El Desperado will be out of action for the foreseeable future.
El Desperado beat Chris Brookes in a No Disqualification match at DDT Wrestle Peter Pan 2024 on July 21st. He then posted a YouTube video in which he announced that he would be taking a leave of absence from the ring so that he could have surgery to repair a media meniscus injury that has affected him for the last six months.
In the announcement, Desperado emphasized that everything from his back to his nipples had holes in it after he faced Brookes, but the match had nothing to do with his absence. He vowed to return and win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship back.
From NJPW:
El Desperado today announced on YouTube (subtitled version to follow) that he was taking a leave of absence from the ring to have surgery to repair a media meniscus injury that has affected him for the last six months.
‘Everything from my back to my nipples has holes in after I wrestled Chris Brookes yesterday, but this is nothing to do with that,’ joked the Best of the Super Jr. winner before explaining that when the ‘adrenaline switch’ should be on during his matches, working around the injury was preventing that and that he wanted to be at his strongest ‘giving absolutely all I can’. Desperado cited winning the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship on night one of the New Japan Soul series only to lose it right at the end of the tour to DOUKI as a message that surgery was the right call.
Desperado stated that with the G1 Climax seeing heavyweights take center stage, everything aligned for him to take time off after wrestling Chris Brookes. Desperado stated that he still gave it all he had in the first half of the year and was satisfied with his performance, but with a view to continuing to operate at ‘over 100%’ the time had come to take surgery and take an indefinite leave before returning ‘to take the title back, win next year’s Best of the Super Jr. and do more things to inspire’.
As of this writing, there is no word on how long El Desperado will be out of action. Fightful wishes him well in his recovery, and we will provide more information as it becomes available.
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