Ultimo Dragon Gate - The Ultimo Dragon Source

Rey Gives Ultimo Dragon Props on His Successful Debut

Ultimo Dragon News - 06.29.03

Down, down, down - this site keeps going down. Yes, thw wonders and miracles of the Lycos/Tripod connection has insured all of us that you will probably never read or see this update. Dragon debuted this past Thursday on the MSG Smackdown. I can't really label Ultimo's debut as anything more than just "successful." The match was decent, he and Moore seemed to hit their marks on most of the spots and the finisher was quite impressive. Other than that Ultimo's debut was just kind of "there." I think it would've went a lot better had they built Ultimo up a bit more in the past few weeks. I mean, when they were pimping Rey out his video packages were on EVERY SHOW whether it was smackdown-related or not. Dragon's stuff was put out here and there with a very "eh, whatever" attitude. I recently rewatched the Toryumon vs. T2P show from September of '02 and I have to say that Dragon looked much more impressive in the ring in his exhibition match with Mochizuki than he did in his match with Moore on Thursday. They seemed to be setting up a three-way feud between Rey/Ultimo/Kidman for the cruiserweight title. I like the idea of Rey/Ultimo - I'm not too keen on Kidman. I'm not a big Kidman fan, never have been.

Ultimo Dragon News - 06.12.03

Again, not very much news to report on Dragon. Got caught up with the last two weeks of dark matches with Dragon defeating Shannon Moore last week and Jamie Noble earlier on this week. WWE.com has posted a brief article on Dragon with quotes from him, Chavo, and Rey about his wrestling career and his dream to work Madison Square Garden. The article is a good cliff's notes version of Dragon's career. Click Here to read...

Ultimo Dragon News - 06.03.03

Not much news to report. There's a radio station in New York that is promoting the 6/24 Smackdown taping as Ultimo Dragon's WWE debut. I have no idea if this is legit or not. The first Dragon video package aired on Smackdown last week looking exactly like the one they aired for Rey Mysterio. My only fear is that fans won't take to Dragon and will view him as a rip off of Rey-Rey. As you can tell I officially switched servers, hopefully Tripod will be a little more stable than Geocities was. I've uploaded some new pics into the "Posed" and "Action" sections of the photo galleries. Many, Many thanks to "Jackasscoley15" who attended the 5/27 Smackdown and took a picture of Dragon in his match against Crash. If this is any sign, it looks as if Dragon won't be wearing those new masks he debuted a few weeks ago - thank god.

Ultimo Dragon News - 05.28.03

If you're actually reading this, congratulations! The website has been experiencing some down time because of hits jumping a bit due to Dragon's "WWE Debuts" over the past two days. Geocities is quite awful with bandwidth and data transfer, so I might have to look into switching servers for the site should the popularity start to jump. Dragon beat Rico in a dark match on RAW and Crash in a dark match on SmackDown!. Even though dark matches don't really count, I'm still adding it to the comeback tour results listing. According to spoilers, WWE will be airing an Ultimo Dragon video package to prepare us for his debut in the near future. So "set those vcrs and call the neighbors" hardy-har-har. I'm pretty sure most of you won't get that reference. Rey-Rey is pretty much running away with the poll as ya'll want to see him get it on with Dragon. I guess the news of Dragon going to Smackdown didn't really get through to some people as votes for Chris Jericho, Christian, and RVD are coming in on the write-ins. MAD PROPS, YO to the guy who wants to see Ultimo Dragon vs. Yoshi Kwan. Finally, the dream match can come to life! Poor, Chris Champion...

Ultimo Dragon News - 05.18.03

Bunch of stuff to report over the past week plus. On May 9th Dragon competed in the EMLL Torneo Cibernetico Grand Prix. If you don't know what that means, you're not alone. Basically (from what I gather) it's a huge 16-Man Tag match with eight mexican workers taking on eight toryumon/japanese workers. Lucha Libre tag matches tend to be huge clusterf**ks to begin with, let alone with 16 guys. It came down to Ultimo and Dr. Wagner Jr. - Wagner Jr. getting the win and the trophy. This will supposedly remain as Dragon's last match before joining WWE. Many thanks to a young man by the name of Brian Reinbolt for sending along info on not only the match but the entire EMLL show and the picture you see above. After all the build-up surrounding Dragon's NWA Middleweight title match with Sasuke and UDG Belt match with CIMA, Dragon vacated the title on May 13th. Which leaves me to wonder, a) Why make it a title match with Sasuke in the first place? and b) Why not unify it with CIMA's UDG Belt following the loss? A tournament will be held to crown a new NWA Middleweight Champion. Thankfully EMLL will crown the new champion, Toryumon doesn't need anymore belts right now. Dragon was supposed to "debut" for WWE tonight and then work dark matches on the 19th and 20th. Visa problems, however, have set those plans back. As soon as the problems are cleared up expect Dragon to start working in the states.

Ultimo Dragon News - 05.07.03

Ultimo Dragon held a press conference earlier today to officially announce that he has signed a contract with World Wrestling Entertainment and will be debuting at the Judgment Day pay-per-view on May 18th. Dragon said in his press conference that he's a little nervous about returning to the states since he's been gone for nearly six years, but he's looking forward to working MSG at some point in the near future. Dragon will be wearing a new version of his mask which is pictured above. His ring attire, however, has yet to be revealed. If you're a really big fan of Ultimo, or actually know how to read japanese, you can check out the news story on SportsNavi by Clicking Here.

