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El Desperado Says It Hurt That He Wasn’t Involved in Jushin Liger’s Retirement

April 14, 2020 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas
Jushin Liger WWE Hall of Fame

El Desperado isn’t happy that he wasn’t involved in Jushin Liger’s retirement. Desperado spoke with NJPW for a new interview discussing the situation and more; you can check out some highlights below:

On Liger naming Hiromu Takahashi as the person he wanted to face in his retirement match: “Maybe this isn’t what somebody of my generation wouldn’t normally say, and maybe people won’t like hearing this, but I’m of the opinion that the top guy in a Japanese promotion needs to be a Japanese wrestler. After Hiromu Takahashi beat Will Ospreay on January 4, and became the champion, I was OK with him being opposite Liger on the fifth. But Ryu Lee, after he talked himself into that match? That had me mad … [it’s] Jealousy, really. I understood the logic: Liger and Naoki Sano vs Takahashi and Lee, two teams of rivals. I get that. But I don’t think it was particularly interesting. I’m not saying that I would have wanted to tag with Takahashi or anything like that, but I just think it hurt, not being involved in Liger’s retirement. It still hurts today. Maybe it always will. ”

On Taichi winning the NEVER Openweight Championship: “Taichi can do a lot of things that I can’t. I don’t know whether it’s all deliberate or something innate he doesn’t think about, but he’s always in the right place at the right time. That isn’t him deliberately making himself stick out, it’s a natural ability he has to draw eyes to him.”