Ultimo Dragon's bio
Height: 5 foot 8
Weight: 180 pounds
Real name: Yoshihiro Asai
D.O.B: 12.12.66
Pro debut: 13.5.87
From: Nagoya, Japan
Trained By: Antonio Inoki, Yoshiaki Fujimara
Current hometown: Mexico City, Mexico
previous ring names: Asai, Principal
tag team partners: Chris Jericho, Genichiro Tenryu, Nobutaka
Titles held:
NWA/WCW Television Heavyweight Title (2 times): 4/97 beat Prince Iaukea; 7/97 beat Lord Steven Regal
WCW World Cruiserweight Title (2 times): 12/96 beat Dean Malenko; 12/97 beat Eddy Guerrero.
IWGP Junior heavyweight title
(2 times): 11/92 beat El Samurai; 10/96 beat The Great Sasuke
.British Commonwealth Junior (formerly Mid) Heavyweight Title (2 times): 8/96 beat Jushin Liger; 10/96 beat The Great Sasuke .
NWA Junior Heavyweight Title: 10/96 beat The Great Sasuke .
WAR International Junior Heavyweight Title (3 times): 7/95 beat Chris Jericho; 10/95 beat Gedo; 10/96 beat The Great Sasuke .
WWF Junior Heavyweight Title (based in Japan): 10/96 beat The Great Sasuke.
UWA Junior-Light Heavyweight Title (2 times): 8/96 beat Shinjiro Otani;10/96 beat The Great Sasuke.
WWA Junior-Light Heavyweight Title: 10/96 beat The Great Sasuke.
NWA Middleweight Title: 11/94 beat Chris Jericho .
UWA Middleweight Title (5 times): 4/90 and 6/90 beat Cuchillo; 3/93 beat Negro Casas; 5/93 beat El Samurai; 2/94 beat Koji Ishinriki.
NWA Welterweight Title (2 times): 8/96 beat Shinjiro Otani; 10/96 beat The Great Sasuke*
UWA Welterweight Title: 7/88 beat Ray Richard.
WAR 6-Man Tag Team Title: 10/96 with Genichiro Tenryu & Nobutaka Araya beat Hiromichi Fuyuki, Yoji Anjo, & Bam Bam Bigelow.
Finishers/signature maneuvers: Asai Moonsault, Dragon sleeper, Asai ddt, La Magistral, quebrada (Lionsault)
Worked for: NJPW, WAR, UWA, WCW and various other Mexican promotions.
Current employer: WWE (part of the SmackDown brand) and owner of Toryumon.
hobbies: In his spare time Asai goes to his Mexican based dojo and likes to drive sports cars.
favorite wrestlers as a child: Tiger Mask(Satoru Sayama), Terry Funk, Antonio Inoki and Mil Mascaras.
Interesting facts: As a child he never missed an episode of the Tiger Mask cartoon.
When training to become a pro wrestler he trained with Chris Benoit, Brian Adams, Darryl Peterson and Osamu Matsuda .
Asai is good freinds with Bill Goldberg.
Yoshihiro Asai started training to become a professional wrestler at the age of 18 in his homeland of Japan. He started of at the bottom of the food chain (the Japanese use a hierarchy system, wrestlers at the bottom cleaned the gear and made the food of the top wrestlers.) He would also do hundreds of Hindu squats and push ups, but he didn't mind. He was driven by his desire to become a pro-wrestler. After debuting (under his birth name) in New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) he found it hard to reach mid card status mainly due to his size. Many Japanese companies wanted physically larger grapplers.
So Ultimo left Japan for Mexico.
In 1990 he debuted in the Mexican lucha Libre Company UWA.
But it wasn't until Mexican promoter Antonio Pena of AAA dubbed him El Ultimo Dragon or "Final Dragon" as in Bruce Lee's last student.
