is a tecnico, and can be seen as Sandokan’s second in some of the encounters. For Parka, he would be seconded by El Idolo and Nacho Vega in the mask match (the latter known to us already as Mascara Negra) and Exterminador as well as Emperador in others. The latter would be the one to demask Super Parka in Panama a few weeks earlier. Another quirk of Panama would tie in with the Parkas - that being how forgiving fans were of wrestlers. In the Emperador feud, Super Parka was the clear heat-seaker. So much so he was once physically attacked by fans on his way to the ring during the build to the Emperador mask match. This led to the lucha commission forcing action and having the national guard accompany wrestlers to the ring at each show. Yet, here, against Parka, Super Parka was the tecnico. The crowd favourite. A Mexican proudly waving the flag of Panama, claiming them as gracious hosts. In reality, a “turn” only took a handshake after the loss of their mask or hair. An acceptance that they weren’t the better wrestler that day and a thanking of the fans for coming out in support of the fight. A mask/hair loss was Panama’s reset button. That’s all Super Parka needed as his get out of jail (hospital) free card to curry favour with the locals. Note La Parka’s antagonisms and vitriol when he loses his mask against Sandokan. It directly flew in the face of what was expected of him. He was an out of control brat and he played that up perfectly. Ricardo Pitti would label La Parka as “volatile” and “excessively energetic”. The absolute perfect foil to the fiery babyface Sandokan.

As for the title in question, Parka is the current title holder of the UWA Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship and Panama’s Middleweight Championship (the title he brings to the ring). The UWA title was never officially recognised by the UWA but it was seen as a title of significant value in Guatemala (given legitimacy by local legend Astro de Oro being the first challenger and then first to capture the title in 1987). Parka beat Astro de Oro for the title on July 24th 1988. A month after Sandokan took La Parka’s mask. As mentioned, Parka was fully expected to be a Guatemala staple at this point, having finished off his short visit to Panama. However, he got over so quickly as a heel that he found himself oscillating between fighting Sandokan in Panama and Astro de Oro in Guatemala - the two biggest legends of South America at the time.

It’s here that I can potentially offer a little bit of a quickfix to the gaps in our Parka in Panama programme. Select Mexican wrestlers would travel around South America honing their craft and finding themselves in quite familiar programmes wherever they went (notably so with Parka). Thus, I’m going to outline the feud with Astro de Oro in Guatemala. What lines up lines up, what differs differs but it’s all hopefully, at worst, a look into very young Parka’s start and, at best, a glimpse into the bigger picture of the feud in Panama.

The feud began with Parka coming into Guatemala as the cocky upstart, bludgeoning an unexpecting Astro de Oro and Arriero de San Juan into pieces in his debut on the 10th of July 1988. He was accompanied by Verdugo, who had a massive chip on his shoulder after his then teammate, Arriero, turned tecnico on him. Despite the heat between Arriero and Verdugo, it was Parka that took things a step beyond by cutting up Astro and leaving him a bloody mess on the mat. Parka’s win, and performance, had him splashed across national newspapers. As quickly as he got over in Panama, Parka was a massive exclamation point in Guatemala now. He had, thus, quickly earned himself a title shot against Astro de Oro (which would play out after a bloody mano a mano “wager” shortly after the tag debut). This wager was a relatively stakeless match (in other words no titles or masks on the line) but was about betting their pride, a “put up or shut up” if you will. Astro de Oro had never been defeated in this match and, yet, Parka beat him. This, in theory, plays sister to the Sandokan/Parka singles Matt has already covered with the only caveat being the roles are reversed (Sandokan absolutely destroys Parka and not the other way around).

As the record books show, Astro de Oro lost their title match. Again making Parka the first luchador to do so. Much the same in Panama with Sandokan, the pride of Guatemala had been made a fool by the punk, La Parka. Parka, greedy for more, offered an all-in with Astro. If Astro ever wanted to see the title again, he would have to bet his mask (and permanent retirement) against it. Astro, who already had his tail between his legs seeing no other choice, agreed. While Parka dropped his mask to Sandokan before the title match, I believe the stipulation for the Sandokan/Parka title match was of a similar nature.

