(born December 12, 1966) is a Japanese

professional wrestler Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring or ...

and actor, better known as . In addition to having trained in Japan, Asai learned to wrestle in the

lucha libre Lucha libre (, meaning "freestyle wrestling" or literally translated as "free fight") is the term used in Latin America for professional wrestling. Since its introduction to Mexico in the early 20th century, it has developed into a unique form ...

style while working in

Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...

. He is credited with popularizing the " Asai Moonsault". On October 11, 1996, Asai won the

J-Crown The J-Crown (also known as J-Crown Octuple Unified Championship) was formed originally by New Japan Pro-Wrestling as a way of unifying eight junior heavyweight and cruiserweight titles from several different organizations. The J-Crown tournament w ...

, a unification of eight lower weight division titles from various international promotions. At the time, he already held the NWA World Middleweight Championship; during this reign he also became the WCW Cruiserweight Champion, making him the most decorated wrestler in history.Asai also became a co-holder of the

WAR World Six-Man Tag Team Championship The is a six-man tag team title contested for in the Japanese professional wrestling promotion Tenryu Project. The title was established in Wrestle Association R (WAR) in 1994. There have been a total of twenty reigns shared among sixteen team ...

in October 1996, but it was retired that same day and was thus never defended by him From December 29, 1996, through January 4, 1997, he concurrently held ten titles, a record which still stands. From 2013 until 2019, he competed primarily for

All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW/AJP) or simply All Japan is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion established on October 21, 1972 when Giant Baba split away from the Japanese Wrestling Association and created his own promotion. Many wrestlers had left with Bab ...

(AJPW) as a freelancer. In 2019, he joined Dragon Gate as a senior advisor and wrestler.

Professional wrestling career

Early years (1987–1996)

Asai trained in the

New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion based in Nakano, Tokyo. Founded on January 13, 1972, by Antonio Inoki, the promotion was sold to Yuke's, who later sold it to Bushiroad in 2012. TV Asahi and Amuse, Inc. own minority share ...

(NJPW)

dojo A is a hall or place for immersive learning or meditation. This is traditionally in the field of martial arts, but has been seen increasingly in other fields, such as meditation and software development. The term literally means "place of the ...

in 1987, but was not drafted up by the promotion due to his small size. He moved to Mexico where he joined the Universal Wrestling Association and subsequently won the UWA World Welterweight Championship in 1988. In March 1990, he joined the Universal Wrestling Federation in Japan. He also competed in the Universal Lucha Libre promotion founded by his mentor Gran Hamada. In 1991, he signed with the Mexican

Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre Co., Ltd. (CMLL; , "World Wrestling Council") is a ''lucha libre'' professional wrestling promotion based in Mexico City. The promotion was previously known as ''Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre'' (''EMLL'') (''Mexi ...

(CMLL) promotion. In CMLL, he adopted the Último Dragón mask and persona. "Último Dragón", which means "Last Dragon" in Spanish, was initially a

gimmick A gimmick is a novel device or idea designed primarily to attract attention or increase appeal, often with little intrinsic value. When applied to retail marketing, it is a unique or quirky feature designed to make a product or service "stand ou ...

that saw Asai claiming to be the last student taught by legendary martial artist

Bruce Lee Bruce Lee (; born Lee Jun-fan, ; November 27, 1940 – July 20, 1973) was a Hong Kong and American martial artist and actor. He was the founder of Jeet Kune Do, a hybrid martial arts philosophy drawing from different combat disciplines th ...

, whose nickname was "The Dragon". The gimmick was later dropped, but the name remained. Late in 1992, Misteriosito was turned into "Último Dragoncito", a

Mini-Estrella The term ''Mini-Estrella'' ( Spanish for "Mini-Star") is used in lucha libre to describe a division of short professional wrestlers or ''luchadors'', some of whom have dwarfism. The Mexican ''Mini-Estrellas'' is comparable to Midget wrestling p ...

version of Asai. During the same period, Asai also signed with the Japanese WAR promotion, and due to co-promoting, he was able to wrestle for NJPW. In Japan, he became IWGP Junior heavyweight champion twice, and in Mexico, he held various titles. In later years, he wrestled for

AAA AAA, Triple A, or Triple-A is a three-letter initialism or abbreviation which may refer to: Airports * Anaa Airport in French Polynesia (IATA airport code AAA) * Logan County Airport (Illinois) (FAA airport code AAA) Arts, entertainment, and ...

