Toryumon (Último Dragón)


Toryumon 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 is best known under the name Último Dragón. Tōryūmon is a coined word that means Fighting Dragon Gate. The word is coined after the homonym 登龍門 that literally means climbing up dragon gate and means gateway to success. The promotion was originally created to give graduates of the Último Dragón Gym a promotion to gain their initial in-ring experience in, it developed a major following and grew into becoming one of the hottest independent promotions in the country. The promotion would run for five years. On July 4, 2004, Último Dragón left the promotion and took the name and trademarks with him. The wrestlers and officials decided to adopt the name Dragon Gate and continue in the traditions of Toryumon. Since then Último Dragón has promoted Toryumon mainly in Mexico but also holds occasional shows in Japan.

History

During his time working for World Championship Wrestling in the United States Japanese wrestler Último Dragón decided to open up a wrestling school in Naucalpan, Mexico to give Japanese hopefuls the chance to learn the Mexican lucha libre style like Dragón had. The wrestling school operated after the same principles of a university, divided into classes with several terms where wrestlers would "graduate" at the same time. The Ultimo Dragon Gym's first graduating term consisted of Cima, Don Fujii, Dragon Kid, Magnum Tokyo and Suwa who collectively became known as Toryumon Japan. Toryumon promoted their first show on May 11, 1997, in Naucalpan, Mexico on a show that was co-promoted with International Wrestling Revolution Group. Toryumon and IWRG would co-promote shows in Japan from 1997 until 2001, allowing the Ultimo Dragon Gym graduates to work on IWRG shows and even saw several graduates wrestlers win IWRG Championship. Through his contacts with WCW Último Dragón also arranged for some of his first term graduates to wrestle on World Championship Wrestling shows. On January 1, 1999, Toryumon held its first show in Japan and from that point forward began promoting regular shows in Japan. Toryumon's combination of traditional Japanese Puroresu, Mexican Lucha Libre and elements of Sports Entertainment that Último Dragón had observed while working for WCW such as outside interference and referee's being knocked out, something that at the time was not traditionally used in Japanese wrestling. The second class of Último Dragón Gym graduates began their own promotion, called the Toryumon 2000 Project, or T2P for short. The T2P promotion debuted on November 13, 2001, and became known for their use of the six-sided wrestling ring, the first promotion to regularly use such a ring shape. T2P wrestlers primarily used a submission based style called Llave. T2P ran until January 27, 2003, when the roster was absorbed into Toryumon. The third graduating class was known as "Toryumon X" and like T2P also started their own promotion under their class name. Toryumon X made its debut on August 22, 2003, and lasted until early 2004.
Último Dragón had been forced to retire from active competition in 1998 after a mistake during an elbow surgery that caused nerve damage. In 2001 Dragón had another round of surgery on his elbow, restoring mobility and feeling. Following his rehabilitation Último Dragón made his return to active wrestling on a Toryumon / T2P co-promoted pay-per-view on September 8, 2002. In the following months Dragón wrestled regularly for Toryumon and various companies around the world. Because of his active scheduled Último Dragón stepped down as the director of Toryumon leaving the job to Takashi Okamura. Okamura handled the job while Dragón began working full-time for World Wrestling Entertainment in the United States. After his run with WWE ended Dragón returned to Japan and announced that he was leaving Toryumon and taking all the trademarks he owned with him. Toryumon Japan changed its name to Dragon Gate as a result of this, continuing the traditions of Toryumon Japan including references to Último Dragón. Since the break Toryumon has primarily promoted shows in Mexico, featuring students trained by Dragón and Jorge "Skayde" Rivera and a number of wrestlers from various Mexican and American promotions.
In Japan a group of remaining Toryumon students, including ousted members of Dragon Gate, joined with the internet-firm Livedoor to create the promotion dragondoor, a promotion that only ran six shows. The group launched another wrestling venture in 2006 called El Dorado: Next Door Project.

Shows and events

Toryumon Japan ran a series of PPVs under the names Vamonos Amigos and "Revolucion" as well as an annual anniversary show. They also held an annual Numero Uno League that became one of the highlights of the promotional year. Since the split in 2004 Toryumon has not promoted any major shows or PPVs, focusing their promotional efforts on Toryumon Mexico. In Mexico Dragón promotes an annual DragonMania show, with the last being DragonMania XI held on May 28, 2016.
In August 2017 Toryumon Mexico started working with All Japan Pro Wrestling in with a collaborated event tour called Lucha Fiesta.

Championships promoted

Before the Dragon Gate split in 2004 Toryumon Japan promoted a series of championships, only one of which originated in the promotion, Último Dragón Gym Championship, the rest were either bought from its previous owner or acquired after promotions closed. When the promotion turned to Dragon Gate all its championships were vacated, leaving only the Toryumon Mexico promoted titles.
NamePromoted inLast championDate wonNotes
British Commonwealth Junior Heavyweight Championship2001–2003Jun OgawauchiTitle currently inactive.
NWA International Junior Heavyweight Championship2008–2009Hajime OharaCurrently promoted by Dradition
NWA International Light Heavyweight Championship2002CimaInactive
NWA World Welterweight Championship1999–2007Hajime OharaPromoted by Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre since 2007.
Último Dragón Gym Championship2003–2004CimaInactive after the Dragon Gate split.
UWA World Trios Championship2001–2004Kenichiro Arai, Dragon Kid Second DoiCurrently promoted by DDT Pro-Wrestling
UWA World Welterweight Championship2003Taiji IshimoriPromoted by Michinoku Pro

Annual tournaments

Suzuki Cup

Suzuki Cup is a Team Tournament that began in 2007
Every year Toryumon Mexico holds the Young Dragons Cup, an annual tournament that began in 1997. The tournament is used to showcas Dragon Gym students. Originally it was a traditional single-elimination tournament, in 2006 it was changed into a torneo cibernetico and has had that format ever since. Rocky Romero, Kota Ibushi, Ryuji Yamaguchi and Trauma II are the only tournament winners who were not actually trained by Último Dragón.
Toryumon Mexico holds the Yamaha Cup about once a year, although there have been years without a Cup. The Yamaha Cup is a tag team tournament that features a mixture of Último Dragón trainees and a combination of wrestlers from the Mexican Independent circuit, IWRG and Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre.