#wrestler: el desperado

[majorheelturn]

it’s here it’s here!

it’s @wrestlebang time and though the last month or so has been…. a challenge…. I got the best kind of escape through writing one of my favorite pairs of mutual pining dorks, El Desperado and Zack Sabre Jr.

I can’t wait for you all to see the absolute brilliance that @mellivora came up with- I was BLESSED to get connected with an artist who loves these two and was willing to talk NJPW D&D classes on the side.

for now, enjoy the drama, the submission holds as kink, and the pining to fluff pipeline.

heaven help a fool who falls in love

el desperado/zack sabre jr

10,589 words & outtakes to follow

[ekmsoldier]

[thistledropkick]

The poster reads "This summer, instead of college credits, I want you. I'll be waiting, in Ryogoku" And at the bottom it says "Masada Takeshi - college student wrestler"

Masada's tweet says

"I'm real sorry! But I'd actually rather have the college credits."

Despe: "ahhh I'm feeling so attacked right nowwww"

Masada:

"I'm embarrassed to admit it but , , My priority really is earning college credits , , ,"

Despe:

"But four years of college should be enough

I'm doing just fine with about half a year"

Masada:

"That was my plan too but, well, I'm already a 4th year student, I'm running out of time, and I'm stressing out lol"

Despe:

". . . . there's still the second semester! You've got time!"

Masada:

"Am I gonna have to get as many credits as possible in the second semester too? 🤮🤮"

Chris:

"He's our enemy right now, so quit being disloyal and stop flirting with this man"

Masada:

"ah , , ! , ! , !"

[arcadebroke]

[dynamitekansai]

ElDesperado5: これでお渡し会かな

[orange-catsidy]

hesitantly...

[allelitewrestlings]

Desperado, you’re gonna be in Korakuen Hall on July 4th and 5th?

[mostbelovednjpwtournament]

Most Beloved NJPW Wrestler Tournament

[wrestlingmgc]

Campeones de Parejas de la Arena Coliseo del CMLL La Fiebre Amarilla

[bareee]

Morning stretch

Yal can thank El desperado the wrestler for this idea, started out with ‘Itd be funny if Mark could do the splits like that’ , then went down the rabbit hole of who else could in the group. I could see just about everyone bein able to get down….except one XD

[tzaraat]

[image ID: a coloured-pencil sketch, with four square panels depicting El Desperado and Chris Brookes in a match. the four panels are of varying size, and are arranged along a diagonal from the top-right corner to the bottom-left, with the two bottom panels stacked one on top of the other to form a larger rectanble.

the top panel depicts Desperado and Brookes standing face-to-face, Brookes on the right and Desperado on the left, against a yellow background. both wrestlers' faces are bloody.

the middle panel is largest, and depicts Desperado's chest as it is stapled by Brookes. Brookes' hand, pressing the stapler to Desperado's chest, is visible on the left side of the panel. the stapler, as well as the tape on Brookes' arm and fingers, are left blank. Desperado's chest is bloody.

the bottom two panels each contain a portrait of brookes, one against a yellow background and the other against light-blue. in both he looks straight ahead, and his face is bloody.

all drawings are rendered in light, vibrant colours, with the darkest shadows appearing as a mid-tone grey and highlights dominating. /.End ID}

fires will sometimes burn cold.

[eldesperadont]

hello and welcome to the start of my rough Despe/Hiromu recap essay! I'll go over their history in relation to one another. A big reason for this recap is to explain my fascination with the 10+ year long history of these characters, and why I, a queer person, is so drawn to it — this post will include links, spoilers and cover the first 9 years of their careers. If you have corrections or additional infos pls DM me!!

egg, (2010-2012)

Hiromu Takahashi and El Desperado started their pro wrestling training around the same time in NJPWs dojo – both passing NJPW's entry exam in 2009 and training for roughly a year till they officially debuted in 2010.

Desperado in March under his real name, Mikami Kyōsuke, and Hiromu later in August. And here we already have some key moments:

Takahashi's professional debut was a singles match against Mikami. (its on YouTube btw)

Despe's first ever singles victory was defeating Hiromu in said debut match.

