Dragon Lee II

Dragon Lee
Birth name Muñoz González (first name not revealed)
Born May 15, 1995
Tala, Jalisco, Mexico
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s) Dragon Lee
Billed height 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Billed weight 75 kg (165 lb)
Trained by Alfredo Pineda
Franco Colombo
Pierrothito
Pit Bull I
Arthur Muñoz
Debut January 1, 2014 (CMLL)

Dragon Lee (II) (born May 15, 1995 in Tala, Jalisco, Mexico) is a Mexican luchador enmascarado, or masked professional wrestler currently working for the Mexican professional wrestling promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) portraying a tecnico ("Good guy") wrestling character. Dragon Lee's real name is not a matter of public record, as is often the case with masked wrestlers in Mexico where their private lives are kept a secret from the wrestling fans.[1] Dragon Lee is the son of professional wrestler Arthur Muñoz, who is currently working for CMLL under the ring name Comandante Pierroth, although the family relationship is not acknowledged on CMLL's shows. He is the second person to use the Dragon Lee ring persona and mask, the first Dragon Lee is the current' Lee's older brother Carlos, who now wrestles under the ring name Místico. Dragon Lee has another brother, William, who works under the ring name Rush.[2] Dragon Lee was voted the 2014 Rookie of the Year by readers of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. In April 2015, Dragon Lee won his first professional wrestling title, the CMLL World Lightweight Championship.

Personal life

The man known under the ring name Dragon Lee was born on May 15, 1995 in Tala, in the Mexican state of Jalisco, son of professional wrestler Arthur Muñoz, who had worked as Toro Blanco, Poder Boriqua, Poder Mexico and Comandante Pierroth over the years. Dragon Lee's two older brothers grew up to become professional wrestlers with the oldest of the brothers, William, made his wrestling debut in 2008 and would later become known as "Rush".[3] Another of Dragon Lee's brothers, Carlos, became a professional wrestler in 2011, adopting the enmascarado (masked) character Dragon Lee at the time.[4] In 2012 the original Dragon Lee was offered the opportunity to take over the Místico character after the original performer left Mexico. It was public knowledge that Dragon Lee had taken over the Místico character, leaving the mask and character of Dragon Lee behind.[5][6] Dragon Lee's uncles are also professional wrestlers, known as Franco Colombo, Pit Bull I and Pit Bull II and all had a hand in training Dragon Lee prior to his professional wrestling debut.

Professional wrestling career

Muñoz began training in Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre's (CMLL) gym in 2013, working towards a contract to become a regular wrestler for CMLL. He made his first public appearance as Dragon Lee on November 20, 2013 when he competed in CMLL's 2013 Bodybuilding Contest, winning the beginners category while CMLL regulars Pequeño Olimpico and Stukita took second and third place.[7] He made his in ring debut for CMLL on January 1, 2014 as part of the 2014 La Copa Junior tournament. During the match Dragon Lee eliminated Herodes, Jr., but was himself eliminated by Cachorro as the third man eliminated in the tournament that was eventually won by Super Halcón, Jr.[8] Dragon Lee was referred to as part of CMLL's Generacion 2014, a group of wrestlers who all made their debut around January, 2014 and also included Black Panther, Cachorro, Espiritu Negro, Flyer, Hechicero, El Rebelde and Star, Jr. A month after his CMLL debut Dragon Lee participated in the 2014 Torneo Gran Alternativa ("Great Alternative") tournament, which is an annual a tag team tournament that has a wrestling rookie team up with an experienced wrestler for the tournament. For the tournament Dragon Lee teamed up with older brother Rush for the tournament. In the first round the brothers defeated Negro Casas and Canelo Casas, then defeated Herodes, Jr. and Shocker in the second round before losing to eventual tournament winners Cavernario and Mr. Niebla in the tournament semi-final.[9] On March 23, 2014 Dragon Lee was one of 16 wrestlers in a tornero cibernetico (elimination) match, hoping to qualify for one of eight spots in CMLL's annual En Busca de un Ídolo ("In search of an idol") tournament. Dragon Lee was one of the eight survivors of the match alongside Cachorro, Cavernario, Guerrero Negro, Jr. Hechicero, Star, Jr., Soberano, Jr. and Super Halcon, Jr. and thus qualified for the actual tournament.[10] The first round consisted of a round-robin tournament where he wrestled against all other participants. Following the matches each wrestler was given points by a panel of judges as well as points from an online poll. The first round saw Dragon Lee in 4th place with 423 points following victories over Cachorro, Guerrero Negro, Jr. and Soberano, Jr., 423 points qualified him for the second round along with Cavernario, Hechicero and Cachorro. Dragon Lee only defeated Cachorro during the second round, landing him in 3rd place with 198 points.[11] On August 25, 2014 it was announced that Dragon Lee would team up with fellow rookie Cachorro for the CMLL 81st Anniversary Show, marking Dragon Lee (and Cachorro'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.[12] In early 2015, Lee started a storyline rivalry with Kamaitachi,[13] which culminated on March 20 at Homenaje a Dos Leyendas in a Mask vs. Mask Lucha de Apuestas, where he was victorious.[14]