Ultimo Dragon News - 05.05.03

More catching up to do with this update as there were several comeback tour results that I hadn't posted. Dragon did indeed defeat The Great Sasuke to win the NWA Middleweight Title. Sasuke's four-plus year streak of holding the strap has finally come to an end. This is Dragon's second reign as NWA Middleweight Champion. Dragon originally won the title in 1994 and held it for four years (like Sasuke) before vacating the title in 1998 because of that pesky "career ending" arm injury. I would expect Dragon to drop the strap to CIMA in their big match tomorrow. I find it highly unlikely that Dragon would keep the belt and/or beat CIMA before going to the states to wrassle for World Wrestling Entertainment. The logical booking decision is to put over CIMA and further establish him as a big player/draw in the company with Dragon being away. We'll find out tomorrow what happens, but hopefully that'll be what goes down.

Ultimo Dragon News - 04.22.03

I'm a little late with some of the stuff I'm about to report but screw it. I'll inform you of stuff you should already know. In a shocking twist, CIMA won the El Numero Uno tournament. CIMA plowed past Susumu Yokosuka in the quarterfinals and predicted winner of the tourney YOSSINO in the semis before defeating Genki Horiguchi, who earned a spot by being a Dragon Scramble, in the finals. Genki actually beat teammate and Do Fixer leader Magnum Tokyo in the quarterfinals. They then ran an angle where Tokyo was angry with Genki and threw down his shirt. Ultimo competed on the show as well and reportedly pulled off a Quebrada for the first time since his return to the ring. Dragon was supposed to face Sasuke for the NWA Middleweight Title. However, due to Sasuke's political obligations, the match was postponed and moved to the Michinoku Pro May 5th show. Also, there's been an email address change. From now on if you want to contact me please send an email to nick@puroresufan.com. More comeback tour results have been updated.

Ultimo Dragon News - 04.15.03

A couple interesting things have happened since I last updated. First and foremost, it seems that the wait for Dragon to join World Wrestling Entertainment is almost over. Bob Magee, of Pro Wrestling Between the Sheets reported about a week ago that Ultimo Dragon expects to join WWE sometime in May. Should this be true, it'll be interesting to see how they would introduce Ultimo to the WWE fans. In my opinion, they should make Ultimo a heel. Build him up by running video packages of his WCW matches similiar to the way they did Rey Mysterio. Ultimo could debut claiming that he and Rey were the best cruisers in the world and really tight friends in WCW and then he went down with a serious injury. But, Rey wasn't there with him after that. Rey didn't care - he went off and did his own thing. They could build from there, making Ultimo a vicious bad ass in the cruiser division. Have him take guys like Billy Kidman to school on a few occasions to showcase his abilities. Anyway, enough fantasy booking. Great Sasuke has officially accepted Dragon's NWA Middleweight Title challenge for the April 22nd Toryumon show at Yoyogi National Gym II. It'll be just like the old days...hopefully. I still would love to see Ultimo and Lyger hook it up sometime soon and I just might. It's been rumored that Michinoku Pro has booked Sumo Hall in Tokyo on July 15 and are hoping to book Lyger/Kanemoto to defend their IWGP Jr. Tag Titles against Ultimo/Sasuke. Comeback tour has been updated with a few more results. On the 4/13 show, Milano Collection AT and Magnum Tokyo fought in a El Numero Uno match that went to a 30 minute draw. As Jae of Toryumon USA said, the match will either be amazing or a complete train wreck. Lastly, Hayabusa, who was paralyzed following a botched Asai Moonsault in a match against Mammoth Sasaki in October of 2001, was able to stand on his own power at the last WMF show. Here's a Picture. God speed, Eiji. I'll get a new poll up soon...

Ultimo Dragon News - 03.25.03

Dragon's comeback tour is updated with a couple more results and it is now organized. So, if for some reason you're too lazy to scroll all the way down you can click on the link for "March" located next to the top of the comeback tour listing. Toryumon USA reported that Dave Melzter reported that Dragon has verbally agreed to a deal with WWE. All of you may now commence pissing your pants in enjoyment...or you can just, you know, not. He'll probably go to Smackdown and work with all the other cruisers. It'd be awesome to see some Benoit vs. Ultimo matches, I'll tell you what.

Site Update - 03.21.03

New site design. I'm gonna get a poll up asking what all of you think about it. Personally, I feel this one is a little more "fancy and professional" than the prior one with slightly better graphics. I kept the same basic look, adding a little "criss-cross" theme. Toryumon is about to set it off with the big annual El Numero Uno tournament. My money's on Milano Collection AT. Rey-Rey ran away with the poll getting 60% of the vote. Followed by Dragon with 22%, Lyger with 8% and so on and so forth. Dynamite Kid and Tiger Mask got surprisingly no love from you guys. Wasup wit dat? One person actually made a quality write in, voting for the dean of chain wrestling (ha! Dean! Get it? I'm so witty.) Dean Malenko. This left me to wonder why the hell I left Deano off the list. Some guy voted for Red - ha, I laugh at you. Someone voted for themselves - prompting mad heel heat from me, son. and El Dandy got nothing. WHY?! It's EL DANDY! Everyone loves El Dandy. Jae (is he going by Jae now? I'm not sure) who runs Toryumon USA is keeping track of the El Numero Uno tournament. So if you want to keep up to date on all the wins, losses and points, Click Here and don't bug me about it.

Ultimo Dragon News - 03.19.03

Ok, so "I'll post the first batch of photos tomorrow" really meant: "I'm gonna post in two weeks when I'm not so lazy." Anyway, the photos are up and posted. Some brand new pics for all of you that are, for the most part, exclusive to this site. Once again my many thanks go out to "Eric H." for sending me these photos. Latest Dragon news has him being signed by WWE as soon as a few months from now. Word is that with the recent injury hits to the Smackdown roster (Edge, Angle) WWE will book Dragon to be Rey Mysterio's new tag team partner. This'll be off the hizzle fo' shizzle if it comes into fruitation. Come back tour is updated as well - pretty soon I'm gonna break it up into months.