El Desperado clarifies his contract status with New Japan Pro-Wrestling.
Desperado has had a successful tenure with NJPW. He is a two-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion and a four-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion. Desperado has also held the NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Championship. He has competed outside of NJPW in recent months, as he has wrestled for GCW and other promotions.
However, he shot down the notion that he was a freelancer, which Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer previously reported.
Speaking with New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s official website, Desperado provided some clarity regarding his contract status.
“Dave Meltzer wrote something like ‘Desperado is a freelancer so he can take all these outside bookings’, which was absolute BS,” El Desperado said. “When you have NJPW wrestlers go out to these other companies, there’s some cross promotion involved there, there’s an acknowledgement and a little bit of publicity on NJPW’s end.
“To an extent, from a promoter’s standpoint, that publicity is part of my payoff, that they’re able to book ‘NJPW star El Desperado’. NJPW’s name value there is as, or more, important than my own, so to go about and take that branding away from me for no reason stank.”
Desperado has wrestled around the world throughout 2023; he has competed for CMLL, DDT, ROH, and other companies.
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