In opposite to Panama (though to the sentiments of the DQs), the referee in the mask match here was firmly in Parka’s back pocket. Parka blindsided Astro in the corridors of the arena on his way to the ring, incessantly beating him with a chain until he burst open with blood. As Astro attempted to make his comeback by grabbing the chain from Parka, referee César Rivas confiscated the weapon. While Rivas was distracted, Parka faked a foul which had disqualified Astro, leaving him a fall behind. The fight would continue, as both men bathed in blood by this point. Parka tried multiple times to escape but he, and his mask, would fall to a merciless, rope-aided piledriver by Astro - much like he would to a merciless rope-aided electric chair from Sandokan. Adolfo Tapia Ibarra, the Island prince, the assassin, the skeleton of death, had lost his mask but he had found himself. And so the whirlwind of violence we’ve come to love was unleashed.

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Espectáculos Promociones Panama: Blue Panther in Panama! Kato Kung Lee! Tahur! Celestial! Baron! Gemelo Infernal I!

Blue Panther/Gemelo Infernal I/Tahur vs Kato Kung Lee/Baron/Celestial 1/17/87

MD: This felt like lucha comfort food to me. Maybe it was because both Kato Kung Lee and Blue Panther were there, but this followed pretty familiar lines. There are definitely unique quirks to Panamanian Lucha, bits of Puerto Rico or unique elements to the stadiums, some spots or moves you don't expect, some peculiarities that we can't explain just yet, but there's more overlap with what was happening in Mexico than not and this match is a testament to that.

Speaking of familiarity, we're getting increasingly familiar with the usual suspects here. I have a great sense of Tahur as a base and as hard-handed clubberer and as a guy who isn't afraid to make a heroic dive to nowhere. This is Gemelo Infernal I who is more of a character than his smoother, workrate-y brethren GI II (and I don't have a sense at all about III yet). He has weirder moves and weirder movements and here made a great stooge for Kato Kung Lee's kung fu strikes. With Tahur and Panther getting him up extremely high for his headscissors takeovers, Baron looked like a top notch junior here. He got to show a different side than in the Bunny Black feud but it made me want to see more of him in both settings. And Celestial mainly stood out late in the match, paired with Panther with heated mask ripping.

Panther, to his credit, fit right in. I was a little disappointed at first as he was initially paired with Kato Kung Lee, which isn't what I wanted to see him do in Panama but he rotated through to the others as the match went on. And Lee? This was the best I've seen him in Panama. The fans went nuts for his shtick like always but he just had extra zing and agility as he bounded around the ropes. You could transfer the exact same act into modern AEW and if he could pull it off like he did on this night, it would get over huge.

Structurally, this was also familiar, early pairings cycled through, escalation to rope running, stooging, and the tecnicos going over in the primera, a rudo beatdown in the segunda, comebacks and cutoffs, and it all coming to head in the tercera, where Tahur just had enough of KKL's kicks and fouled his way out of the match which likely led to something else we unfortunately don't have.

GB: This match is a bit of a lucky get for us. Truth be told, I came across this post by accident many months ago when my passion for Panama was still in its infancy. However, the original video had lost tracking and the end was cut off. A little dismayed, and with some digging, I managed to piece together the missing part and give us this gem.

There’s not much to be said here as the only memories of this fight I can find are two screen grabs from a video of Panther and Kato arriving at the Tocúmen International Airport for their match. For all intents and purposes, this was treated as a big deal. Ricardo Pitti was there, alongside fans, to welcome Panther to Panama and extend a warm “welcome home” to KKL who had just lost his mask to el Hijo del Santo two months prior (though this was never aired nor played up during his visit). Matt highlights the ending between Kato and Tahur and there is something there. Whether this match led to it (or led from it), el Tahur did take Kato’s mask at some point in the 80s. In Mexico it would be sacrilege but, if he had lost his mask beforehand as Luchawiki claims (something I doubt), it wouldn’t be the first time Kato begged the fans of Panama to “pardon” him from losing his mask.

Kato Kung Lee, el camina cuerdas (the rope-walker), has a bit of a mysterious background. We are all well aware of his escapades in Mexico, as one part of the trios Los Fantásticos, but not much more seems to be known of him, especially in his heydays in Panama. Perhaps the most internationally known Panamanian-born wrestler isn’t even listed on the Hall of Fame board, let alone given any further detailing.