World Championship Wrestling (1996–1998)

Asai made his American debut for the

World Championship Wrestling World Championship Wrestling, Inc. (WCW) was an American professional wrestling promotion founded by Ted Turner in 1988, after Turner Broadcasting System, through a subsidiary named Universal Wrestling Corporation, purchased the assets of Natio ...

(WCW) promotion in 1996 initially under the mistranslated name "Ultimate Dragon". He was referred to by this name for over a year in WCW until they reverted to using his Spanish ring name. He quickly was pushed into the lime-light of the WCW Cruiserweight division with Sonny Onoo as his manager. He was instantly a heel based upon the fact he was Japanese and Sonny Onoo was his manager. He made his WCW pay-per view debut in 1996's Hog Wild against Rey Misterio Jr. for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship but lost. He got back the win at WCW World War 3 when he returned to WCW as the

champion. He then feuded with Dean Malenko for the WCW Cruiserweight title which he won at Starrcade 1996. Dragon later dropped the WCW Cruiserweight title back to Malenko but his stock was rising as he won the WCW World Television Championship from Prince Iaukea but lost it to Steven Regal. He then turned face by dropping Onoo as his manager and won back the WCW World Television title from Regal before losing to Alex Wright at Clash of the Champions XXXV. He would then win the WCW Cruiserweight title one last time from

Eddie Guerrero Eduardo Gory Guerrero Llanes (October 9, 1967 – November 13, 2005) was an American professional wrestler. He was a prominent member of the Guerrero wrestling family, being the son of first-generation wrestler Gory Guerrero. Eddie Guerrero is ...

, before losing the title on the first '' WCW Thunder'' to Juventud Guerrera. He then suffered an arm injury in 1998 that required surgery. The operation was botched, causing nerve damage. It was thought that this would force an end of his career and he announced his retirement.

Toryumon (1997–2003)

In 1997, Asai then became a trainer and founded the Último Dragón Gym, where he trained three classes of students, "Toryumon Japan", "Toryumon 2000 Project" (T2P), and "Toryumon X". His first class of students, which included Don Fuji, Dragon Kid, Magnum Tokyo, Cima and Suwa, worked for WCW early in their career. In 1998, Asai began co-promoting Grupo Internacional Revolución (IWRG) based out of Mexico, where he trained several of the top young wrestlers. In 1999, a promotion named

Toryumon Toryumon or Tōryūmon may refer to: *Toryumon (Último Dragón) is a professional wrestling promotion that operated in Japan until 2004 and in Mexico, where it's called Toryumon Mexico. The promotion is owned and operated by Yoshihiro Asai, who ...

opened, with the vast majority of the roster having been trained by Asai. Toryumon was later renamed Dragon Gate as Asai parted ways with the promotion. He continued to train students at his gym. In 2002, Asai underwent another surgery to repair the damage done to his arm in hopes of returning to wrestling. In late 2002 Ultimo Dragon was in talks with

World Wrestling Entertainment World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and va ...

for another shot at a United States run. To get back into ring shape he returned to action for his T2P and Toryumon Mexico promotions. On November 26, he teamed with former WCW wrestlers Norman Smiley and Perry Saturn in a win against Masaaki Mochizuki,

Kenichiro Arai is a Japanese wrestler for Dragon Gate. Biography Kenichiro Arai, also known as AraKen, is a second term graduate of Último Dragón's Toryumon Japan group, and has been a mainstay on the roster ever since. He participated in FMW before joini ...

and

Toru Owashi is a Japanese professional wrestler, better known by his ring name . He is best known for his work in DDT Pro-Wrestling, where he is a former KO-D Openweight Champion and two time KO-D Tag Team Champion. Professional wrestling career Initially ...

for T2P. On December 7 he teamed with Mochizuki and Dragon Kid in a win over the team of Bestia Salvaje, Scorpio Jr. and El Duende for Toryumon Mexico.

World Wrestling Entertainment (2003–2004)

In the spring of 2003, he signed with

as the ''Último Dragón'', seeking to realize his two lifelong goals of competing in

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as The Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh and Eighth avenues from 31st to 33rd Street, above Pennsyl ...

and performing at

WrestleMania WrestleMania is a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event held annually between mid-March and mid-April by WWE, the world's largest professional wrestling promotion. Since premiering in 1985, 37 editions followed, ...

