El Desperado Says He’s Not a Freelancer, Clarifies NJPW Contract Status

El Desperado has shot down report that he’s a freelancer and not under NJPW contract. It was reported in late June by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Desperado was a free agent and working in NJPW without contracts. In a new interview with NJPW’s website, he stated this was “BS” and offered further clarification.

“Dave Meltzer wrote something like ‘Desperado is a freelancer so he can take all these outside bookings’, which was absolute BS,” Desperado said. “When you have NJPW wrestlers go out to these other companies, there’s some cross promotion involved there, there’s an acknowledgement and a little bit of publicity on NJPW’s end. To an extent, from a promoter’s standpoint, that publicity is part of my payoff, that they’re able to book ‘NJPW star El Desperado’. NJPW’s name value there is as, or more, important than my own, so to go about and take that branding away from me for no reason stank.”

Desperado has worked for several promotions outside of NJPW in 2023 including ROH, CMLL, and more.