This Is my El Desperado thread because I have a lot of thoughts about him and I think he's neat

We're going to start with how absolutely amazing I think his mask design is because god look at it? The tassels? the wings? both the mouth and mouthless versions? art.

Also when Despy returned from a broken jaw (more on that later) he added gold filled cracks (Kintsugi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kintsugi ) which is absolutely stunning detail with a lovely meaning behind it

We'll touch more on both of these later but doukidespy mask is my favourite and white mask despy is a whole look

Let's start at the very beginning with a few Kayfabe despy details: El Desperado is a Mexican-Japanese wrestler with a Japanese dad and a Mexican Mother who spent time in the Mexican indies, His Birthday is absolutely not Dec 29th but Jan 5th (seriously he has a kayfabe bday)

His first name is Jose (apparently) and he absolutely is not the same person as Namajague (picture below) the sushi chef/luchador I have no idea why you would think that ever

He first appeared in NJPW on January 4th 2014 with a white mask, dressed in a suit and carrying a guitar case. He got into the ring after Kota Ibushi had won the Jr Heavyweight title and presented him with flowers ( this can be seen here )

This would be the first of many rejections Despy would collect (He has a type and the type is 'unattainable beautiful men who cannot be controlled' ) He would fight Kota for the title but would lose the match, the two would then form a short lived tag team

They would get a title shot against the Young Bucks but It was very clear though that Kota only ever had eyes for Kenny Omega (which 2014 was not their year ANYWAYS) they would split up and Despy floated as a face for a little bit

July 4th 2014 however El Desperado would turn heel and join up with Suzuki gun, this is where we get black mask desp because he's so Evil~ except he kinda isn't, he's more sort of rejected Emo boy with a broken heart

Anyways Suzuki Gun would head off to NOAH for a bit and Despy would get on quite well until he picked up a neck injury and was sidelined. Y'know how in other group injured members come back and it's all smile? yeah...not Suzuki Gun

Despy would have to fight to retain his place in Suzuki Gun against fellow member Takashi Iizuka a match that he'd win by DQ (after it was restarted due to a double countout) this is the bit of the story I sigh about bc despy plz think about your life choices!!!

Despy remains in Suzuki Gun as either the bottom (of the pack behave) or as Suzukis 2nd favourite son/sparring partner It honestly depends on the day, he takes a ton of abuse from the rest of the group (bar Zack) usually being pushed around or eating the pin

before we get too far from it the despy V Iizuka match can be viewed here on NJPW : https://njpwworld.com/p/s_series_00380_1_04

or uh just look at this gif set for......science
…https://king-of-darkness-his-thighness.tumblr.com/post/183642941391/to-every-single-person-who-follows-me-i-am-so-so

It's also worth mentioning in terms of despys position in the group this match here https://njpwworld.com/p/s_series_00440_6_05
BOSJ 2017 Nobu vs Despy - Nobus has Taichi in his corner and Despy has Taka it's......well

It's clear from the get go thats despy really doesn't want to be fighting anyone from Suzuki Gun, he's not his usual self and he's right to be worried. The others are clear that they don't respect despy and that while Taichi is cheating hardore for Nobu, Taka......doesn't care

Eventually Taichi cheats despy into a count out loss, they expect despy to play nice afterwards and it's very clear he's upset my the going ons he lashes out at them but they just laugh and despy reluctantly accepts that this is where he's at

it's 15 minutes of just really good story telling in wrestling and maybe 80% of the reason I love despy bc he's just THAT good at getting a story across in his wrestling

ANYWAYS I think it's time we get into 'Despys Romantic disaster Part 2' or the Hiromu Takahashi story, this ones long....and full of really just ace pining and big dramatics.
seriously, there's declarations of love and demaskings, it's a better lovestory than twilight

We should do a little backstory for this very quickly: 1. in a .....past life El Desperado was a young Lion 2. He and Hiromu trained together in the dojo 3. Despy P much dominated their early years with an 18 - 1 Win-loss record against everyone's favourite timebomb

I'm going to stress first before we really get into it you take the time to watch their matches together because woah. The emotion and the way they bounce off each other is very captivating

Right so the year's 2018 and after 7 years of having not faced each other in singles competition they pull each other in BOSJ, it's clear from the start that Hiromu has....something of a resentment toward despy, leaving his BOSJ book page blank until the day before when...