. He was brought in on the heels of the signing of

Rey Mysterio Óscar Gutiérrez (born December 11, 1974), better known by his ring name Rey Mysterio, is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the SmackDown brand. Widely regarded as one of the greatest pro ...

on the belief that he would make as big of an impact as Mysterio did upon his WWE debut. Asai made his WWE debut in dark match victories against Rico, Crash Holly and Shannon Moore as they debuted a series of video packages hyping the debut of Dragon on '' SmackDown!''. He made his WWE television debut at Madison Square Garden on June 26, 2003 episode of ''SmackDown!'' in a match with Shannon Moore, where he debuted his finisher, the Asai DDT (a standing shiranui) to the American wrestling audience. Throughout the summer he competed in a tournament for the

WWE United States Championship The WWE United States Championship is a professional wrestling championship promoted by the American promotion WWE, currently defended on the Raw brand division. It is one of two secondary championships for WWE's main roster, along with the WWE ...

beating

Jamie Noble James Gibson (born December 23, 1976) is an American retired professional wrestler better known by the ring name Jamie Noble. He is currently signed to WWE as a producer. In addition to his appearances with WWE, Noble is known for his appeara ...

but losing to eventual winner,

. He quickly rebounded by beating Kanyon in a ''

WWE Heat ''WWE Heat'' (formerly known as ''Sunday Night Heat'' and also known as ''Heat'') is an American professional wrestling television program that was produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and aired from August 2, 1998 to May 30, 2008. Ori ...

'' match taped before

Vengeance Vengeance may refer to: *Vengeance (concept) or revenge, a harmful action against a person or group in response to a grievance Film * ''Vengeance'' (1930 film), action adventure film directed by Archie Mayo * ''Vengeance'' (1937 film) or ''W ...

. He then wrestled on '' WWE Velocity'' for the next few weeks, leading to a match with Rey Mysterio on ''SmackDown''. Dragon won the match only after Tajiri interfered and showed respect to Dragon due to their Japanese heritage. The next week Dragon teamed with Mysterio to take on Tajiri and

Nunzio James Maritato (born March 12, 1972) is an American professional wrestler, best known for his work in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) under the ring names Little Guido and Nunzio. A high-school footb ...

. After this match, he was not seen on ''SmackDown!'' for several months until the build for the Cruiserweight Open at WrestleMania XX. At the event, Dragon participated in the Open. Dragon's WrestleMania resulted in one of WrestleMania's most famous blunders, tripping as he entered the arena from the backstage area and tripping as he was going up the turnbuckle for a pose. The first trip was edited out of the WrestleMania XX DVD, but the second wasn't. After the open, he faced Chavo Guerrero and Nunzio in his last WWE matches. On April 22, 2004, WWE announced that Asai was released from his WWE contract after Asai asked for his release from WWE to go back to Japan immediately.

Return to Japan (2004–present)

One month later after being released from WWE, Asai quickly picked up a New Japan tour on May 1, 2004. He has occasionally wrestled for the

. He also took part in the short lived Japanese independent promotion Dragondoor, ran by one of his students Noriaki Kawabata using mostly T2P and Toryumon X graduates. He would wrestle in matches against

Último Guerrero José Gutiérrez Hernández (born March 1, 1972), better known by his ring name Último Guerrero (Spanish for ''Last Warrior''), is a Mexican (or professional wrestler), who works for Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL). He is not related ...

and various other stars who wrestled in Mexico or Japanese based lucha libre promotions. Since the fall of Dragondoor he went back to Mexico to run another class of the Toryumon school, which has led to some standouts in

Hajime Ohara is a Japanese professional wrestler. Ohara worked for Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) in Mexico for several years as part of his training, mixing the ''lucha libre'' style of Mexico with the Japanese Puroresu style of wrestling. In Japan, ...

, Kazuchika Okada and Pequeño Ninja. The rest of the Toryumon students along with Asai joined the Tatsumi Fujinami promoted Dradition promotion in Japan. In 2006, Asai began promoting the annual "Toryumon Mexico: Dragon Mania" wrestling show. He also wrestled at UWA Hardcore Wrestling based outside of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He has wrestled against

Sonjay Dutt Retesh Bhalla (born April 7, 1982) is an American professional wrestler currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) as a producer and manager. He is best known for his time with Total Nonstop ActionImpact Wrestling under the ring name Sonj ...

