El Phantasmo has made history after winning the 2020 NJPW Super J-Cup, becoming the first superstar in history to win the tournament twice back-to-back.
ELP beat out both NJPW regulars and stars from IMPACT, ROH, MLW and GCW to claim the tournament’s trophy and golden jacket – defeating Lio Rush in the first round and Blake Christian in the semis before overcoming ACH in the final. This marks the second year in a row the Bullet Club member has won the Super J-Cup after he defeated Dragon Lee to win the 2019 edition of the tournament in August last year.
His victory was anything but respectable, however, as the former IWGP Jr. Tag Team Champion assaulted ACH with the tournament trophy before the opening bell and hit several finishing moves of former Bullet Club members, including the Styles Clash. ELP put the cherry atop the cake with how he ultimately attained victory though, low blowing his fellow finalist behind the referee’s back before hitting the CR2 for the win.
The disrespect continued well after the bell as ELP celebrated by destroying the Super J-Cup trophy and throwing the golden jacket on the ground, spitting on it in the process. He would then call for a microphone and call out Hiromu Takahashi, the winner of this year’s Best of the Super Juniors tournament, challenging him to a match at Wrestle Kingdom 15!
“I run this shit. This junior division is mine. But, apparently, there’s one little problem. And that’s you Mr Best of (the) Super Junior(s). Yeah, I watched last night and I know you’re watching right now and right now I have a live microphone and nobody is gonna dare tell me to stop talking.
So right now, I’m calling it: It’s me, back-to-back Super J-Cup Champion, versus you, Mr Best of (the) Super Junior(s). And you know what? I’ll see you at Wrestle Kingdom.”
oops, i did it again. #back2backpic.twitter.com/9FO6MUney3
— elp (@elpwrestling) December 13, 2020
Takahashi won Best of the Super Juniors the day before, defeating El Desperado in an intense final which saw Desperado unmask, and proclaimed he would go against the norm in challenging the Super J-Cup winner instead of the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion.
Whilst it hasn’t been officially confirmed, it seems we’re almost certainly headed for El Phantasmo Vs. Hiromu Takahashi on Night 1 of Wrestle Kingdom next month – with the winner challenging Taiji Ishimori for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship during the show’s second night.
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