El Phantasmo

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El Phantasmo
エル・ファンタズモ201911.jpg
El Phantasmo in 2019
Birth nameRiley Vigier
Born (1986-10-24) October 24, 1986 (age 34)
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)El Phantasmo
Francisco Claverol
Billed height6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Billed weight196 lb (89 kg)
Billed fromVancouver, British Columbia
Trained byAaron Idol
Disco Fury
Scotty Mac
DebutOctober 2005

Riley Vigier (born October 24, 1986), otherwise known as El Phantasmo (ELP), is a Canadian professional wrestler currently signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he is currently performing in the Junior Heavyweight division as part of Bullet Club. He has also worked for various independent promotions in Canada, Europe and the United Kingdom.

Professional wrestling career[]

Extreme Canadian Championship Wrestling (2005-2017)[]

El Phantasmo's wrestling training group in 2005 included Kyle O'Reilly and Gurv Sihra. El Phantasmo's debut in professional wrestling for NWA: Extreme Canadian Championship Wrestling (ECCW) was in a battle royal at Halloween Hell in October 2005. ELP formed a tag team with Halo known as the Masked Dudes of Doom. On March 3, 2007, they became the #1 contenders to the NWA/ECCW Tag Team Championship after beating Models, Inc. in a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match main eventing in Vancouver. After falling short on three occasions, the Masked Dudes of Doom finally won the titles in another TLC match against Chill Town on May 5 in Vancouver. After only one successful title defense, they went on to lose the titles to Greatness on Demand in a six-man tag match on July 27 in Surrey.[1] ELP won his first ECCW Championship on July 6, 2013. He lost the championship to "Ravenous" Randy Myers on January 18, 2014 at Ballroom Brawl 1 in a ladder match. He won the ECCW Championship for the second time on January 16, 2016, at Ballroom Brawl 5 by defeating Scotty Mac in a steel cage match. ELP lost the title to Kyle O'Reilly on January 14, 2017, at Ballroom Brawl 7, in an open challenge to any TV wrestler. His last match in ECCW for 2017, was on May 27, 2017 for the Canadian Championship, where he was defeated by Andy Bird.

Pacific Cup[]

A regular competitor in the NWA: Extreme Canadian Championship Wrestling (ECCW) Pacific Cup tournament, El Phantasmo made it to the finals in two consecutive years. In 2008, Billy Suede won the tournament in the three-way final which also included ELP and Kyle O'Reilly.[2] In 2009, El Phantasmo finally won the Pacific Cup by beating Rick The Weapon X and Azeem The Dream in the finals. In 2010, however, ELP lost to eventual tournament winner Artemis Spencer in the semi-finals. Though he did present Spencer with the trophy, ELP received a kick to the groin for his show of sportsmanship towards his ex-teammate and rival.

PowerZone Wrestling (2006)[]

ELP debuted for PowerZone Wrestling in Lethbridge, Alberta on October 11, 2006. He was defeated in an intergender wrestling match by Veronika Vice on the show's midcard.[3]

All Star Wrestling (2007-2017)[]

El Phantasmo made his debut for ASW on September 15, 2007 in Comox, British Columbia against Azeem The Dream. ELP was victorious, as he was in his second appearance in Surrey on December 7. He defeated T Kasaki.[4] He defeated Joey Ryan on March 10, 2017. His last match in ASW for 2017, was on May 26, 2017, where he was defeated by Adam Ryder.

Revolution Pro Wrestling (2017–2020)[]

El Phantasmo debuted for Revolution Pro Wrestling at the Cockpit 17 on June 4, 2017, and was defeated by David Starr. In 2018, he participated in the British J Cup, a tournament he won. On May 19, 2019, he defeated David Starr in a ladder match at RPW's Epic Encounter event to win the RPW British Cruiserweight Championship for the first time. On February 14, 2020, El Phantasmo lost RPW British Cruiserweight Championship to Michael Oku ended his reign of 280 days.

New Japan Pro-Wrestling (2019–present)[]

During the first night of the New Japan Cup 2019, a vignette was shown promoting El Phantasmo's debut. In doing so, he was announced as the newest member of Bullet Club.[5] In his debut, he pinned Will Ospreay in a tag team match. His first singles win came against Bandido shortly after. El Phantasmo then entered the Best of the Super Juniors 2019 and ended third in his block ending with 6 wins and 3 losses with a total of 12 points. On June 16, 2019, El Phantasmo and Taiji Ishimori defeated Roppongi 3K to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships. at Kizuna Road Night Four, El Phantasmo, Yujiro Takahashi and Chase Owens competed for the NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Championship but were defeated by Ryusuke Taguchi, Togi Makabe and Toru Yano. At Southern Showdown Night One, he defended his RPW British Cruiserweight Championship against Rocky Romero. On August 25, Phantasmo defeated Dragon Lee to win the 2019 Super J-Cup tournament. At Royal Quest, El Phantasmo and Taiji Ishimori lost to Chaos (Will Ospreay and Robbie Eagles). At Road To Destruction Yamaguchi, Bullet Club (El Phantasmo, Chase Owens, and Taiji Ishimori) defeated Robbie Eagles, Will Ospreay, and Tomoaki Honma in a six man tag team match. at King of Pro-Wrestling (2019), El Phantasmo lost to Will Ospreay in a IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship match. At Wrestle Kingdom 14, El Phantasmo and Taiji Ishimori lost the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship to Roppongi 3K (Yoh and Sho). At New Year Dash!!, El Phantasmo and Taiji Ishimori competed in Fatal 4-way tag team match which was won by Suzuki-gun (Yoshinobu Kanemaru and El Desperado). On December 12, Phantasmo defeated ACH in the finals of the Super J-Cup. Immediately after the match, Phantasmo called out Hiromu Takahashi and accepted his challenge to a match at Wrestle Kingdom 15, where the winner will face IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Taiji Ishimori on the 2nd night of Wrestle Kingdom for the title.

