Toryumon Mexico

Toryumon is a professional wrestling promotion that operates both in Japan 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 Tōryūmon 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. In 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 (WCW) 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" (debut) at the same time. the Ultimo Dragon Gym's first graduating term consistede of CIMA, Don Fujii, Dragon Kid, Magnum Tokyo and SUWA who collectively became known as Toryumon Japan (a name that would be used for the first four terms). Toryumon promoted their first show on May 11, 1997 in Naucalpan, Mexico on a show that was co-promoted with International Wrestling Revolution Group (IWRG). 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 (Spanish for "Key" the lucha libre term for submission locks). 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 casued nerve damage. In 2001 Dragón had another round of surgery on his elbow, restoring the mobility and feeling that the original operation had robbed him off. 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 (WWE) 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 ("Let's go pal" in Spanish) and "Revolucion" ("Revolution") 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 IV held on August 22, 2009.
==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.
Name 	Promoted in 	Last Champion 	Date won	Notes
British Commonwealth Junior Heavyweight Championship	2001–2003	Jun Ogawauchi 	 	Title currently inactive.
NWA International Junior Heavyweight Championship 	2008–2009	Hajime Ohara 	 	Currently promoted by Dradition
NWA International Light Heavyweight Championship 	2002 	CIMA 	 	Inactive
NWA World Welterweight Championship 	1999–2007	Hajime Ohara 	 	Promoted by Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre since 2007.
Último Dragón Gym Championship 	2003–2004	CIMA 	 	Inactive after the Dragon Gate split.
UWA World Trios Championship 	2001–2004	Keni'chiro Arai, Dragon Kid Second Doi	 	Currently promoted by El Dorado
UWA World Welterweight Championship 	2003 	Taiji Ishimori 	 	Promoted by Michinoku Pro
==Annual tournaments==
===Young Dragons Cup===
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.
*1997: Magnum TOKYO
*1998: Genki Horiguchi
*1999: Yasushi Kanda
*2000: Milano Collection AT
*2001: Touru Owashi
*2002: Taiji Ishimori
*2003: Takeshi Minaminno
*2004: Rocky Romero
*2005: Kazuchika Okada
*2006: Kota Ibushi
*2007: Ryuji Yamaguchi
*2008: Satoshi Kajiwara
*2009: Trauma II
*2010: Angelico
===Yamaha Cup===
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 (CMLL).
*2000: Susumu Mochizuki and Yasushi Kanda
*2003: Taiji Ishimori and Shu Sato
*2004: Mini Cima and SUWAcito
*2005: Hiromi Horiguchi and Ryusuke Taguchi
*2006: Johnny Stamboli and Chuck Palumbo
*2008: Último Dragón and Yutaka Yoshie
*2010: Angelico and El Hijo del Fantasma
==Ultimo Dragon Gym students==
Class	Term	Name 	Currently working
 	 	 	Dragon Gate
 	 	 	Dragon Gate
 	 	Dragon Kid 	Dragon Gate
 	 	 	HUSTLE
 	 	 	Retired
 	 	 	Dragon Gate
 	 	 	Dragon Gate
 	 	 	Dragon Gate
 	 	 	Dragon Gate
 	 	 	Dragon Gate
 	 	 	El Dorado
 	 	 	Dragon Gate
 	 	 	Did not graduate - Dragon Gate
 	 	 	Retired
 	 	 	Retired due to injuries.
 	 	 	Dragon Gate
 	 	 	Dragon Gate
 	 	Milano Collection AT 	Retired due to eye injury
 	 	 	El Dorado
 	 	Phillip J. Fukumasa 	Retired
 	 	 	Dragon Gate
 	 	TARUcito 	Retired
 	 	 	Michinoku Pro
 	 	 	Dramatic Dream Team
 	 	 	Dragon Gate
 	 	 	All Japan Pro Wrestling
 	 	 	Dragon Gate
 	 	 	All Japan Pro Wrestling
 	 	(JUN) 	Retired
 	 	 	Semi-Retired
 	 	 	Pro Wrestling Zero1 / Dragon Gate
 	 	 	Dradition
 	 	Flash Moon / Murcielago / Inoue 110 Taiien	Freelancer
 	 	 	Pro Wrestling Noah
 	 	Shu Sato / Brahman Shu 	Michinoku Pro/El Dorado
 	 	Kei Sato / Brahman Kei 	Michinoku Pro/El Dorado
 	 	 	Michinoku Pro
 	 	/ Koichiro Arai 	Michinoku Pro
 	 	 	Michinoku Pro
 	 	/ Ken45° 	Michinoku Pro/El Dorado
 	 	 	Michinoku Pro/El Dorado
 	 	 	Michinoku Pro/El Dorado
 	 	Lambo Miura / Dynamite Tohoku 	Retired
 	 	 	(Did not graduate) Dramatic Dream Team
 	 	 	Dragon Gate
 	 	Bear Fukuda 	El Dorado
 	 	 	Michinoku Pro / Freelance
 	 	 	Never made his debut
 	 	/ Chuuichiro Arai/Amigo Suzuki 	Toryumon Mexico / Dradition
 	 	 	Toryumon Mexico
 	 	/ Spark Aoki 	El Dorado
 	 	GALLARDO / 119 Katayama Taiin 	Retired
 	 	Kondo and Co 	Retired
 	 	TARUcito 2 	Never made his debut
 	 	 	Toryumon Mexico / Dradition
 	 	 	Michinoku Pro/El Dorado
 	 	/ Hercules Oosenga 	Michinoku Pro/El Dorado
 	 	 	Michinoku Pro / Osaka Pro
 	 	 	Pro Wrestling Zero1 / Kensuke Office
 	 	 	New Japan Pro Wrestling / Total Nonstop Action Wrestling
 	 	/ CHANGO 	El Dorado
 	 	/ Rascal Matsuzaki / Pequeno Ninja 	Toryumon Mexico / Dradition
 	 	/ Oscar Hanoka 	Toryumon Mexico / Dradition
 	 	 	Toryumon Mexico / Dradition / Kensuke Office
== External links ==
*Toryumon/Dragon Gate Title Histories
* Profile
Category:Japanese wrestling promotions
Category:Mexican wrestling promotions
Category:Promotions