He never understood why the heavyweights are perceived as bigger.
Throughout El Phantasmo’s run with New Japan Pro-Wrestling, he’s held the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Titles three times with Taiji Ishimori and present day, he’s reigning as STRONG Openweight Tag Champions with Hikuleo.
Phantasmo was in the junior heavyweight division for a good portion of his New Japan run and he spoke about the presentation of juniors versus heavyweights in the company.
While appearing on Speaking of Strong Style, Phantasmo felt annoyed that juniors were not treated the same as the heavyweights. He used the example of him and Ishimori being Tag Champions and doing a six-man tag with Chase Owens, but Owens gets the top billing and they’re coming out to his music.
I was always annoyed that the juniors just don’t get treated with the same respect as the heavyweights do. If we’re in a six-man; me, (Taiji) Ishimori and Chase (Owens), Chase would get the top billing and the music when we’re the Tag Champions. You’re like, well what the f*ck? Nobody cares about Chase. People care about us. Why do they automatically get perceived bigger than us? Which was always a little annoying to me.
Over the summer, Phantasmo competed in the G1 Climax tournament and finished up with six points in the B block.
At Wrestle Kingdom 18, Phantasmo and Hikuleo are going to be in a double title match against IWGP Tag Team Champions Bishamon (Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI).
If the quote in this article is used, please credit Speaking of Strong Style with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcription.