Mikami is older and ahead of Takahashi, going on to have an impressive winning record over Hiromu, who only managed to get a sole victory over Despe during their time together as students. (two if you count in a dark match)

Hiromu genuinely struggled a lot as a Young Lion (dojo trainee), having been close to giving up on wrestling if it weren’t for main roster wrestler Tetsuya Naito, who took him under his wing.

So yeah starting off Despe had the upper hand.

This part of their career is the hardest to research given that 1.) the language barrier was way higher a decade ago, 2.) there straight up is barely any footage. So instead, I want to explain the emotional importance of the NJPW dojo background:

The time as Young Lions in NJPW is kayfabe canon. These guys are rivals but also teammates, live and train together, fight with/and each other, cheer each other on in their bouts with the seniors, carry each other to the back when they once again got beaten – these guys are close, they have to, it's them against the world.

And that is the case for pretty much all the homegrown NJPW talent. This system provides feuds with an emotional core; why would someone who was that close be so cruel to each other now? What turns brothers, best friends, partners into enemies? So much room for juicy rivalries with a real weight behind it, after all we watched these guys grow and learn, saw their highs and lows.

Also on a less serious note it's simply amusing to watch old stuff and see two guys that will be bitter rivals, who’s matches will get praise and awards - tag together in mostly fruitless efforts, stumble behind the curtain together and be so clueless about all the greatness they’ll achieve one day thanks to each others hard work.

Young Lions my beloved <3

oceans apart, (2012-2016)

As is custom with most Young Lions both went on excursion: Mikami graduating first, in 2012, and working in Mexico for a year as "Namajague" - Hiromu leaving Japan the year Desperado debuts on the New Japan main roster, in 2014, touring in Mexico and the US as "Kamaitachi" till August 2016.

Both worked in CMLL as heels, as is custom for foreign trainees, starting as masked wrestlers, loosing them in a stipulation match, and also getting their hair shaved at some point.

Here you have unmasked Namajague, who went on to rock a half facepaint look and had half of his hair bleached (in 2014, a trendsetter)

and here you got a young unmasked Kamaitachi (yes he was in a team with Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian in RoH)

These are the years Mikami and Hiromu don’t interact in canon, but in an 2020 interview Desperado confessed that he kept an eye on Takahashi during the latter's excursion, cause of his success in Middle/North America and spectacular matches with Dragon Lee.

Love confessions, (May - June 2018)

Their rivalry was fully rekindled in the “Best of the Super Juniors 25” tournament, so let’s set the scene:

Takahashi’s successful: having won the most important championship for their weight division in his first year on the main roster. He’s beloved by fans and critics and a valuable member of his mentor's faction, Los Ingobernables de Japon.

El Desperado is struggling: unsuccessfully having fought for singles titles several times in the last couple of years. His only championship victories so far having been in the tag division, after joining Suzuki-gun, a shady group that tolerates him, but not without hurdles. The masked man debuted in 2013 as a cheerful honourable guy, but by now he was just a bitter, sinister bastard.

They will have their first singles meeting in 6 years, and their first on the main roster.

They are winking and nodding towards the fact that Desperado already has several wins over the younger guy, but do not address who Despy really is - officially Mikami Kyōsuke hasn’t wrestled in New Japan ever since he left for Mexico.

Leading up to the BOSJ Hiromu made a booklet in which he describes all of his possible opponents, Desperado's page is kept blank at first, but later Takahashi adds “I know who you are, and I hate you.”

Despy wants to impress Hiromu. He was one half of the IWGP Jr. Tag champs at that point and took both belts with him to the ring - he's also wearing a special mask, that is mostly white, a colour Japanese wrestlers tend to only wear on special occasions/in big matches.

A lot has changed since they last fought 1 on 1 - except one thing: Hiromu cannot beat Desperado.