While Kanemaru and Desperado lost the titles against Bullet Club (Taiji Ishimori and El Phantasmo) on January 23, 2021, they regained them one month later.[6][7]

Impact Wrestling (2021-present)[]

On the April 29th episode of Impact!, it was announced via vignette that ELP would make his Impact Wrestling debut sometime in the following weeks.[8] During the next episode, ELP made his in-ring debut, soundly defeating enhancement talent, VSK.[9] The week afterwards, ELP won a six-way, number-one contender's match for the right to challenge Josh Alexander for the Impact X Division Championship at Under Siege.[10] At the event, he failed to defeat Alexander for the title.[11]

Personal life[]

Vigier grew up in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Canada. He graduated from Westview Secondary School in 2004. He graduated from the Art Institute of Vancouver with a diploma for digital film and video program in 2006. He would help design event posters, intro videos, and individual match screens for ECCW. From 2010 to 2017, he was an animatic editor for Bardel Entertainment.

Championships and accomplishments[]

Luchas de Apuestas record[]

See also: Luchas de Apuestas
Winner (wager) Loser (wager) Location Event Date Notes
El Phantasmo (mask) Halo (mask) Surrey, British Columbia Live event July 25, 2008 [18]
El Phantasmo (mask) & Rick The Weapon X The Divine Prophet (beard) & Artemis Spencer Surrey, British Columbia Live event January 29, 2010 [19]

References[]

  1. ^ "ECCW Results". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2010-09-14.
  2. ^ "Suede not a gracious Pacific Cup winner". canoe.ca. Retrieved 2010-09-14.
  3. ^ "PZW Results". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2010-09-14.
  4. ^ "ASW Results 09–15–07". allstarwrestling.info. Retrieved 2010-09-14.
  5. ^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fqf5nOJSkJQ
  6. ^ NJPW. "NJPW Road to The New Beginning Day 5 Results | NEW JAPAN PRO-WRESTLING". Retrieved January 23, 2021.
  7. ^ https://www.njpw1972.com/tornament/88360?showResult=1
  8. ^ Impact Wrestling Staff (April 29, 2021). "IMPACT! on AXS TV Results: April 29, 2021". Impact Wrestling. Archived from the original on May 2, 2021. Retrieved July 31, 2021.
  9. ^ Coder, Brie (May 6, 2021). "Impact Wrestling Results (5/6): Qualifying Matches Continue, El Phantasmo Debuts, More". Wrestling Inc. Archived from the original on May 12, 2021. Retrieved July 31, 2021.
  10. ^ Impact Wrestling Staff (May 13, 2021). "Several High-Stakes Matchups Added to Under Siege". Impact Wrestling. Archived from the original on May 16, 2021. Retrieved May 13, 2021.
  11. ^ Lilly, Darrin (May 15, 2021). "5/15 IMPACT Wrestling Under Siege PPV Report: Six-man world championship number one contender match, Purrazzo vs. Havok for the Knockouts Championship, more". Pro Wrestling Torch. Archived from the original on May 18, 2021. Retrieved July 31, 2021.
  12. ^ https://www.cagematch.net//?id=1&nr=219310
  13. ^ https://www.cagematch.net//?id=5&nr=540
  14. ^ "ECCW Tag Team Title History". Wrestling-titles.com. Retrieved 2010-09-14.
  15. ^ "El Phantasmo ECCW profile". NWA: Extreme Canadian Championship Wrestling. Retrieved 2010-09-10.
  16. ^ Jump up to: a b "NWA News and Notes for 2–2–09". Wrestlezone.com. Retrieved 2010-09-14.
  17. ^ https://www.cagematch.net//?id=1&nr=203863
  18. ^ "Weekend Results". facebook.com. Retrieved 2010-09-14.
  19. ^ "El Phantasmo list of matches - Cagematch.net". Cagematch. Retrieved January 19, 2021.

External links[]

Achievements
Preceded by
Kushida 		Super J-Cup winner
2019 & 2020 		Succeeded by
Incumbent
Retrieved from ""