"I know who you are, I hate you" pops up more than once in this story, Despy is....less hateful, he thinks Hiromu is still a punk kid who 'tells stories', that he's hung up in his imagination and implies heavily he thinks Hiromu is nothing more than a young lion

https://njpwworld.com/p/s_series_00484_4_08
That match, is stunning and involves the return of one of my favourite despy masks the white one, it's also a very very good match with many little details

During the match despy transitioned Hiromu into a Boston crab - the signature submission of the young lion showing again he sees Hiromu as nothing more than a kid, Hiromu rips a hole in despy's mask showing he doesn't care how much despy wants to hide Hiromu knows the REAL him

Despy takes the win after a hard fought battle, and then he takes to the mic "Hiromu don't say that you hate me, I've searched for you for so long,..., you said you know who I am so it's meaningless to hide my face"

Of course he didn't take off his mask, "you don't always get the storybook ending you want". Despy and his flair for the dramatic hm? anyways here's another look at that white mask (RIP) of course our story doesn't end there .... on we go

So Hiromu wins BOSJ and the Jr Heavyweight title, he's giving backstage comments when suddenly...... (same Hiro that orange belt/camo shorts combo is......something)

in a promo that goes from 0...to gay real quick. It starts with despy appearing like the demon he is to offer congratulations. They both have titles how fun? and then turns immediately into despy declaring his love for Hiromu

Despy tells Hiromu he knows he's not /that/ stupid and Hiromu says that he "knows whats going on in your head", he accepts despys challenge and Despy is......adamant that They love each other (bit of a turn around there bud but who am I to judge)

Hiromu thanks despy for saying he loves him but reminds despy that he HATES HIM, even the person he is under the mask and then uh...this happens (I like to call this the 'you love me? sounds like a you problem babe')

Basically we spend about a bit touching faces and looking into each others eyes "I can never love you but keep on loving me" says Hiromu stroking despys face in...uh hatred? while despy tells him to pick the match and he will continue loving him before disappearing to uh be bad

Hiromu makes it clear he was always going to get revenge for BOSJ but despy coming to him is a ....twist, they're connected and there is a very THIN line between love and hate.

So they have that title match https://njpwworld.com/p/s_series_00487_2_07

and oh boy are we about to get real deep into the vast pool of emotions thats either love or hate....hard to tell

To start despy is backout here in a white mask (open backed this time with braids it's so good ;-;) and hiromu approaches the ring with......a guitar case? it's then that he presents Despy with flowers.....dead flowers

This of course is a direct call back to despys debut, presenting flowers to Ibushi (although not dead but black roses do tend to symbolise death) Hiromu matches despys little flourish handing off the flowers really well (you can see a side by side here: …https://king-of-darkness-his-thighness.tumblr.com/post/183655141447/a-comparison-of-el-desperados-bouquets

Despy does not react well to this, it's hard to tell if he's hurt because Hiromu rejected him or if he sees this as a direct act of mocking (both? both is good) and attacks Hiromu with the flowers, this kicks off a pretty brutal match with a lot of sheer passionate violence

There's this feeling in the air, a spark of mutual destruction that fuels them both. there's battling on the outside, chairs and ripping into each other until they can't stand it's beautiful and well worth the watch now the end of the match that's.....something

So toward the end, despy grabs the belt in a clear attempt to be bastard and cheat, he's however prevented when Hiromu yanks his mask clean off (we know Hiro despy is V pretty and everyone should know) https://mitchtheficus.tumblr.com/post/175027006089/to-a-masked-wrestler-thats-your-identity-its

Despy hides his face for a second before cooly smacking Hiromu with the belt and calmly replacing his mask. For a man so very engrained into the idea of kayfabe (he's got a whole backstory and alter ego I mean...) this is significant

to a masked wrestler a mask is often very much their identity it's everything and it comes with years of tradition and respect attached. In this moment however, his mask is of less importance to him than two things:

one: his desire to finally capture the belt that has alluded him thus far, a title that as someone who proclaims to be proud to be a junior is so important

Two: his desire to destroy Hiromu and prove that he is better, that he does love him and that he doesn't care if the other man hates him.

Whatever theory you place behind his reaction it's very clear by his actions that El Desperado will do anything to get the win over Hiromu, unfortunately that day was not to be his day and he would lose to Hiromu however it did seem something might have changed

After the match before challenging Dragon Lee Hiromu would claim to be stronger than despy but would add that he hopes they can 'make love again' a clear indication that maybe the thin line between love and hate is thinner than before

It's worth mentioning that they are yet to have another 1 on 1 due to some unfortunate injury timing, however anytime they cross paths and even multiple times on twitter (we will cover in a different section) they're still....in love? no wait hate?.....no love? ha.....you get it