From the bits and bobs I can cobble together, Lee debuted alongside the other greats Panama had to offer in 1965 as the tecnico El Valiente where he would go on to lose his mask (twice - with the first loss being “pardoned”) to his maestro Chamaco Castro and rebrand himself as Johnny el Valiente and, a little later, as the remasked Rayo de Oro. I think there’s room for people to argue that KKL has had a bit of an “ode” (nudge-nudge-wink-wink) to other fighters along his career. One might argue his mask is all too similar to something blurring the lines of el Baron and Kendo (who’d go on to take the KKL name much later, ironically) but the name “Rayo de Oro” is a little too on the nose. So much so newspapers in the 1970s would also tend to confuse him with the legendary Guatemalan Rayo Chapin:

Even if his name wasn’t quite to the level of Chapin, KKL was always determined to be a star and take his name around the world. Despite Panama’s flourishing local scene, and it being a great training ground for the stars of tomorrow to hone their craft (whether from South America, Mexico or even Canada (Mad Dog Vachon!), the hospitality never quite seemed to be reciprocated. You had the odd wrestler such as El Enterrador and Joe Panther travelling through Africa and Europe but nothing “historic” in the same way Panama’s role was for laying the foundations for the UWA in Mexico (which I’d now argue would never exist without Panama).

One of the most important promoters during Panama’s golden age, Sammy de la Guardia, lamented that it was never due to skill that Panamanians stayed within the confines of Panama. Rather, it was too expensive and too risky. There was no government funding, as Mexico had, those wrestlers who travelled did so on their own money (or the sponsorship of their promoter). With little offer for reimbursement or being able to see a local return on investment in building up a name, promoters seemed more interested in keeping their stars home.

Thus KKL would risk everything when he set out to stake his claim in foreign land before the end of the 1960s taking with him Los Hermanos Muerte 1 y 2 to Guatemala and Mexico. The latter duo would go on to great success in Guatemala and KKL would see success in both Mexico and Japan - a name many recognise to this day. Again, the most famous of all Panamanian born wrestlers.

Still, and much the same for most of these stars from Panama, KKL had a quiet send off, far from the luxuries those stars in Mexico would enjoy. He’d pass away the owner of a BBQ joint. The referee for this match, the most famous in Panama, Carlos Linares, would pass away as a flip flop manufacturer. The stalwart of Panama’s rudos, Sergio Galvez, to this day works in a little bakery opposite his local theatre. The passion was there and as much as wrestlers and promoters pass Panamanian wrestling off as their “pasatiempo y nada mas” (pass time and nothing more), there’s a little sadness that a country so poignant for lucha libre as a whole, didn’t get to enjoy the boom it more than helped usher in.

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Espectáculos Promociones Panama: El Idolo! Celestial!

MD: Quick note before we begin. I've been posting for a bunch of years now, and this has been just a really great outlet for me. I wouldn't be here without Phil or Eric certainly. But I also wouldn't be if not for Dean Rasmussen and years of reading and interacting with his singular, joyful take on pro wrestling. He finds the great in the good and the sublime in the terrible. I'm sure most people who read Segunda Caida have seen this already, but if you saw it and didn't click or clicked and hesitated and didn't give yet, please do so now and keep him and his family in your thoughts. Thanks. 

El Idolo vs Celestial

MD: One of the best things I can say about the older footage here is that when you see these guys, you immediately want to know more about them. That's true whether it's Sergio Galvez or Sandokan or Gemelo Infernal II. It's true here with Idolo. There's something about the way he carries himself, a hand gesture (maybe teasing his claw strike?), how he'll get knocked out of the ring and duck away to avoid the potential of a Celestial dive but then lean into the heat he's getting by charging at the crowd. To a big degree, he presented himself as a star and you get the impression that the fans bought into it.

