Último Dragón

Yoshihiro Asai (浅井嘉浩), better known by his ring name Último Dragón (ウルティモ・ドラゴン), is a Japanese professional wrestler and actor currently signed to Dragon Gate, where he acts as an in-ring talent, trainer and senior advisor.

In addition to having trained in Japan, Asai learned to wrestle in the lucha libre style while working in Mexico.

He is credited with popularizing the "Asai Moonsault".

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.

In 1991, he signed with the Mexican Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) promotion.

In CMLL, he adopted the Último Dragón mask and persona.

"Último Dragón", which means "Last Dragon" in Spanish, was initially a gimmick that saw Asai claiming to be the last student taught by legendary martial artist Bruce Lee, 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 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.

On October 11, 1996, Asai won the J-Crown, 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.

From December 29, 1996, through January 4, 1997, he concurrently held ten titles, a record which still stands.

Asai made his American debut for the World Championship Wrestling (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 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 J-Crown 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, before losing the title on the first WCW Thunder to Juventud Guerrera.

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.

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 in November.

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.

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.

From 2013 until 2019, he competed primarily for All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) as a freelancer.

In 2019, he joined Dragon Gate as a senior advisor and wrestler.