NJPW King of Pro Wrestling 2019: Results, Highlights and Analysis

Will Ospreay vs El Phantasmo – IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship Match 

It begs mentioning that before this show, El Phantasmo put out a statement that basically amounted to wanting to be better for the fans, to do better, and, most importantly, not to use any shady tactics in his fight against Will Ospreay at King of Pro Wrestling.

Taiji Ishimori and Robbie Eagles both come out to second and support their tag partners, and both are sent away almost immediately. El Phantasmo initiates this by asking Ishimori to leave, thus preventing any of the usual Bullet Club interference and a gesture of good faith, so Ospreay does the same with Robbie.

Phantasmo offers his hand a few times, eager to show Ospreay that he’s had somewhat of a change of heart from the times they’ve met since Super J Cup. Ospreay remains cautious and unwilling to be overly friendly.

The thing about these two is they fight very similarly, so half the match looks like a partners gymnastics routine, if such a thing exists. The other half of this match are exchanges of quick strikes, during which Phantasmo catches Ospreay in the eye and restrains himself from attacking while Ospreay recovers in the corner.

There are a few moments of bad sportsmanship, nothing totally out of the realm of possibility for either of them: Phantasmo takes advantage of helping Ospreay up to attack him when he leasts expects it, Ospreay throws Phantasmo into Gino, the usual.

They both end up grappling on top of a balcony, Phantasmo knocks Ospreay down, and then dives on top of him. These two, though not having to challenge themselves much in terms of having to adapt to an unfamiliar opponent, work pretty well together, especially in terms of getting the crowd riled up.

There’s a shift in the match when Ospreay has Phantasmo pinned, but Ishimori pulls the referee out of the ring and attacks Ospreay. As far as Bullet Club antics go, this is pretty typical, and whether or not Phantasmo had any idea this was going to happen is up in the air. Robbie runs in to save Ospreay at the last moment and pulls Ishimori out of the ring before he can interfere with the match any more than he has.

El Phantasmo picks up the belt that Ishimori threw into the ring, takes a cheap shot at Ospreay, and hits him with it, more or less throwing away some of those good sentiments about not cheating, but they move on. Perhaps desperate to end the fight, Phantasmo pulls out a Styles Clash, a V-Trigger, and a One Winged Angel, none of which put Ospreay down for good.

In the end it’s a Hidden Blade and Storm Breaker combo that lets Ospreay pin El Phantasmo, and his dreams of holding a third title belt as well as the Super J Cup win are crushed — for now.

This clash between these two young and rapidly rising stars basically went on forever, but it was exciting watching these two earnestly try to kill each other all while touching the ground as little as possible. It was impressive enough, both in the amount of punishment both were able to dish out and take. We’ll see how well El Phantasmo is able to stick to his word under stress.