Lee Wins CMLL Gold
On August 25, 2014, it was announced that Dragon Lee would team up with fellow rookie Cachorro for the CMLL 81st Anniversary Show. This marked Dragon Lee’s first appearance at CMLL’s Anniversary Shows, the promotion’s most important show of the year. They were scheduled to compete in the first match against the brother-duo of Puma and Tiger. Dragon Lee won his first professional wrestling championship on April 5, 2015. He defeated Virus to capture the CMLL World Lightweight Championship.
In January 2016, Dragon Lee made his Japanese debut by taking part in the CMLL and New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) co-produced Fantastica Mania 2016 tour. On the fifth show of the tour, he successfully defended the CMLL World Lightweight Championship against Virus. After the match, Dragon Lee was attacked by Kamaitachi. This led to a match the following day, where Dragon Lee lost the CMLL World Lightweight Championship. Dragon Lee regained the championship from Kamaitachi on March 4th when they had a rematch in Mexico City.
In January 2017, Dragon Lee took part in the Fantastica Mania 2017 tour. He successfully defended the CMLL World Lightweight Championship against Bárbaro Cavernario. On September 27, 2019, CMLL announced that they had fired both Dragon Lee and Rush for not following guidelines set by the programming department.
Dragon Lee Debuts for Ring of Honor
Dragon Lee made his Ring of Honor (ROH) debut on September 30, 2016. Lee’s debut was at the ROH’s All Star Extravaganza VIII, in a victory over Kamaitachi. Lee then competed in a three-way match for the ROH World Television Championship against Marty Scurll and Will Ospreay but was unsuccessful.
At the 2019 Final Battle show, Dragon Lee defeated Shane Taylor to win the ROH World Television Championship. On December 15, 2019, Dragon Lee joined his brother RUSH, Amy Rose, and Kenny King in forming La Faccion Ingobernable, turning heel. Following this, Lee started to wrestle more aggressively, and wear darker colors. On February 10th, Dragon Lee and King defeated The Foundation to win the ROH World Tag Team Championships. Both of these reigns ended at ROH’s 19th anniversary show as Lee was sidelined with an ear injury.
Dragon Lee Returns to NJPW
Dragon Lee made a surprise return to New Japan Pro Wrestling on January 5, 2017. He attacked Hiromu Takahashi (the former Kamaitachi) and Tetsuya Naito during their match against Kushida and Michael Elgin. Following the match, Dragon Lee posed with Takahashi’s IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship belt. Lee unsuccessfully challenged Takahashi for the title on February 11 at The New Beginning in Osaka.
The following May, Dragon Lee was announced as a participant in the Best of the Super Juniors 24 tournament. In his opening match of the tournament on May 17, Dragon Lee defeated Hiromu Takahashi and then finished the tournament with a record of four wins and three losses, thus failing to advance to the finals. On G1 Special in San Francisco, Lee unsuccessfully challenged Hiromu Takahashi for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship. But at the G1 Supercard on April 6, 2019, Dragon Lee defeated Taiji Ishimori and Bandido in a triple threat match to win the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship for the first time.
Dragon Lee changed his ring name to Ryu Lee and challenged Jyushin Thunder Liger on December 8, 2019. On January 5th, Lee and Takahashi successfully defeated Liger and Naoki Sano in a tag match. It was then announced that at the New Beginning in Osaka, Lee would once again challenge Takahashi for the Jr. Heavyweight title.
Dragon Lee Wrestles on the Independent Circuit
While working for CMLL, Dragon Lee was able to take independent bookings for days when he was not needed for CMLL shows. This allowed Dragon Lee to work on both the Mexican and US independent circuit, mainly against other CMLL wrestlers. In early 2018, he challenged Shane Strickland for the PCW Light Heavyweight Championship as part of PCW’s Opposites Attack pay-per-view show, but lost. He then competed in the All Pro Wrestling/Pro Wrestling Revolution jointly promoted “King of Indies” tournament on July 6, 2018. He defeated Ryusuke Taguchi in the first round, Brody King in the semi-finals and Flip Gordon to win the whole tournament.
Lee appeared in Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide promotion at the press conference on November 7, 201. He was announced as a challenger to the AAA Mega Championship against Kenny Omega in Triplemanía Regia, but was defeated in his debut.
Dragon Lee Debuts for AEW
Lee made his All Elite Wrestling (AEW) debut on the August 17th edition of Dynamite. He participated in the first round of the AEW World Trios Championship tournament. Dragon Lee teamed with La Facción Ingobernable members Andrade El Idolo and his brother Rush to take on The Young Bucks and their mystery partner, who was revealed to be Kenny Omega. The match ended with Omega and the Bucks winning, after Omega pinned Lee. After the match El Idolo and Rush attacked Lee and removed his mask.
Dragon Lee Joins WWE
After defeating FTR with his brother, Dralistico, for the AAA World Tag Team Championships, Lee announced he had signed a contract with WWE in December 2022. On March 21, 2023, Dragon Lee was chosen as one of Wes Lee’s opponents. The match was a fatal five-way for the NXT North American Championship at NXT Stand & Deliver on April 1. Lee did not win the match. During NXT Battleground in May, Lee challenged Noam Dar to the NXT Heritage Cup, but lost due to interference from Jakara Jackson and Lash Legend.
On the August 8th episode of NXT, Lee, with Rey Mysterio in his corner, failed to win the NXT North American Championship from Dominik Mysterio. During the week of September 25th, Lee appeared in all three of WWE’s brands (RAW, NXT and SmackDown). On the September 25 episode of RAW, Lee again failed to defeat Dominik for the title. The following day, on NXT, Lee lost a fatal four-way match for a chance to earn a NXT North American Championship opportunity against Dominik at NXT No Mercy. It was later announced that Lee would serve as the special guest referee for the title match at No Mercy.
Dragon then made an appearance in the crowd on the September 29th episode of SmackDown. Lee got into an altercation with Austin Theory. Lee later attempted to save the Latino World Order when they were attacked by The Street Profits and Bobby Lashley but was held back by security. Dragon Lee wrestled his main roster debut match on the October 6 episode of SmackDown where he defeated Austin Theory in a singles match.
Dragon Lee Wins NXT Gold
At the NXT Deadline pay-per-view, Dragon Lee defeated “Dirty” Dominik Mysterio for the NXT North American Championship. Three days later, Lee successfully defended the North American Championship in his first title defense against Tyler Bate. On the January 9, 2024 episode of NXT, Lee successfully retained his title against Lexis King. After the match, Oba Femi cashed in his NXT Breakout Tournament contract and defeated Lee to win the title, ending Lee’s reign at 31 days. On February 4th at Vengeance Day, Lee failed to win back the title from Femi in his rematch.
Dragon Lee Drafted to RAW
Lee had recently become an official member of the Latino World Order and was scheduled to team up with Rey Mysterio for a match against Santos Escobar and Dominik Mysterio on Night 1 of WrestleMania XL. Lee was, however, found attacked backstage, rendering him unable to compete. On the April 26th episode of SmackDown, Lee made his return from the attack and teamed up with Mysterio to defeat Los Lotharios (Angel and Berto) in a tag team match. After the match, Escobar revealed that it was Carlito who had attacked Lee. Carlito then proceeded to attack both Lee and Mysterio after Escobar’s revelation. At Night 2 of the 2024 WWE Draft, LWO were drafted to RAW.
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