, M-Dogg 20,

Chris Sabin Joshua Harter (born February 4, 1982), better known by his ring name Chris Sabin, is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to Impact Wrestling, and is also known for his work in Ring of Honor. After being trained by Scott D ...

, Alex Shelley,

Jyushin Thunder Liger , better known as and later , is a Japanese retired professional wrestler and mixed martial artist, currently signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). He is the longest-tenured member of the NJPW roster, having wrestled for the company since ...

and Black Tiger all in the UWA. Since then he has been working in Japan for various independent promotions such as Pro Wrestling Kageki and Michinoku Pro. He has also been to Mexico as well as in Spain, working for Nu Wrestling Evolution. On December 15, 2013, Dragón defeated Yoshinobu Kanemaru to win

's World Junior Heavyweight Championship. He lost the title to Atsushi Aoki on May 29, 2014. On August 27, 2017, he regained the title by defeating Tajiri. On August 30 and 31, 2014, Dragón participated in a show in

Pyongyang Pyongyang (, , ) is the capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is known as the "Capital of the Revolution". Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. According to the 2008 populat ...

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and ...

promoted by the Inoki Genome Federation. He defeated

on the first day and Heddi French on the second in singles matches. On March 22, 2015, Dragón won another title in All Japan, when he and Yoshinobu Kanemaru defeated Mitsuya Nagai and Takeshi Minamino for the All Asia Tag Team Championship. They vacated the title on October 14.

Movie career

Ultimo Dragon starred in two films in 2008. The first was '' Bloodstained Memoirs'', also starring

Chris Jericho Christopher Keith Irvine (born November 9, 1970), better known by the ring name Chris Jericho, is an American-Canadian professional wrestler and singer. He is currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he is the leader of the Jeri ...

Rob Van Dam Robert Alexander Szatkowski (born December 18, 1970) is an American professional wrestler and actor better known by his ring name Rob Van Dam (frequently abbreviated to RVD). He is best known for his tenures in Extreme Championship Wrestling ...

Mick Foley Michael Francis Foley (born June 7, 1965) is an American actor, author, retired professional wrestler, and color commentator. He is currently signed to WWE under the company's Legends program, acting as a company ambassador. Foley worked for ...

and

Keiji Mutoh is a Japanese professional wrestler and professional wrestling executive currently signed to Pro Wrestling Noah (Noah), where he is a former GHC Heavyweight Champion. He is best known for his work as in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and ...

. Ultimo Dragon's scenes were filmed in the UK and Italy. The other was ''Ultimo Dragon'', a heroic martial arts story.

Championships and accomplishments

** All Asia Tag Team Championship ( 1 time) – with Yoshinobu Kanemaru ** World Junior Heavyweight Championship (

2 times "2 Times" is a song co-written and recorded by British Italian-based singer Ann Lee. It was released in 1999 as the lead single from her debut album, ''Dreams'' (1999). The single entered and peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart. Outsid ...

) *

** NWA World Middleweight Championship (

)" *Comision de Box y Lucha D.F. **

Distrito Federal Trios Championship The Distrito Federal Trios Championship is a ''Trios'' (six-man) tag team Championship primarily promoted by the Mexican Lucha libre professional wrestling promotion International Wrestling Revolution Group (IWRG). The title was created in 1 ...

( 1 time) – with Naoki Sano and Hirokazu Hata *

International Wrestling Revolution Group International Wrestling Revolution Group (Grupo Internacional Revolución in Spanish; the Spanish name is used for the promotion while the English initials are used for the title governing body) is a Lucha Libre promotion based in Naucalpan, Stat ...

** Copa Higher Power (1998) – with

Judo Suwa , better known simply as Suwa (stylized in all capital letters), is a retired Japanese professional wrestler. He originally retired from professional wrestling in 2007, but later returned for a short period of time in 2013 as Maybach Taniguchi J ...

