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: Solar! Antorcha! Galvez! JOE Panther!

Solar/Antorcha vs. Sergio Galvez/Joe Panther

MD: This was a very complete match, one that really stands on its own outside of any project, and one that feels like home for anyone familiar with classic lucha trios structure, albeit with a few wrinkles. Galvez was as wild as ever, the kind of guy who would stall and beg off but then will run up and knee you like it's nothing and that will even dash into an incoming chairshot to try to get under it and tackle you. Just a rudo's rudo. Panther was a game partner, looking unassuming as could be, like Panther just happened to be his last name, but he'd also bite you in the eye at a moment's notice. Maybe most importantly, they were up for taking all of Antorcha (black mask with a torch on it) and Solar's tecnico offense:  tricked out armdrags, dropkicks back into the corner or out of the ring, and these awesome labored piece-by-piece quebradoras.

This started with a rudo ambush prevented by Antorcha, leading to a quick tecnico fall. The exchanges that followed were enjoyable, including Galvez crashing again and again into his own partner as Solar ran circles around him. Solar flew a little too close to the sun with a celebratory back headspring after knocking Panther out and Galvez ambushed him, starting the beatdown. This was chaotic, with Galvez beating Solar around ringside, and lasted all the way through the segunda and into the tercera. The moment of comeback itself was as much about Antorcha recovering enough to turn it from 2 on 1 to 2 on 2, but the revenge that followed was enjoyable. These matches tend to be indoor track stadiums, giving loads of room to brawl all over the outside. Here it led to the image of Solar swinging a chair all over the place. While the quick primera might have felt a little out of place to contemporaneous matches in Mexico, the fact they settled in, even after the heat and carnage, into some fun mat exchanges and tandem spots is one of those eternal old lucha quirks.

Of course, this being Panama, they weren’t afraid to lean hard into the heat at the end, with Galvez and Panther switching a chain (or something along those lines) between one another and taking out first Antorcha and then, as he was searching the wrong rudo, Solar as well. But being Panama, it didn’t end there either. The last image we have of the match is the tecnicos fighting back after their loss and the wrestlers pairing off for swinging chair battles.  

GB: In some ways, this was the best possible entry point into this project. It’s very much a Mexican trios formula with the odd trope or two to give us a little glance into what Panama brings to the table. Also, while we have a familiar name in Solar, it’s a role for him in something we’re not quite accustomed to.

This would be Solar’s second visit to Panama and was in July 1986 (though I’m a little iffy on the year). Despite his youthful age, he had been mostly successful in his prior visit, taking local legend Chamaco Castro’s hair in 1979. However, if rumors are to be believed, he would also go on to lose his mask at some point during this stopover. If true, this would make him one of quite a few Mexican luchadores that would lose in an apuesta despite never doing so until much later in their home country (I know Sandokán claimed to have taken Fishman and one of the Villanos amongst others by this point). Regardless, this time, Solar was treated as a big deal. Not as an invader for the local hero to conquer but a foreign idol for attending locals to cross off their bucket list of must see stars.

Perhaps none better to play foil to Solar, then, was Sergio Gálvez. Having debuted in April 1972 as a tecnico under the mask/character of Penado 14, he was given an ultimatum, seemingly much to his chagrin, by promoter Sammy De La Guardia that he would be “Sergio Gálvez”, a rudo, “tómalo o tómalo” (take it or leave it). This would come as Sergio’s best career advice as he adapted to the role like a natural. Source upon source, memory upon memory, remembers Sergio most fondly as “el rudo del rudos” (or, more affectionately to the term than we’re used to, “the most badass of all badasses”). From what I’ve read (and pictures I’ve seen), Gálvez was a bloodthirsty psychopath not unwilling to maim and destroy his opponents with anything on hand.

We get a little taste of it in this match, but this is more a stooging, almost chickenshit Gálvez than the one I had grown accustomed to reading about. Though, I get it. This would be the catalyst to the Gálvez/Solar feud - a tag match that introduced the “best of” Solar to the crowd and whetted the appetite for more. A week after this tag was a “super libre sinárbitro” (no rules, no referee) singles match that I’m sure dialled the violence up. Here’s hoping that drops at some point.

As for the match, it’s more Solar playing dress-up in the “What Would Santo Do?” role. What I mean by that is this is Solar almost beyond what we really know him for. We have a mask match or two, but nothing quite with him playing so far from underneath as this endearing crowd favourite unafraid of getting his mask ripped and taking the fight to his enemy.  Gone are his graceful holds and intricate matwork. Here, Solar is the traveling hero técnico that, quite literally a week later, kissed babies and took care of the sick at the local hospital. Yet, all the while, he was ready to smash a head or two in with a chair after provocation. I was left a little underwhelmed by him in the hair match vs Gálvez but he was more than on point here.

Speaking of the rudos, Panther and Gálvez were long-time partners by now so everything was probably old hat for them. However, the quickness in setting up the opening comedy spots was quite surreal in how flawlessly it was executed. Just beautifully done and made Solar immediately look like a big deal. I’d prefer to avoid going into detail about the match intricacies as I think Matt handles that much better than I could, but I do want to also highlight how the cut offs and beatdowns were meticulously cunning and brutal. There really was a sense that this could have happened in El Toreo or Arena Mexico to much the same effect as it had on the fans here. If you’re a fan of Los Infernales, then you’re most likely going to be a fan of Panther/Gálvez. As the match rolled on, they really did look like the duo some would say terrorized Panama in the 80s and 90s.

The project on an almost daily basis continues to surprise me with novelty finds but I’m probably too far from hoping that there’s a lost Pirata Morgan vs Sergio Gálvez bloodbath hidden in the doldrums of TVC Deportes’ archives. No matter, we have plenty more Gálvez to comb through and a little more Solar to cover. We’ve been blessed enough.

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