Martín Rodríguez (April 24, 1968 – October 12, 2020), better known by the ring name Espantito (Spanish for "Little Terror" or "Little Scare"), was a Mexican luchador enmascarado (or masked professional wrestler) working in the Mini-Estrella ("Mini-Star") division. Working in the Mini-Estrella division does not automatically mean that Espantito had dwarfism as several wrestlers who are just shorter in stature work in the "Mini" division. As a luchador enmascarado, Espantito's real name was not a matter of public record, but it was revealed upon his death in 2020.
Espantito made his professional wrestling debut in 1993 and was allowed to use a version of the Espanto mask and name with permission of the only surviving Espanto, Espanto III. He worked primarily on the Mexican independent circuit, but also worked for AAA, one of Mexico's largest professional wrestling promotions.
Personal life
Martín Rodríguez was born on April 25, 1968, in Torreón, Coahuila, Mexico. Growing up in Torreón he became a wrestling fan at a young age, often watching local wrestlers Espanto II and Espanto III wrestle in his hometown. In a 1999 interview he remarked that while his friends would cheer the técnicos (the faces, those that portray the "good guys") while he personally always favored the rudos (those that portray the bad guys, also known as "Heels"). While he wanted to become a luchador, it was hard for him to find a trainer willing to train someone of his diminutive stature, standing only in his teens. His younger brother Raymundo also worked as a luchador, under the ring name Piratita Morgan.
He had two children with his wife and settled in City Heights, San Diego, where he owned a landscaping business. In September 2020, Rodríguez was admitted to Sharp Memorial Hospital, after being treated for pneumonia and then tested positive for COVID-19. He died on October 12, aged 52.
Classification as a Mini-Estrella
While the wrestler known as Espantito was known as a Mini-Estrella ("Mini-Star") it does not indicate that Espantito had Dwarfism. Unlike midget wrestling where all competitors are under the height of , Mini-Estrellas are often wrestlers of shorter stature such as Espantito at , but not true little people in a medical sense.
Professional wrestling career
Due to the secretive culture around masked wrestlers in Lucha libre Espantito's real name was not a matter of common knowledge, nor has it been revealed if he worked under a different ring name before he made his in-ring debut as Espantito. It has been confirmed that Espantito trained in his native Torreón, Coahuila under the tutelage of Edgardo Cisneros Díaz, better known as Espanto II and also received further training from Indio Chirikawa. In the early 1990s the Mini-Estrella concept was introduced in Mexico, featuring not just midget wrestling but also wrestlers who were short in stature. A lot of these new Mini-Estrellas used the same ring character as regular sized wrestlers such as Octagoncito being a smaller version of Octagón. Due to his short stature, , the future Espantito became a natural fit in the Mini-Estrellas division and was given permission by his trainer to start working as a smaller version of Los Espantos ("The Terrors") and became known as El Espantito, wearing the signature black mask with a white cross on it popularized by Espanto I, Espanto II and Espanto III as well as the same black-and-white ring gear of the originals. As Espantito he was one of the first competitors in the newly created Asistencia Asesoría y Administración's (AAA) Mini-Estrella division. Most of AAA's Mini-Estrella division consisted of luchadors that had followed AAA founder Antonio Peña from Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), where some of the Mini-Estrellas changed their name and mask due to the larger version of the character not jumping to AAA at the time. One example was Super Muñequito, who was working as "Angelito Azteca" in CMLL, but had to change his name as Ángel Azteca did not leave CMLL. It has not been revealed if Espectrito also worked in the CMLL Mini-Estrella division at the time of the AAA exodus.