El Desperado

Kyosuke Mikami (三上 恭佑), better known by his ring name El Desperado (エル・デスペラード), is a Japanese professional wrestler.

He is signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he is a former three-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion.

Only weeks later Namajague was part of CMLL's largest annual show as they celebrated the 79th Anniversary of CMLL as he teamed up with Okumura and Taichi, a trio billed as La Ola Amarilla ("The Yellow Wave"), La Ola was defeated by three of CMLL's top tecnicos, Ángel de Oro, La Sombra and Titán.

He attended New Japan Pro-Wrestling's (NJPW) annual open try out test in May, 2009.

He passed the test and was accepted into the NJPW Dojo.

Mikami trained in the same class as King Fale and Hiromu Takahashi who all made their in-ring debut around the same time.

After training in the NJPW Dojo for almost a year Mikami made his debut on March 7, 2010, losing to Ryusuke Taguchi.

NJPW traditionally requires their rookies (referred to as "Young Lions" in NJPW) to wear simple, generic black trunks and boots and pay their dues by helping to set up the ring etc. while they gain in-ring experience.

Mikami would lose at least 31 matches in a row, not uncommon for NJPW dojo graduates, until he was able to beat fellow dojo trainee Hiromu Takahashi in Takahashi's debut match on August 24, 2010 at NEVER.1.

He competed in the 2011 "Road to the Super Junior 2Days Tournament" on April 7, but was eliminated in the first round by Ryuichi Sekine.

He would later team up with fellow "Young Lions" Hiromu Takahashi & Takaaki Watanabe to compete in NJPW's "J Sports Crown Openweight 6 Man Tag Tournament".

The team lost to Madoka, Shinobu and Tsuyoshi Kikuchi in their first match.

In 2012, he traveled to Mexico for a learning excursion, working for NJPW's Mexican affiliate Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) as the masked character Namajague, a Spanish translation of Namahage, a Japanese folk demon.

Mikami's last match to date came on January 4, 2012 as he appeared in a dark match before NJPW's Wrestle Kingdom VI in Tokyo Dome show, the biggest show in NJPW.

The match saw Mikami and Tomoaki Honma lose to Tama Tonga and Captain New Japan.

It was later announced that Mikami was injured to take some time off, a storyline to cover for his long-term absence from NJPW.

NJPW often sends their "Young Lions" on a learning excursion outside Japan, be it the United States, Europe or in particular Mexico, where NJPW has a working relationship with Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) which has seen a series of Japanese wrestlers work for CMLL for shorter or longer periods of time.

Mikami's "learning excursion" took him to Mexico in early 2012, where he was given a new name, Namajague and a mask that was inspired by the imagery of the Japanese folk demon Namahage.

While Mikami had worked primarily as a face, he was given a heel or rudo character and teamed up with CMLL's resident Japanese worker Okumura.

The two formed a tag team called La Fiebre Amarilla ("the Yellow Fever").

He made his debut as Namajage on February 2, 2012 teaming with Okumura and Misterioso, Jr., defeating the team of Black Warrior, El Sagrado and Sangre Azteca.

The following month Mikami worked CMLL's major spring show Homenaje a Dos Leyendas where he teamed up with Misterioso, Jr. and Rey Escorpion to defeat the team of Fuego, Titán and Tritón in a Best two-out-of-three falls Six-man tag team match In September 2012 La Fiebre Amarilla unsuccessfully challenged for the CMLL Arena Coliseo Tag Team Championship as defending champions Fuego and Stuka, Jr. were victorious.

While in CMLL, he won his first professional wrestling title alongside Okumura, the CMLL Arena Coliseo Tag Team Championship, in March 2013.

In the months following the Anniversary show Namajague and Okumura developed a long running storyline with Stuka, Jr. and Rey Cometa that evolved into the main event of the 2013 Homenaje a Dos Leyendas show contested under Luchas de Apuestas, or "bet match" rules where Namajague and Stuka, Jr. both risked their masks and Okumura and Rey Cometa would risk their hair on the outcome of the match.

On March 3, 2013, Namajague and Okumura defeated Fuego and Stuka, Jr. to win the CMLL Arena Coliseo Tag Team Championship, Mikami's first professional wrestling title.

On March 15, 2013 Okumura and Namajague were defeated by Stuka, Jr. and Rey Cometa in the main event of the 2013 Homenaje a Dos Leyendas show, forcing Okumura to have all his hair shaved off and Namajague was unmasked and had to reveal his real name, Kyosuke Mikami, as per lucha libre traditions.

The storyline between Namajague and Rey Cometa did not end after the unmasking, instead it switched to an individual storyline between the two, that included Namajague breaking a pane of glass over Rey Cometa's head during a one-on-one match.

The conflict led to CMLL signing a one-on-one Lucha de Apuestas between with Cometa and Namajague's hair on the line, to take place on the April 26, 2013 Arena Mexico 57th Anniversary Show.

Rey Cometa won the Luchas de Apuestas, two falls to one, to have all of Namajague's hair shaved off after the match.

On November 3, Namajague and Okumura lost the Arena Coliseo Tag Team Championship to Delta and Guerrero Maya, Jr.

On December 9, 2013, NJPW announced the upcoming debut of a new masked wrestler named "El Desperado".

He was a member of the Suzuki-gun stable from 2014 until its disbandment in 2022.

Mikami was trained by the NJPW dojo and worked for NJPW for two years as a Young Lion.

After being unmasked due to losing a match and briefly working without one, Mikami returned to NJPW in January 2014 and was repackaged under another mask as El Desperado.

During his time with Suzuki-gun, he is a former two-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion and a four-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion (alongside Yoshinobu Kanemaru).

Mikami was born and raised in Nagaoka, Niigata, Japan.

He later attended Senshu University but dropped out before graduating.

He pursued both a Judo and an Amateur wrestling career, both in Greco-Roman and in Freestyle wrestling.

Mikami returned to his home promotion on January 4, 2014, at Wrestle Kingdom 8 in Tokyo Dome.

Wearing a new white mask and a black suit and carrying a guitar case, similar to the character El Mariachi from the Mexico Trilogy films, he entered the ring after Kota Ibushi had become the new IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion and gave him a bouquet of flowers.