, Lyguila, Magnum Tokyo, Ryo Saito,

Shiima Nobunaga (born November 15, 1977), better known by his ring name Cima ( ) (most often stylized as CIMA), is a Japanese professional wrestler who currently works for Gleat. He had previously worked for Oriental Wrestling Entertainment (OWE), where he had ...

and Sumo Fujii *

International Wrestling Alliance The International Wrestling Alliance (IWA) was an independent professional wrestling promotion based in the province of Manitoba in Canada. It was initially founded as the West Four Wrestling Alliance (WFWA) in 1973 by Tony Condello , under which ...

**IWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time) **IWA Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time) *

Michinoku Pro Wrestling (originally known as North Eastern Wrestling) is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion founded by The Great Sasuke on October 1, 1992. It was the first independent wrestling promotion in Japan to not base its operations in Tokyo, but rath ...

** British Commonwealth Junior Heavyweight Championship ( 1 time) **

Tohoku Tag Team Championship The is a professional wrestling tag team Championship (professional wrestling), championship created and promoted by the Japanese professional wrestling promotion Michinoku Pro Wrestling. There have been a total of 33 reigns shared between 25 ...

(

) – with Jinsei Shinzaki (1) and Kesen Numagirolamo (1) *

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship The is a professional wrestling world junior heavyweight championship owned by the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) promotion. "IWGP" is the acronym of NJPW's governing body, the . Only wrestlers under the junior heavyweight weight-limit may ...

(

) **

( 1 time) ** British Commonwealth Junior Heavyweight Championship ( 1 time) ** NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship ( 1 time) **

NWA World Welterweight Championship The NWA World Welterweight Championship ( es, Campeonato Mundial Welter de NWA) is an inactive professional wrestling championship governed by the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and most recently promoted by NWA Mexico. The championship was ori ...

(

) ** UWA World Junior Light Heavyweight Championship ( 1 time) **

WAR International Junior Heavyweight Championship The is a professional wrestling championship contested for in the Japanese professional wrestling promotion Tenryu Project. The title was established in 1995 in Wrestle Association R (WAR). There have been a total of 24 reigns shared betwee ...

( 1 time) ** WWA World Junior Light Heavyweight Championship ( 1 time) ** WWF Light Heavyweight Championship ( 1 time) * Pro Wrestling Noah ** Differ Cup (2003) – with Yossino *''

Pro Wrestling Illustrated ''Pro Wrestling Illustrated'' (''PWI'') is an American internationally sold professional wrestling magazine that was founded in 1979 by publisher Stanley Weston. ''PWI'' is headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, and published by Kappa Publi ...

'' **Ranked No. 12 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 1997 * Pro Wrestling Revolution **PWR Heavyweight Championship (1 time, current) *''

Tokyo Sports is a Japanese daily sports newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of ...

'' ** Technique Award (1992) * Toryumon Mexico **

NWA International Junior Heavyweight Championship The NWA International Junior Heavyweight Championship started in 1979. It was formed by a split in lineage from the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship caused by the retirement of champion Nelson Royal the same year. The first champion, St ...

( 2 time, current) **Yamaha Cup (2008) – with Yutaka Yoshie **Yamaha Cup (2012) – with Angélico **Suzuki Cup (2007) – with Kensuke Sasaki and Marco Corleone **Suzuki Cup (2008) – with Alex Koslov and Marco Corleone * Universal Wrestling Association ** UWA World Middleweight Championship ( 5 times) ** UWA World Welterweight Championship ( 1 time) ** WWF Light Heavyweight Championship ( 1 time) *

** WCW Cruiserweight Championship (

) ** WCW World Television Championship (

) * Wrestle And Romance / Wrestle Association R **

(

) **

( 1 time) – with Nobutaka Araya and

Genichiro Tenryu , better known as is a retired Japanese professional wrestler and professional wrestling promoter. At age 13, he entered sumo wrestling and stayed there for 13 years, after which he turned to Western-style professional wrestling. "Tenryu" was h ...

* Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards ** Best Wrestling Maneuver (1996) Running Liger bomb ** Most Underrated (2003) ** Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame ( Class of 2004)

Luchas de Apuestas record

Notes

References

External links

Official blog
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ultimo Dragon 1966 births IWGP Junior Heavyweight champions Japanese male professional wrestlers Japan–Mexico relations Living people Masked wrestlers NWA/WCW World Television Champions Professional wrestling executives Professional wrestling trainers Sportspeople from Nagoya