This was in three falls. The first was mostly back and forth wrestling and while it flowed, you'd maybe want just a bit more contact and torque on some of the holds (even for the style) and counters. That was probably true throughout the match. The things that felt more like "spots" didn't work nearly as well as the outright violence. Said violence began right after the end of the first fall with Idolo crashing Celestial's head into the post and never really let up. They did a good job of having Celestial fight back, capitalizing on Idolo's mistakes, only to make a mistake of his own. Sometimes that was a missed elbow drop; sometimes it was getting overzealous by biting through the mask or swinging a chair and rushing into a counter-shot. Idolo had a range of offense, including a Gilbert-ian hotshot, a drop down off the top into a sitting vertical splash, and a great charging knee while Celestial was sitting in the ropes (he missed the second and went careening to the floor; one of those bits of hope for Celestial). The finish was gnarly, with Celestial charging in too headstrong and getting pressed up into a face first posting, of the sort that could work in lots of other settings but that you never see exactly at that particular angle. Post match, Idolo went after the mask and a gentleman apparently called Máscara Negra made the save. This felt like a solid stop on the road to something bigger.

GB: Latin American wrestling fascinates me. There’s a lot of fluff. A lot of sentiment. A lot of rose-tinted glasses to this stuff but it’s all captivating in one way or the other. There’s such a rich, diversified history to it all just waiting to be untapped, with anecdotes and matches that sometimes seem to challenge what we already know. For instance, the story goes that El Hijo del Santo made his Mexican debut as El Korak in February 1982 without his father's blessing and was only given the gimmick in October of the same year. However, contrary to this, the young wrestler had already been honing his skills as El Hijo del Santo in the Dominican Republic a year earlier! This being the same country that gave us the lore of Flair/Veneno. Despite Flair’s insistence of it being an impromptu switch to stave off a riot, it was an ending that was, in total premeditated detail, used to drive both an already planned out rematch between Flair/Veneno and heat up the ongoing Veneno/Relampago storyline.

Controversy and contradiction follows history. In Panama, perhaps none more so than for El Idolo. In contradiction, whether it’s Sandokan or El Idolo, promoters, fans and newspapers seemingly disagree on who Panama’s biggest star was. Either way, El Idolo would rack up an impressive number of apuesta matches against a litany of local and international wrestlers. 40 masks and 38 hairs, in total. 78-0 is an impressive number and while not quite Super Muñeco level, it’s certainly the highest I’ve seen in Panama by quite some way. In controversy, El Idolo would lose his mask to El Olimpico on December 16th 1973. Having been unmasked, Ricardo Diaz threw a towel over Idolo before the press could snap his picture. Sandokan and Diaz would then rush Idolo back to the dressing rooms to remask. When he returned, the Neco de la Guardia erupted. Their hero was back. Idolo wouldn’t accept the loss and the crowd “pardoned” him to wear his mask once more - never to lose it again. Of course, El Idolo maintains, to his dying breath, he won the hair of Olimpico that day.

As for his origins, El Idolo got his feet wet with wrestling in the late 1950s, before debuting on the national stage in March 1962 as a substitute for the slightly famous wrestler, "La Amenaza",  who no-showed an event due to stomach flu. With the promoter furious, El Idolo lavished the opportunity and asked to take his place. "If you have the equipment and mask, enter and fight," replied the promoter. The young Idolo put on a mask, took the place and name of "La Amenaza" (in English: the threat), and won. A fitting name to a wrestler who would go on to dominate the landscape for the next thirty seven years and retired holding the World Middleweight Championship, a title he first won in 1970 from the journeyman Steve Clements.

The more I read about El Idolo, the more I liken him to El Hijo del Santo in the manner in which he took his matches. What I mean by that is Idolo was a true babyface that fought adversity and persevered through pain. The audience lived and died on every blow he absorbed and every drop of blood he poured. They would hang on with bated breath for his comebacks and eventual finisher, a kneeling firemans’ carry into a piledriver. A rather inventive move he’d keep on hand whenever his opponent swooped in for their coup de grâce. This move was the ace up his sleeve and would see him victorious over many Mexican luchadores, most notably Perro Aguayo and Espectro II. It would be fitting, then, that Sergio Gálvez would go on to become his career rival. Fans would come in their thousands to watch Gálvez massacre Idolo and for their bloodsoaked hero to triumphantly fight back, despite doctors trying to restrain him and call the match off.

Unlike most other wrestlers in Panama, El Idolo made good money from the sport. One would think with its success in popularity, money would be more free-flowing but most had to see lucha libre as a hobby to pursue and not a means of making ends meet. This financial freedom allowed El Idolo to pursue a career in education where he used his position as a physical education teacher to bring “lucha libre” to schools and hoped to inspire the future generation of  wrestlers.