Both didn’t shy away from using dirty tricks, but in the end Despy has the upper hand once more. As his opponent lays defeated in the ring the masked menace has this to say:

(postmatch promo) (the match)

Hiromu will go on to win the tournament and IWGP Jr. Heavyweight belt from Will Ospreay at the 2018 Dominion show, but the loss to his fellow former Young Lion means that the latter has the right to challenge him, and so he does, in this now infamous promo.

please watch the whole thing: link

(funfact, this happened the same night Kenny won the IWGP Heavyweight Title with Ibushi in his corner, the gays were EATING that day, in pride month no less)

Leading up to their confrontation Hiromu would post a video on his twitter playing the 'love me/not' flower game, landing on "he loves me" - which promptly makes him eat the flower in frustration

On the day of their match, June 18 2018, he brings Desperado a present:

A bouquet in a guitar case, a cruel call back to Desperados main roster debut back in early 2014: after Kota Ibushi won the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight belt at Wrestle Kingdom 8 a masked stranger approached the ring with a guitar case, revealing it to carry a bouquet of black roses for the freshly crowned champ (who was a lil confused by the whole situation)

It was the start of Despes unsuccessful run as a face and partnership with Ibushi (which you can read as the first man he tried to pursue).

The masked lad wasn't that fond of Hiromu bringing back old memories.

Their match is an all out war, both using underhanded tactics to keep the other one down, including Hiromu unmasking Despy, who shockingly doesn’t care at all - which is a huge deal, I'm going to quote Japanese NJPW commentator Milano here because he said it best:

“To a masked wrestler that’s your identity. It’s everything. But Desperado has it ripped off and then just puts it on like he was fixing his necktie. He was saying that this very essence of himself wasn’t as important as Hiromu or the belt." (translation by Chris Charlton)

But in the end Hiromu is victorious, finally ending his losing streak. After the match he has some interesting things to say:

(postmatch promo) (the match)

Life’s a b*tch. (mid 2018 - late 2019)

Hiromu's next title defence is in August 2018 in the USA against Dragon Lee, a match I still haven't been able to watch and probably never will. Due to a messed up move from his opponent, Hiromu lands hard on his neck, breaking it in the process. He somehow managed to finish the match but collapsed backstage, immediately being rushed to a hospital.

In the documentary RED HEADED REVIVAL Hiromu shared that he knew right away that something was wrong – he saw his life flash before his eyes and feared that this is the end of his career, but he decided against stopping the fight:

It took Hiromu over a year to fully recover.

That wasn't the only unfortunate incident though: in spring of 2019 Desperado broke his jaw in a deathmatch against his idol Jun Kasai. The timing couldn't have been worse: the highly anticipated BOSJ Tournament for that year being just about to start. Despe had to withdraw mere days before its opening.

Neither of them would make a return till late 2019. And their next actual confrontation wouldn’t be till 2020.

It was a sad time to be a fan of either - with Hiromu we didn't know till his return if he will even be able to wrestle again. And with Despy we had to witness fans being unnecessarily rude to him, ridiculing him about doing a deathmatch in the first place, eventho the injury could have occurred in any type of match. (if I remember correctly, Desperado even deleted his twitter due to the fan backlash)

BUT I'm gonna end this post on a good note:

1.) Despy's return marked the start of a new era for him:

He wasn't gonna apologise, he broke his jaw, so what? Shit happens. He wasn't going to pretend that the situation didn't happen either tho, hell - Despe returned in a shirt covered in blood spots, making direct references to the match he got injured in. (sth he talked about in this video) And his mask? Dons a fractured jawbone now, the cracks filled in with gold - reminiscent of kintsugi, a Japanese method for repairing broken ceramics with a special lacquer mixed with gold, silver, or platinum. The philosophy behind the technique is to recognize the history of the object and to visibly incorporate the repair into the new piece instead of disguising it.

2.) Hiromu wasn't giving up on his way of life either, making a spectacular return - the best was yet to come. Individually and together/against each other.

Stay tuned for the next part, that will absolutely also take me ages to finally put out, I'm apologising in advance,, anyways thx bye!! <3 👹🐱

[smarkinfested]

A little Pride Month celebration I finished just in time for the end of Pride Month. (I posted it on twitter but not here. Whoops.) Five wrestlers I haven't drawn yet and our very own queer icon El Desperado. Done in ohuhu markers and coloured pencils.

