El Phantasmo Says He’ll Work a Different Style When NJPW Returns, Talks Possible Match With Shingo Takagi

El Phantasmo spoke with NJPW for a new interview discussing what his plans are for when NJPW returns to action and more.

El Phantasmo on working a different style when he returns: “Nobody mentions that mentally, everyone is going to be so excited to finally get back in there that it doesn’t take a big outlandish statement. It wouldn’t surprise me if I beat people in under a minute out there because I’ve been doing the mental homework, watching footage, wrestling smarter. I’ll be wrestling a different style when I’m back, because the style will have to change when we are back … When you wrestle five days a week, your body builds up a certain pain tolerance. I haven’t jumped off the tope rope for weeks, so for everyone taking that first dive, that first flip back, there’ll be a moment’s hesitation there. And people’s pain tolerance will take a while to build up. You won’t see those big fighting spirit moments, guys getting hit and roaring right back.”

El Phantasmo on how he plans to adapt to that: “Well for instance, I can’t wait to beat people with superkicks. I’ve been going out in my backyard and superkicking trees as hard as I can. My aim and power are through the roof. When I hit that first kick, it’s gonna knock people out cold.”

On what his focus will be when NJPW returns: “Well, it’s easy to say I want to go after Hiromu (Takahashi) and the singles title. I haven’t won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship, and I want to cement myself as one of the best in the world. But … Before all of this virus stuff happened, he was going to wrestle (Tetsuya) Naito, right? And that match is almost certainly going to happen at some point … Hiromu is crazy enough that he could make all of that happen and win. He could well be IWGP Junior Heavyweight and Heavyweight Champion. So it makes more sense for me to wait until Hiromu’s stock is at its highest, and then face him.

On his praise of Takahashi: “It would be ignorant of me not to acknowledge his accomplishments. I can admit that Hiromu’s comeback was nothing short of a miracle, that he is charismatic, talented in the ring and the people love him. But everyone knows I can match his craziness, and then some.”

On a possible match with Shingo Takagi: “I’d be interested, but only if the title was truly Openweight. That’s what it should be to me; only ever junior heavyweights versus heavyweights. That hasn’t happened since I’ve been around … through my whole career before New Japan, I’ve wrestled against heavyweights. There’s plenty of dream matches you could put together with me and a heavyweight opponent. If Shingo makes this a true heavyweight championship, then yeah, count me in.”

On Will Ospreay moving to heavyweight: “Well, I can’t stand the guy, but I think it’s the right call for him to make. He had pretty much done all that there is to do as a junior heavyweight wrestler, and he put on enough size to make that jump … he’s ambitious, but at the end of the day, he’s going to get his ass kicked by the heavyweights now and that’s going to be almost as much fun as kicking his ass myself.”