What most set El Idolo apart from others, though, was something that couldn’t be taught. Again, while promoters will argue between Sandokan and Idolo as the country’s biggest attraction, none seem to argue that Idolo was the most charismatic of all Panamanian luchadores. While Idolo comes off as a star in this match, I’m not sure if we quite get the full sense of how big a star he really was in this footage. That said, I’m not quite sure we should be getting the sense of anything this early into our journey. I had mentioned to Matt that a lot of these wrestlers are Olympically trained athletes. Idolo was a very successful amateur wrestler who moved to professional wrestling out of novelty alongside encouragement from Shazán. They should be skilled technicians yet it doesn’t quite play out that way in their holds. Everything seems a little light. It’s more about “appearance” than “execution”. There’s no torque as Matt puts it in his review. Nevertheless, I've also noticed that in a lot of the other South American wrestling I've watched. I don't want to give bad work a pass but I also don't want to dismiss something without knowing the whys first. It's quite the quandary I have. It’s something I hope we can pursue and understand as this journey progresses. After all, it’s naive to approach a style that is, in many ways, novel with old lenses.

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Found Footage Friday: BRAZOS~! IN~! PANAMA~! MURDOCH~! ABBY~!

Abdullah the Butcher vs. Dick Murdoch AJPW 7/14/83

MD: Past one hold and one big, earthshattering move (more on these in a minute) this is around ten minutes of great strikes, including the post-match brawling after Murdoch got sick of it all and tossed and atomic elbow smashed the ref when he tried to get in the way of revenge smashing of Abdullah in the corner. Murdoch made good use of those downwards elbows and some great standing tall punches. Abdullah is, of course, the master of the block and cut-off strike, but Murdoch managed a great block of his own early so he could start firing back with fists to the skull; he even made sure to sell his fist after a punch late in the game. Abby, on the other hand, came back with crushing headbutts and a ton of inside shots. That hold? Not the usual nervehold, but Abby wrenching on both ears at once (he'd even target an ear with shots afterwards), and that big move? After Murdoch survived the elbow, he was able to catch Abby off the rope with a slam. He hit his own elbow after, but only for two. Simple and basic and primal. Exactly what you'd want between these two.

ER: I've seen this variation of The Dick Murdoch Match so many times, and cannot see ever tiring of it. Two men punching and elbowing each other around the ring, staggering, holding their faces, throwing 90% arm strikes but never seeming to throw anything the same way twice. It's punching and throat thrusting and headbutts and 12 to 6 elbows but at no point does it turn into any kind of rhythmic exchange, it's just them knocking each other around their own private 324 square foot stage. The joy of seeing all of these punches and strikes is equal to how well each man sells these punches and strikes. Dick knew how to let each punch and elbow breathe, and Abby knew how to sell each one like it was doing the damage you'd expect. The way Abby holds his jaw, drops to his knee, teeters backward, is minimalist but all fine attention to detail. 

These are tough men, and seeing them just throw back and forth would surely be entertaining, but nowhere near as interesting as watching them take a hit, react to that hit, and try to get off a hit as a means of fending off the next one. Abby is a great counter-striker, and I love how he uses counter strikes to set up worse strikes, like slashing at Dick's throat to drop him to a knee, then rushing in with a downward aimed punch right into the ear. The whole match is moments like that, and then Murdoch throws a referee into a too-fast bump to the floor. You might say that these men don't look like athletes, and you'd be correct. But these men move like beautiful trained dancers. Mr. Narrator, this is Baryshnikov to me.  

El Idolo/Ursus/Celestial vs. Gemelo 1/Gemelo 2/El Taur Panama

MD: Winner of this match would receive a title shot against no one less than the Brazos, who had won the titles against Los Misioneras de la Muerte, so we're holding out hope that feud shows up too. Really though, all of this stuff is an amazing discovery and I'm so glad it's popping up regularly now. They had run some angles to take out Gemelo 3 on the rudo side and someone on the tecnico side to slip in some slightly bigger partners because you need some big guys against the Brazos apparently. We're starting to hit critical mass on this footage where we should have some more sense about who Celestial or Idolo were as workers. What I can tell you, and I think previous matches back this up, is that one of the Gemelos is super smooth (had a great pairing with Celestial) and the other is a huge heatseeker. Ursus was larger and played the strength card, kind of reminding me of an Ivan Putski that could move somewhat better. To put it into perspective, he won the last fall with a bearhug. That was the big triumphant moment. During the initial beatdown, the Gemelos were great in dual headbutting him.

