Último Dragón

Professional wrestling career Early years (1984–1996)

Asai trained in the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) dojo 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.

World Championship Wrestling (1996–1998)

Asai made his American debut for the World Championship Wrestling (WCW) promotion in August 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 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 (1996) when he returned to WCW as the J-Crown champion. Between November 24, 1996 and January 4, 1997 Último Dragón held the WWF Light Heavyweight title simultaneously with the WCW Cruiserweight title. He then feuded with Dean Malenko for the WCW Cruiserweight title which he won at Starrcade 1996. 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 opened, with the vast majority of the roster having been trained by Asai. 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 asked for his release from WWE when he knew WWE wanted to unmask him and went back to Japan immediately.

Return to Japan (2004–present) One month after being released from WWE, Asai quickly picked up a New Japan tour on May 1, 2004. He returned to Mexico by occasionally wrestling for Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL). 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 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, 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, M-Dogg 20, Chris Sabin, Alex Shelley, Jyushin Thunder Liger 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 All Japan Pro Wrestling'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 March 22, 2015, Dragón won another title in All Japan, when he and Kanemaru defeated Mitsuya Nagai and Takeshi Minamino for the All Asia Tag Team Championship. They vacated the title on October 14.

On August 30 and 31, 2014, Dragón participated in a show in Pyongyang, North Korea promoted by the Inoki Genome Federation. He defeated Hajime Ohara on the first day and Heddi French on the second in singles matches.

Acting career Ultimo Dragon starred in two films in 2008. The first was Bloodstained Memoirs, also starring Chris Jericho, Rob Van Dam, Mick Foley and Keiji Muto. 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 Japan Pro Wrestling World Junior Heavyweight Championship (2 times) Canadian National Wrestling Alliance CNWA National Championship (1 time) Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre NWA World Middleweight Championship (2 times) Comision de Box y Lucha D.F. Distrito Federal Trios Championship (1 time) – with Naoki Sano and Hirokazu Hata Dragongate Open the Owarai Gate Championship (1 time) International Wrestling Revolution Group Copa Higher Power (1998) – with Judo Suwa, Lyguila, Magnum Tokyo, Ryo Saito, Shiima Nobunaga and Sumo Fujii International Wrestling Alliance IWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time) IWA Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Michinoku Pro Wrestling British Commonwealth Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time) New Japan Pro-Wrestling IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship (2 times) J-Crown (1 time) British Commonwealth Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Pro Wrestling Illustrated Ranked No. 12 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 1997 Ranked No. 61 of the 500 best singles wrestlers of the "PWI Years" in 2003 Pro Wrestling Revolution PWR World Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Tokyo Sports Technique Award (1992) Toryumon Mexico NWA International Junior Heavyweight Championship (2 time, final) 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) World Championship Wrestling WCW Cruiserweight Championship (2 times) WCW World Television Championship (2 times) Wrestle And Romance / Wrestle Association R WAR International Junior Heavyweight Championship (2 times) WAR World Six-Man Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Nobutaka Araya and Genichiro Tenryu Super J Cup 1995 Contestant Decision Tournament (1995) - with Gedo and Lionheart One Night Tag Team Tournament (1995) - with Genichiro Tenryu 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

Winner (wager)Loser (wager)LocationEventDateNotesYoshihiro Asai (career) Cuchillo (mask and championship) Tokyo, Japan UWF live event June 4, 1990 Último Dragón (mask) Dark Dragon (mask) Barcelona, Spain NWE live event June 25, 2008 Último Dragón (mask) Hajime Ohara (hair) Mexico City, Mexico DragonMania IV August 22, 2009 Último Dragón (mask) Black Tiger V (mask) Mexico City, Mexico DragonMania VI May 14, 2011 Último Dragón (mask) Sushi (mask) Tokyo, Japan AJPW live event December 14, 2014 Último Dragón (mask) Tiger Ali (hair) Mexico City, Mexico DragonMania X