From 1990-1991 he traveled back and fourth from Japan and Mexico. But after he captured the UWA Middleweight title from Cuchillo and the IWGP junior heavyweight title from El Samurai he became one of the most sought after competitors in the world. He eventually signed with the Japanese promotion Wrestling And Romance (WAR), where he won the WAR 6-Man Tag Team Title and became a 3 time WAR International Junior Heavyweight Title and engaged in some classic match ups with Chris Jericho.
He later entered the J-Crown tournament where he won the WWF junior heavyweight title, the UWA Junior light heavyweight title and the NWA Welterweight title. To top this incredible run, he defeated the Great Sasuke to win J-Crown tournament.
In 1996 he debuted in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) as a heel with a hired manager , Sonny Ono. Asai first successfully defended the J-Crown belts against Rey Mysterio Jr. at WCW's World War III 1996.
He later downed "the iceman" Dean Malenko at Starrcade 1996 for the WCW cruiserweight title. After the win, Asai now held nine titles, one of the most impressive feats in pro wrestling. But by 1997 he had set his eyes on the NWA/WCW Television Heavyweight title. He would go on to become a two-time T.V champion. At first people believed he won the T.V title chance because Prince Iaukea (the champion at the time) had been attacked and injured by Lord Steven (William) Regal. He later lost the belt to Regal after Sonny Ono betrayed him and attacked him. Most people at the time believed he deserved it.
But instead of lying down Asai pulled himself back up by defeating Sonny Ono's new protage Psicosis before regaining his belt from Regal via the Dragon sleeper. After the win Asai gained widespread acceptance from the American fans. Even though he would lose the belt to Alex Wright only 1 month later the fans still stuck by him. He would later go on to defeat Eddie Guerrero in December 1997 for the WCW cruiserweight championship.
But as his ability and popularity grew disaster would soon strike.
In 1998 Asai suffered an arm injury and required a routine operation to remove bone chips from his arm. But during the operation a nerve in his arm was inadvertently cut, causing him to lose a huge amount of arm strength. Which in effect ended his illustrious career. Or so it seemed.
To keep himself busy Asai formed his own promotion called Toryumon or "Fighting Dragon's Gate" based in Kobe, Japan. Asai also opened two dojos, one in Kobe and the other in Naucalpan, Mexico. He specialized in training students in his unique form of lucha libre (Mexican) and Puroresu (Japanese) techniques. Bound by a sense of obligation to pass on the knowledge he had gained to the next generation, Asai trained several of the top young wrestlers in Mexico. Like he had did a decade earlier, several young Japanese wrestlers fled Japan for Mexico for the chance to study under Asai.
But driven by his passion for pro-wrestling, he refused to believe that his career was over. So in December 2001, Asai had successful surgery to repair the nerve damage.
And in January 2002, just one month after his surgery Asai announced his return to the ring. He returned on 8th of September 2003 during the special "T2P vs. Toryumon" show in a match against Masaaki Mochizuki. He lasted for nines minutes, before a stiff kick caused his arm to go numb. After the event he went on a successful comeback tour. On the 30th of May 2003 Asai wrestled UDG Champion Cima in his last match for Toryumon. Cima defeated Asai after his Mad (frog) splash. This was seen as a symbolic passing of the torch as Asai had signed with the largest sports entertainment company in the world, Vincent Kennedy McMahon's World Wrestling Entertainment. But before leaving Asai danced in the ring with the "Do Fixer Crew" and parted ways with the Toryumon faithful with a final touching and tearful goodbye speech.
On the 24th of June, Asai accomplished another dream. Wrestling in Madison Square Garden. It was his debut match in WWE, and Asai let no one down defeating Shannon Moore and unveiling his devastating new finisher, the Asai ddt. Since then Asai has defeated the best of what WWE's cruiserweight divison has to offer, including former champions Jamie Noble and Rey Mysterio. Heres hoping he can capture gold in 2004 and can continue his legendary career.
In an industry filled with shameless self promoters, Asai distinguish himself with his modesty and always wanting to put on the best possible match to entertain to crowds. He is a wrestler, promotor and trainer and is living proof that dreams can come!
