El Numero Uno

**El Numero Uno** was an annual singles league tournament held in Toryumon Japan to determine the strongest wrestler in the promotion for the year. The tournament would be held over the course of several shows in March and April. Following the tournament's conclusion, several shows that followed would continue on under the *El Numero Uno* tour name.

It was discontinued following the Toryumon split a few months after the last tournament in 2004. It would be succeeded in Dragon Gate with King of Gate, though it changed its format from round-robin to single-elimination.

## Tournament Winners

* 2001: Masaaki Mochizuki
* 2002: Magnum Tokyo
* 2003: CIMA
* 2004: Dragon Kid

## 2001 El Numero Uno

The first El Numero Uno took place over the course of twelve days from March 11-April 14, 2001. In this year's league, there were fifteen participants broken up into three blocks. The points leaders from each block received entry into the tournament. The twelve remaining participants competed in a Dragon Scramble, which occurred the same day as the tournament finale, to become the final entrant.

**Block A Decision 3-Way Match:** Magnum TOKYO defeated Big Fuji and Keni'chiro Arai (April 8 - 10:09)

**Dragon Scramble:** Masaaki Mochizuki defeated Big Fuji, Darkness Dragon, Dragon Kid, Genki Horiguchi, Keni'chiro Arai, Ryo Saito, SAITO, Stalker Ichikawa, Susumu Mochizuki, TARU, and Yasushi Kanda (April 14 - 14:43)

Note: There was a double countout at 9:16, though officials would force a re-start.

## 2002 El Numero Uno

The second El Numero Uno took place over the course of thirteen days from March 21-April 22, 2002. This year's tournament duplicated the first year in using the same league format and the same number of participants.

**Dragon Scramble:** Masaaki Mochizuki defeated Darkness Dragon, Don Fujii, Dragon Kid, Genki Horiguchi, Keni'chiro Arai, Ricky Marvin, Ryo Saito, Stalker Ichikawa, Super Shisa, and TARU (April 22 - 17:28)

† SUWA was injured during his semifinal match and could not continue despite winning. So that Masaaki Mochizuki did not win the tournament on a technicality, it was agreed to have Magnum TOKYO take SUWA's place in the finals.

## 2003 El Numero Uno

The third El Numero Uno took place over the course of seventeen days from March 21-April 22, 2003. This year featured some alterations from the previous years. The field was expanded from fifteen to eighteen as a result of the inclusion of the Toryumon 2000 Project talent. In addition, there would be eight participants with the top two points leaders from each block earning entry and the last two remaining in the Dragon Scramble earning entry.

Furthermore, this year's tournament was to crown the inaugural Ultimo Dragon Gym Championship, which would serve as the top singles championship in Toryumon Japan.

K-ness. was injured prior to the start of the league matches. He was considered day-to-day, so he was not replaced. However, he was not medically cleared to compete just before each match, resulting in him losing all of his matches by forfeit.

**Block B Decision 3-Way Match:** SUWA defeated Condotti Shuji and Masaaki Mochizuki (April 20 - 10:18)\*

\* = SUWA pinned Condotti Shuji, so Masaaki Mochizuki inherited the second position and entry into the tournament by default.

**Block C Decision Match:** CIMA defeated Dragon Kid (April 20 - 11:39)

**Contendership Dragon Scramble:** Genki Horiguchi and Susumu Yokosuka defeated Anthony W. Mori, Condotti Shuji, Don Fujii, Dragon Kid, Keni'chiro Arai, Ryo Saito, Second Doi, TARU, Toru Owashi, and "brother" YASSINI (April 22 - 17:01)\*

\* = Toru Owashi replaced K-ness., who had forfitted all of his league matches due to injury.

## 2004 El Numero Uno

The fourth and final El Numero Uno took place over the course of 25 days from March 6-April 25, 2004. This year was similar to the previous year in having eighteen initial participants and a three-round tournament format. The biggest difference was that there would be one winner of the Dragon Scramble and would not only earn entry into the tournament, but would also advance automatically into the semifinals.

An addition to the year was the determination of the weakest participant of the entire league. If two had the same low score and none were victorious in the Dragon Scramble, they would compete in a match where the loser would be considered the weakest wrestler of the year as opposed to the winner of the whole tournament considered the strongest.

This year was heavily marred by injuries that took place as league matches were going on. As a result, the time-frame was extended in the hopes the participants could recover. When it was determined that they would not be healed in time, changes were made in order for the tournament to proceed.

\* = Was Henry III Sugawara until after March 26, when he turned on Anthony W. Mori and joined Aagan Iisou under his real name.

\* = Ryo Saito was injured following his match on April 2. When it was determined that he would not recover in time to resume his participation, Naoki Tanizaki was chosen to fill in for him beginning April 18. Furthermore, SUWA was injured following his match on April 3. His remaining match was to have been against Saito. With both injured, it was decided their match would be canceled. This left Tanizaki, taking over for Saito, and Doi for second position, as SUWA could not compete further, resulting in a decision match.

**Block B Decision Match:** Naoki Tanizaki defeated Second Doi (April 24 - 9:13)

**Dragon Scramble:** Shuji Kondo defeated Anthony W. Mori, Don Fujii, Genki Horiguchi, Keni'chiro Arai, Milano Collection AT, Second Doi, TARU, Takuya Sugawara, YOSSINO, and "brother" YASSHI (April 25 - 15:20)

**Maximum Weakest determination Match:** Don Fujii defeated "brother" YASSHI (April 25 - 9:40)