El Phantasmo wins NJPW Super J-Cup, challenges Liger

“The Headbanga” takes home his first big tournament win in New Japan and parlays it into a Wrestle Kingdom challenge against the legendary Jushin “Thunder” Liger.

The 2019 edition of the New Japan Super J-Cup took place across three different cities on the west coast of the United States and featured 16 wrestlers from six different countries.

The finals of the tournament, set in Los Angeles at The Walter Pyramid, saw Bullet Club member El Phantasmo taking on former IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Dragon Lee. Phantasmo, a relative newcomer to NJPW, had beaten Robbie Eagles, TJ Perkins and finally Will Ospreay to get to the finals and he had cut some corners, with the help of Taiji Ishimori, to get there. Lee had beaten Yoh, Ryusuke Taguchi and Caristico to find himself at the finals and he had won all his matches cleanly.

After a hellacious 25-minute match with many twists and turns, Phantasmo was able to secure the victory and win the 2019 edition of the Super J Cup.

ELP was not satisfied in just winning the tournament, though, as he ended up kicking the trophy and challenged Jushin “Thunder” Liger to a match, possibly at Wrestle Kingdom.

Liger is set to retire at Wrestle Kingdom in January, so a match against a rising star in the junior division like ELP makes sense as a “passing the torch” moment.

Phantasmo’s direction is a little unclear now as he looks to be starting a program with Liger while also continuing his feud with Ospreay. But one thing is for certain, and that is NJPW is pushing Phantasmo to the forefront with his involvement in both these programs.

Many people were not super enthused with Phantasmo winning the tournament, as in a post-show promo he called Ospreay “The Autistic Assassin” which many people found to be an inappropriate insult. Hopefully ELP learns from this moment as he is set to be a big player in NJPW going forward, as slip-ups like that will do nothing but damage his prospering career.