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eldesperadont · 11 months

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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 👹🐱

#el desperado #hiromu takahashi #percht.txt #wrestling thoughts tm #🐱👹#njpw #desperomu #namajague #kamaitachi #mikami kyosuke

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thistledropkick · 2 years

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Sketch of Namajague after losing his hair match to Rey Cometa. I'd like to finish this and add some color to it at some point, but this is where it is for now.

#njpw #cmll #namajague #rey cometa #When my arm heals I'll draw more #For now I can only draw a little bit #thistle fanart

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crisischild92 · 1 year

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I’ve been watching Fantastica Mania 2023. I don’t follow CMLL at all but arrrrgh, the name Rey Cometa was itching at me all night! But I figured it out! Rey Cometa is the guy Namajague lost his hair to when he was on excursion!

#cmll #namajague #rey cometa #hair vs hair match #el desperado #young lion excursion

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vaporwary · 2 years

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Xue Yang.

breaking the "baby boy. baby."/"evil" binary

#mdzs tag #namajague

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elphantasmo · 3 months

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It's been a bit, eh? I'm back with a fic rec list to kick off your week! Happy reading! One Breath At A Time by pretzelduck Pairing: Naito/Jay White Words: 2,137 Rating: Teen Yours by touchthesky_andalsokentasbutt Pairing: Kenta/Shibata Words: 4,151 Rating: Explicit Did I Mistake You For A Sign From God? by synnerxx Pairing: David Finlay/Jay White Words: 1,714 Rating: Explicit Whipped Until It Got Stiff by southwesternterritory Pairing: Okada/ZSJ Words: 1,821 Rating: Explicit What A Curious Life We Have Hear Tonight by tekkers Pairings: Kenta/ZSJ, Taichi/ZSJ Words: 3,095 Rating: Explicit Our Little Remedy by namajague Pairing: Kenta/Shibata Words: 5,340 Rating: Explicit A Good Heart by pretzelduck Pairing: Shota Umino/El Phantasmo Words: 4,265 Rating: Teen even after this, you're still everything to me by raspberrypez Pairing: Shota Umino/Ren Narita Words: 3,087 Rating: Explicit Happy reading!

#fic recs list #fic recs

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mrsdespy · 2 years

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Namajague/El Desperado

#el desperado

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miloloveswrestling · 4 years

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Mascara y Cabellera vs Mascara y Cabellera STUKA JR, Y REY COMETA VS NAMAJAGUE Y OKUMURA

#namajague #apuestas #milo did dat #how can they resist the splits

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glitchingicarus · 4 years

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Clowns to the left of me

Jokers to the right

Here I am

stuck in the middle with you

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Happy belated birthday to @namajague ! A fond throwback to one of our earliest shared interests. Hope it was a great birthday!!

#Reservoir Dogs #Mr Blond #namajague #Rae's doodles

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namajague · 4 years

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The long-awaited triumphant return of Namajague! Sadly wearing contacts this year (unlike last year), and far more ferocious, but pretty much just exactly as fluffy.

Bonus:

#namajague #el desperado #fantastica mania #njpw #cmll #rasslin #fancy fight club #lucha & you!#ichiban #for ease of archiving and not because namajague is in suzuki-gun #gif #multiple gifs

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eldesperadont · 2 years

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you’re fancam made me fall in love and i don’t even know who he is

I suppose this is about my El Desperado fancam and even if not im still gonna use this to infodump about him! For anyone that saw him yesterday on Dynamite for the first time or whenever :D

El Desperado is one of NJPWs top Junior Heavyweight wrestlers and has held the belts for said weightclass several times now. He’s also one of their best talkers, deadass, i fell in love with this dude thanks to his amusing promos.

Some background info on him:

He trained and debuted in NJPWs dojo under his real name, Mikami Kyosuke, and spent a year on excursion, working for CMLL as a masked wrestler called Namajague. (and lost said mask in a match stipulation)

After that he debuted on NJPWs main roster as El Desperado (the first thing he did was gifting the jr champ a bouquet of black roses.) Despy started as a face but didnt have much success, ultimately turning heel and joining Suzuki Minorus group ‘Suzuki-gun’, learning their ruthless bastard ways.

Since then he's best known for his banger hatelove rivalry with Hiromu Takahashi (which is anything BUT straight, like seriously)

They have a 10+ year long history and some insane singles matches together which i can pretty much all recommend, my personal favourite is their BOSJ 27 Finals match (which i also made a video edit for here)

Other noteable things:

- he's in a great tag team with Yoshinobu Kanemaru, who he credits for a lot of his current success

- for the longest time he was our sad lil meow meow cause he would constantly joke about himself and allude to being a depressed drunk - after an injury he sustained in a match (and got a lot of unjustified backlash for) he came back more confident, calling his own shots, and its paying off! we love to see it

- he pretends that his CMLL persona Namajague is totally not him, that its a dude that lives in Mexico, and when CMLL/NJPWs crossover event comes around (which sadly didnt happen since the pandemic started) he performs as Namajague, its a lot of fun :)

- he’s a huge nerd. a dork even

#maybe gonna update this later #el desperado #percht.txt #njpw #flashing lights #wrestling thoughts tm

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sortofgetit · 4 years

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Character ask: Bushi.

favorite thing about them

Physically, his pretty, pretty mouth. Otherwise, his attentiveness to Naito post-match. It’s so tender & gentle.

least favorite thing about them

That headdress. I love you Mama, but no.

favorite line

I don’t think I have one. Bushi is so visual to me that images stick with me more than words for him.

brOTP

Bushi/Milano - small business owners with a crazy family gotta stick together!

OTP

Bushi/Naito…I mean…it’s Bushi & Naito. That ship sails itself.

nOTP

Truthfully the only Bushi ship that’s likely to have me backing swiftly away is Bushi/OFC.

random headcanon

When Bushi is feeling frisky he likes to sit on top of the bookshelf in their living room to greet Naito when he comes home. Naked.

unpopular opinion

I’m not sure I have one? The people I surround myself with tend to be good people who have the appropriate level of love & affection for Mama, therefore if there are folks out there whose opinions of Bushi differ to my own, I am unaware of their existence :D

song i associate with them

I’m useless for this :) my brain doesn’t function in terms of music, except in the rarest of circumstances. A perfect glossy black manicure or some gaudy jewellery or a flashy print fabric is more likely to make me think “Ah, Bushi” and sigh.

favorite picture of them

Quite fond of this one…