Toryumon
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Toryumon was the name of Ultimo Dragon's professional wrestling school and the associated professional wrestling promotion. The school had dojos both in Mexico and Japan. The school also ran professional wrestling events under the banners of its graduating groups.
The groups were:
- Toryumon Japan - Its members use a style almost identical to their teacher.
- Toryumon 2000 Project (T2P) - This group used a six sided ring compared to the first group which used four sided rings. Its members used a primarily submission based style called Llave.
- Toryumon X - More lucha libre based compared to the others. This is the only group that is still active under its original name.
When Ultimo Dragon returned from retirement Takashi Okamura took over as the company head. A day after the fifth anniversary of Toryumon's first event, Ultimo Dragon left the company, taking the name and trademarks with him. Toryumon Japan changed its name to Dragon Gate because of this. Dragon Gate returned all the titles it had promoted as Toryumon Japan to the people that held the belts last before they started promoting them.
Since the Dragon Gate split, Toryumon has run in a variety of forms in both Japan and Mexico. Mexico has seen the rise of the latest class of students, trained by Ultimo Dragon and Jorge 'Skayde' Rivera, as well as a variety of international stars, including ex-WWE workers such as Linda Miles and Nidia, and Japanese legends including the Great Muta.
In Japan, the story has been quite different fro the Toryumon brand. The company ran a handful of shows as Toryumon X, highlighting the end of the Ultimo Dragon gimmick, and then returned to relative silence. A group of the remaining Toryumon students (including ousted members of Dragon Gate) joined with the internet-firm Livedoor to create the promotion dragondoor. The response wasn't as positive as hoped, closing after only 6 shows.
In early 2006, the future looked brighter for the Toryumon brand, as Ultimo Dragon announced he'd be running shows featuring the Toryumon Mexico class as well as stars including Tajiri, under the name UDP (Ultimo Dragon Productions). Not to be outdone, the minds behind dragondoor have decided to start a new promotion, debuting in April 2006, titled El Dorado: Next Door Project.
[edit] Titles promoted
- Ultimo Dragon Gym Championship
- NWA World Welterweight Championship
- NWA International Light Heavyweight Championship
- British Commonwealth Junior Heawyweight Championship
- UWA World Welterweight Championship
- UWA World Trios Championship