Hikuleo and El Phantasmo reflect on World Tag League Finals and look ahead towards Wrestle Kingdom.
Hikuleo & El Phantasmo met Bishamon (YOSHI-HASH & Hirooki Goto) in the finals of World Tag League 2023, and the two teams with over 40 minutes with Bishamon edging out the victory to win World Tag League.
Hikuleo & ELP defeated Bishamon during round robin action in World Tag League, and Bishamon challenged the duo to a third match at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom with the IWGP World Tag Team Titles and the NJPW Strong Openweight Tag Team Titles on the line.
Speaking to Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp, ELP & Hikuleo reflected on the Wolrd Tag League final and looked ahead to their Wrestle Kingdom showdown.
HIKULEO: “Yep. Yep. That was the longest one. I think the second one was just under 20 minutes against Shota in the G1.”
SEAN ROSS SAPP: “That’s quite a leap.”
HIKULEO: “Yeah. When you got someone like ELP, tagging with, it’s good to lean on him a little bit.”
EL PHANTASMO: “Yeah, I was gonna say, someone should do the stats on who wrestled that 40 minutes of how much we were in the ring compared to each other. But that’s where we balance each other out.”
SEAN ROSS SAPP: “So, I mean, when you’ve got a—I don’t even know if it’s a daunting task, I mean you guys are wrestling non-stop. But, I mean, when you’re like, ‘Alright, we’re getting in there. We’re going 40,’ is there anything special you do to prepare or do you just trust the process and you know you’re prepared for that type of thing?”
EL PHANTASMO: “To be honest, I don’t think any of us knew it was going to go 40. Everybody talked about it, but this tag league, it was like 18 shows in 21 days. Of those off days, they were like eight hour bus rides to Kagoshima or taking a [shinkansen] to Nagoya. It was awful. The worst part was, half that—not even half, like 80% of the tour—was house shows. These giant empty arenas that are half empty with the house lights on. It was a grind. I know Goto and YOSHI-HASHI were banged up, we were both banged up. It was that exhaustion of the finals that dragged that time out. I don’t think we could have poured our heart and soul more into that match.”
SEAN ROSS SAPP: “Starting with Hikuleo, was it satisfying that the match ended—that arduous run that he just mentioned—it was so positively received. Everybody loved that match. It was considered if not the best match of that entire run, then one of them. I mean, how did that feel for you, knowing you went through all of that, you went through a 40 minute match, and it hit with everybody that watched it?’
HIKULEO: “I think it was just like ELP, how he said it. Everything led to this, where both teams were just tired, just exhausted and we knew it was the last show. Even when we walked into the arena, it was different from the rest of the arenas we’d been to. It was bigger. There were more seats.”
EL PHANTASMO: “Ring lights.”
HIKULEO: “Yeah, and so that momentum, that atmosphere just changed instantly. You’re ready to go. So just to, like he said, pour it all out is exactly what we did. So afterwards, I was more satisfied with each other that we’d went out there and did our thing. I was satisfied we weren’t seriously injured. We were banged up, but just to put on a great performance like that in front of a great crowd, too. It’s not so much of listening to what others had to say, it was more of an inner satisfaction between us, between the guys in the back, and between New Japan itself. I was just happy about that.”
SEAN ROSS SAPP: “You guys are running it back at the Tokyo Dome. I mean, that is a tough match to top, that one. I mentioned, it went 40 minutes. So wildly, positively received. Phantasmo, is this something where you all look at it and you go, ‘Well, we gotta expect to go 40 again,’ or is it just a completely different approach because you guys know each other in the ring so much better after spending all that time in the ring together?”
EL PHANTASMO: “Yeah, I’m more excited for the Tokyo Dome than I am the finals. Obviously, but it’s also like the restrictions and restraints, the pressure backstage to not go long, to respect the main event. Sanada and Naito are selling tickets, it’s not us. We want to have a great match, but it would be taking away from those guys if we went 40. But then that’s also exciting to us, when we watch our matches back from the Korakuen show and then we watch our finals back, we can kinda see what tag team moves we hit that worked well and what didn’t, counters we can do. This might be a 10 minute sprint, it might be a 15 minute technical masterpiece. You don’t know what kind of match it is. But we’re excited to do something different, knowing the first two times we did lock up with Bishamon, they were pretty good. This is like the tie breaker, the third match of the series. For us teaming together so recently to go up against those guys, who are the most dominate tag team in wrestling right now—not even just New Japan—but they’ve been so good for so long. It’s gonna be fun to go into Wrestle Kingdom against them. I was just watching Goto and Shibata from like Wrestle Kingdom 11 or 12 or something like. That was awesome, man. Goto was so good. Then YOSHI-HASHI is not like the goofball that everyone keeps saying he is. YOSHI-HASHI chops harder than anybody else I’ve been chopped by. Like, he clears Ospreay’s chops. Ospreay does a huge wind up and hits as hard as he can. But, dude, YOSHI-HASHI has fuckin’ bear paws or something that every chop he does is insane.”
Elsewhere during the interview, El Phantasmo recalled getting legit choked out by Gabe Kidd when they won the NJPW Strong Openweight Tag Team Titles. You can find his full comments by clicking here.
NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 18 will be available through NJPW World. Fans can check out the lineup for the show by clicking here. Fightful will have coverage of the event on January 4.
Watch the full interview with ELP & Hikuleo in the video above.