[thistledropkick]

Desperado is doing a book signing event in a popular nerd bookstore tomorrow, along with Hikaru Sato, a fellow student of Suzuki's. Hikaru Sato is well known for his love of dressing up in maid dresses, sweater dresses, and so on, and he's been trying to convince Desperado to dress up in some kind of similar outfit since last year when Desperado's photo book was originally announced.

Desperado's been tweeting about trying to decide on an outfit for the event, and has listed a variety of options, but it seems like he plans to keep it a surprise until the actual book signing. But he tweeted this today:

Despe:

I happened to see a video that said something like "Before going to bed tonight, make sure you did your best all day!"

The first thing I thought of was "I have to buy some underwear that I'm okay with people seeing for tomorrow's book signing"

Tomorrow, which will it be

[sircrayons]

Pablo Paredes is the son of the famous Luchador Heptágono who died during his prime and was adopted by his Tio Benito (Ring name: El Dado) and his Tia Maria. Tio Benito stopped wrestling after an injury that left him unable to wrestle ever again, and Pablo took the mantle of being the Paredes wrestler under the shadow and expectations of his father and the guidance of the retired El Dado. He took the ring name of La Araña because hes the 8th wrestler in the family line (Spiders: eight legs), his late father was the 7th wrestler so he was named Heptágono (Heptagon: 7 sides), and Benito was the 6th so his name was El Dado (Dice: Six faces)

Tried to jampack this design with a lot of detail, the main inspirations bring El Desperado, Templario, and Mistico, so I hope you like it cause i overthinked the hell out of it.

[chucktaylors]

The NJPW fanbase is dying out, and as a primarily AEW fan that got really into NJPW a couple of months ago, heres a couple of NJPW wrestlers I recommend watching/stanning!!

TJP

- Member of United Empire

- One half of the tag team Catch 2/2, with Francesco Akira

- Also known as The Aswang

- Known for a high flying, flexible, flip-based style of wrestling

DRILLA MOLONEY

- Member of Bullet Club: War Dogs

- 44' Calibre

- Usually seen tagging with Clark Conners

- IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion (2nd reign)

- Former United Empire member

CLARK CONNERS

- Member of Bullet Club: War Dogs

- 100 proof

- Usually seen tagging with Drilla Moloney

- IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion (2nd reign)

- Cowboy 🤘🏼

GABE KIDD

- Member of Bullet Club: War Dogs

- Im a mad man, dont ya know?

- Known for his hardcore matches and insane/mad/angry personality and style pf wrestling

- Strong Openweight Champion (1st reign)

DAVID FINLAY

- Leader/creator of Bullet Club: War Dogs

- IWGP Global Heavyweight Champion (record setting 2nd reign)

- Beat Ospreay and Jon for the first reign of the IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship

- Sent Will Ospreay out of NJPW, alongside the War Dogs and United Empire

ROBBIE EAGLES

- Member of TMDK (The Mighty Dont Kneel)

- Sniper of the Skies

- Former member of Bullet Club and CHAOS

- Australian Style

El Phantasmo

- ELP

- The HDBNGR (head banger)

- 1/2 of G.o.D with Hikuleo

- He's literally put me on blast before on his story for editing him to songs he doesnt like then we beefed then he wished me happy birthday the next day.

- Former Strong Openweight Tag Team Champion (just lost it like 2 days ago)

- He has an LED jacket and the LED glasses down there on Desperado, he's pretty swag ig

HIRMOU TAKAHASHI

- NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Champion, alongside Bushi and Yota Tsuji

- Timebomb

- Known for his stuffed animal cats, "Daryl"

- Lowk mentally deranged but look how cool his hair and gear is

- He means no harm, rlly

EL DESPERADO

- Former 3 time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion

- Winner of the recent Best Of the Super Juniors

- Former member of Suzuki-gun

- Also means no harm, rlly