NJPW Super J-Cup profiles: El Phantasmo, Robbie Eagles

We’re taking a look at each competitor in this year’s Super J-Cup, hosted by NJPW and produced by Jushin “Thunder” Liger. The tournament takes place in Tacoma, WA on August 22 and San Fransisco and Long Beach, CA on August 24 and 25. The events will be available on njpwworld.com.

El Phantasmo

Tacoma, WA, where Night 1 of this year’s Super J-Cup will be, is just under four hours south of El Phantasmo’s original haunt in Vancouver, BC. It was there where he broke out as a local star for ECCW before moving over to Revolution Pro Wrestling in the UK in 2017. In RevPro, he won last year’s tenable equivalent to the Super J-Cup, RPW’s British J-Cup. Before the finals, where he beat Rich Swann, KUSHIDA and Rocky Romero in a four-way, he went through Bandido and 2019 Super J-Cup producer, Jushin “Thunder” Liger.

May was a scorcher for the Canadian dubstep ghost: He debuted for NJPW at this year’s Best of the Super Juniors 26 tournament as the newest member of Bullet Club and tore through his first five opponents before falling to Rocky Romero in a critically-acclaimed match that went close to 30 minutes. While he didn’t win the tournament, he did make a huge impression on the NJPW fanbase, especially with his final BOSJ victory over Will Ospreay another outstanding match at Korakuen Hall before the tour was over and he’d positioned himself as a serious player with the company.

Aside from an inevitable rematch with Ospreay for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight title later on this year, the Super J-Cup is something that’d skyrocket him into plain view of the wrestling mainstream, if he wasn’t quite yet there already. To get there, though, he has to get past ex-Bullet Club mate, Robbie Eagles.

Robbie Eagles

The Aussie sensation made his debut with New Japan last Fall, but it was with the Bullet Club faction, not CHAOS, which he’s joined just recently, and the pyramid angle between him, El Phantasmo and Will Ospreay has defined who Eagles is just as much as his high amount of in-ring skill. According to NJPW’s website, the story between the three starts like this:

"Last year, Will Ospreay had invited Eagles to join him in Japan and Chaos by way of passing him the Japanese flag from his Wrestling tights. Eagles decided to accept his offer to come to Japan, but decided to throw his lot in with the villainous BULLET CLUB. Robbie Eagles has always been somewhat of an odd fit in BULLET CLUB, the proud Australian is known for his sportsmanlike behaviour and his mentorship of young Australian talent. Eagles saw success in the Best of Super Jr. tour and was more than happy to help his fellow stablemates achieve victory in the ring, he has rarely, if ever been part of the stable’s more notorious antics."

Storyline tension between El Phantasmo and Eagles arose after the former debuted this spring. ELP’s attitude was said to have changed and Eagles grew tired of him and the rest of Bullet Club acting like delinquents, plus there was the narrative that that Eagles was being outshined and overlooked by Phantasmo, who’d recently won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team titles with Taiji Ishimori instead of Eagles.

The Bullet Club drama boiled over in Melbourne, Australia at NJPW’s Southern Showdown, where Will Ospreay made his first IWGP Junior Heavyweight title defense against Eagles in his hometown. It was Ospreay’s challenge, which saw El Phantasmo lose his mind with jealousy, which led to him interfering in their match and later Eagles leaving Bullet Club to join CHAOS.

There’s a lot more story here than in any of the other matches at the tournament this weekend, but that doesn’t mean that these two won’t tear the house down together. With the drama combined with the prestige of a tournament like the J-Cup, it makes for a hell of a first round match-up.