This had initial exchanges and then broke down and stayed broken down for the rest of the match. They did a false comeback from the tecnicos to set up the finish of the first fall and then a real one in the second that just sort of seemed to go on and on. There was a ton of mask ripping, maybe some blood, and just outright chaos for ten minutes or so. The tecnico win was big and celebratory, a testament to the crowds in Panama but made all the sweeter due to the stakes of the match and the fact that they'd now be able to face the Brazos.

Los Brazos (Brazo de Plata/Brazo de Oro/El Brazo) vs. El Idolo/Celestial/Ursus

MD: As best we can tell, this is NOT the title match (even though we have the promos for that, including the Brazos being very serious and respectful) but a revancha for the tecnicos that followed. If I'm totally honest, there are things I would have liked to see just a little bit different in the third fall, but overall, this more than lived up to my expectations. This was in an outdoor stadium and you get the sense that there was a big crowd somewhere in there even if they weren't swarming the ringside area and even if we couldn't see them in the stands. They were vocal, especially when the action went way over the top. The Brazos were keen to start a riot too, rushing out of the ring at the start to stall and jaw with the fans.

After that, it was all action for the first two falls, Brazo getting an early advantage and just beating the local heroes down in a big way, using their size and the numbers game whenever they'd try to fight back. It all built to Porky crushing people off the top rope and with a huge senton (after which he lounged for the pin). The second fall kept the beatdown going. There was some crazy stuff on the outside with Oro and Idolo (who was the singles champ in Panama at this point) with Oro just chucking the stairs at him and when the comeback happened, the fans went nuts as Idolo just charged through chairs at him. Everyone seemed to want to get their hands on Oro as Celestial and Idolo both tore him apart. Speaking of tearing apart, the Brazos masks were left in tatters to the point where they were either falling off or you could just clearly see who these guys were. It was a great comeback though and the fans were up for it. 

The tercera was more straightforward, with the Brazos continuing to struggle heading towards the big revancha win. I would have liked to see more of their usual antics if they were going to go that route, or some other big moments in here (like Ursus slamming Porky maybe?), but the fans were pretty happy with what they got, including a pile on for one pin and some violent chaos at the finish. Post match there were challenges made on the mic and it's safe to say the Brazos fit right in here. Hopefully we get the title match and even more.

ER: This didn't have the sky high peaks of most vintage Brazos matches, but it revealed totally different joys just because of the different setting, different motivations, and an almost bare bones look at what made the Brazos such a perfect trios team. We even got a little look at Los Brazos doing some warm up stretches backstage before the match, and I think this entire 40 minutes of footage is worth it just to see Porky's impeccable form on his Hindu push-ups. Also, this footage reveals that Ursus looks exactly like Volador Jr., and now that we KNOW that Volador Sr. was traveling to Panama to wrestle...well, I think we can at minimum start wondering what Volador was up to down there, in the same way that Morishima made us wonder what Terry Gordy was up to during Japan tours. The primera was some classic Brazos, with the boys bullying the tecnicos all over the stadium. 

This never got to full on foreign riot levels but just knowing that Porky could have caused a Panamanian wrestling riot makes me so happy. He hits a balloon popping top rope splash on Ursus and a full weight running back splash senton, but a press slam hot shot on Celestial was probably the nastiest thing they did, and it all ruled. Brazos are a great team on offense, but I always love how they act once the tecnicos turn the tides. Suddenly you see Oro getting thrown through all of the ringside chairs, all of their masks torn and falling off, and the absolute king Porky doing the most hilarious selling of a bearhug that you've seen. Ursus holding up Porky in a bearhug is already a fun spot, but it goes on far longer than you'd think. Porky was up in the air milking all of it, waving and flapping and swimming with his arms, flying like a chubby bird and playing it all the way to the back. These boys. My heart. 

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