El Phantasmo And Hikuleo Discuss How They Came To Be Tag Team Partners
El Phantasmo and Hikuleo discuss how they came to be tag team partners and the bond they have struck up.
El Phantasmo and Hikuleo discuss how they came to be tag team partners and the bond they have struck up.
Following his banishment from The Bullet Club earlier this year, El Phantasmo appeared to be in a form of limbo. However, as his run in this years G1 Climax came to an end, it would be revealed that he had now aligned himself with the Guerillas of Destiny. In particular, Hikuleo who ELP teamed with back in September, has been the Canadian’s partner as the pair captured the NJPW STRONG Tag Team Championships on October 30th.
While speaking to Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp, the two men would discuss how El Phantasmo came to be aligned with the Guerillas of Destiny following his removal from The Bullet Club. The two men revealed that the pairing came as a surprise to both of them.
EL PHANTASMO: “Well, to be very honest, I don’t think either of us expected it. Literally we did the whole G1 where I had no friends, got kicked out of Bullet Club, was a little sad. The Tongans came and picked me up and took me to [Yakiniku] and invited me into their family. We were all under the assumption that it was going to be ELP and the G.O.D. and it was literally Ryogoku show or something that, it was right before the match, they were like, ‘Oh, we’re not going to play ELP’s music. We’re just gonna play G.O.D.’s music.’ I was like, ‘Oh,that’s interesting.’ Then we got into the ring, and they’re like, ‘And in the Guerillas of Destiny, El Phantasmo.’ We kinda looked at each other
like, ‘Oh, shit. They just put us in G.O.D. together without even telling us.’ We have teamed up together back in England and RevPro and stuff, so we do have that chemistry. But that kinda came out of nowhere for both of us.”HIKULEO: “Yeah, and we’re two completely different wrestlers from 2019 when we were both in RevPro. So four years ago. Huge difference from then, too.”
SEAN ROSS SAPP: “Is El Phantasmo invited to the holidays—like the Thanksgivings and stuff like that—now?”
HIKULEO: “Of course. I got the Tongan passport ready for him to come on over. We gotta get him the tribal tattoo on the side right quick and then he’s in. He’s already in, man. He’s already in. We’re just waiting for him to come on over and have some extra horse.”
SEAN ROSS SAPP: “I wanna see the rope walk with the Tongan DeathGrip. That’s what I want to see. I want to see some evolution in some of that. I was a fan of the Tongan Death Grip as a kid.”
HIKULEO: “Oh. Yeah. I wasn’t.”
SEAN ROSS SAPP: “Really? Why?”
HIKULEO: “‘Cause one time I asked my dad, ‘Does it really hurt?’ He’slike, ‘Here, let me give it to you,’ and yeah, it’s a shoot. He gets rightyou on the Adam’s apple and just squeezes it. Never questioned him again. So yeah, that’s one move I’d like to use, but I gotta get permission from him first. So one of these days I’ll pull it out.
Most recently, Hikuleo and El Phantasmo had a run at winning the New Japan Pro Wrestling World Tag League, reaching the finals where they would lose to Bishamon.
Elsewhere in the same interview, El Phantasmo revealed that Gabe Kidd previously choked him out for real in a match together earlier this year. You can read more about that here.
