Yoshihiro Asai

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Yoshihiro Asai
Statistics
Ring name(s) Último Dragón
Ultimate Dragon
Asai
Second Tiger
Saigon Dragon
Tiger Dragon
Height 1.72 m (5 ft 7+1⁄2 in)
Weight 85 kg (187 lb)
Billed height 1.68 m (5 ft 6 in)
Billed weight 83.9 kg (185 lb) ,84 kg (185 lb)
Born December 12, 1966 (1966-12-12) (age 41)
Flag of JapanNagoya, Aichi
Trained by Gran Hamada
Debut May 13, 1987 with Naoki Sano and Hirokazu Hata vs. Los Millonarios de la Muerte

Yoshihiro Asai (born December 12, 1966 in Nagoya, Aichi), better known as Último Dragón, is a Japanese professional wrestler. In addition to having trained in Japan, Asai learned to wrestle in the lucha libre style while working in Mexico. Asai is credited with popularizing the "Asai Moonsault", although, contrary to popular belief, he did not invent the move[citation needed].

Contents

Asai debuted in New Japan Pro Wrestling in 1987, but left the promotion along with his mentor, Gran Hamada, to help form Hamada's Universal Lucha Libre promotion. When the ULL went into decline, he moved to WAR.

Asai made his American debut in 1996 as Ultimate Dragon for the now defunct World Championship Wrestling promotion. He used this name for a year in WCW until in late '96 when they realized it was a translation error and his real ring name was Ultimo Dragon. He suffered an arm injury in 1999 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.

In 1997, Asai then became a trainer where he trained three classes of students, "Toryumon Japan", "Toryumon 2000 Project" (T2P), and "Toryumon X". His first class of students worked for WCW early in their career. In 1999 a promotion named Toryumon opened, with the vast majority of the roster having been trained by Asai. Toryumon was later renamed Dragon Gate, with Asai parting 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 and returned to wrestling. In the spring of 2003, he signed with World Wrestling Entertainment as the Último Dragón, seeking to realize his two lifelong goals of competing in Madison Square Garden and performing at WrestleMania. He was brought in on the heels of the signing of Rey Mysterio on the belief that he would make as big of an impact as Mysterio did upon his WWE debut. Asai made his WWE debut at Madison Square Garden on the June 26, 2003 episode of SmackDown! in a match with Shannon Moore, and wrestled there again at WrestleMania XX. His contract expired in 2004 .

Since leaving WWE, Asai has occasionally wrestled for the Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre. He also took part in the short lived promotion dragondoor.

Currently he has been wrestling at UWA Hardcore Wrestling based outside of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He has wrestled against Sonjay Dutt, M-Dogg 20, Chris Sabin, Alex Shelley, and Black Tiger all in the UWA.

  • Finishing and signature moves

  • PWI ranked him # 61 of the 500 best singles wrestlers of the PWI Years in 2003.
  • WWA World Junior Light Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

1Despite Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre keeping the NWA initials as part of these two championships after leaving the National Wrestling Alliance, they are not sanctioned nor recognized as world titles by the National Wrestling Alliance.
²Although he won the championship, the win and reign aren't recognized by World Wrestling Entertainment.

  • Asai is the only professional wrestler to hold 10 titles at the same time.
  • Asai is the second wrestler to hold a WCW and WWF title at the same time. (Ric Flair was the first)

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshihiro_Asai"
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