On April 5, 2015, Dragon Lee won his first title, when he defeated Virus to capture the CMLL World Lightweight Championship.[15]

Championships and accomplishments

Lucha de Apuesta record

Wager Winner Loser Location Date Notes
Mask Dragon Lee Kamaitachi Mexico City March 20, 2015 [Note 1][14]

Footnotes

  1. As part of the 2015 Homenaje a Dos Leyendas show.

References

  1. Madigan, Dan (2007). "Okay... what is Lucha Libre?". Mondo Lucha Libre: the bizarre & honorable world of wild Mexican wrestling. HarperColins Publisher. pp. 29–40. ISBN 978-0-06-085583-3.
  2. Ruiz Glez, Alex (February 25, 2011). "Rush Habla después de ganar el campeonato mundial semicompleto del CMLL" (in Spanish). SuperLuchas Magazine. Retrieved July 31, 2011.
  3. "Rush". Récord (in Spanish). Retrieved July 31, 2011.
  4. "Dragon Lee". Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (in Spanish). Retrieved June 20, 2012.
  5. "Místico con alma de Dragón.... ¡Las Amazonas del ring en jaula!". Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (in Spanish). June 21, 2012. Archived from the original on June 21, 2012. Retrieved June 21, 2012.
  6. Boutwell, Josh (June 23, 2012). "Viva La Raza! Lucha Weekly". WrestleView. Retrieved June 23, 2012.
  7. 7.0 7.1 Reyes Ruiz, Eduardo (November 20, 2013). "Astral Mr. CMLL y Dalys destronó a Dark Ángel". Estrelllas del Ring (in Spanish). Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre. Retrieved August 29, 2014.
  8. Salazar López, Alexis A. (January 2, 2014). "Resultados Arena México Miércoles 1º de Enero '14". Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (in Spanish). Archived from the original on January 2, 2014. Retrieved January 2, 2014.
  9. Rodríguez, Alejandro (February 16, 2014). "Con 'sucia' victoria, Niebla y Bárbaro Cavernario alcanzan la Gran Alternativa". MedioTiempo (in Spanish). MSN. Retrieved August 30, 2014.
  10. Valdés, Apolo (March 26, 2014). "Lista la tercera edición de 'En Busca de un Ídolo'". MedioTiempo (in Spanish). Retrieved August 3, 2014.
  11. "Resultatos date=June 21, 2014". En Busca de un Idolo (in Spanish). Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre. Retrieved August 3, 2014.
  12. "Tiger y Puma buscaran abrir el aniversario del CMLL con una victoria". Medio Tiempo (in Spanish). August 26, 2014. Retrieved August 27, 2014.
  13. Valdés, Apolo (February 11, 2015). "Dragon Lee y Kamaitachi, por las máscaras en H2L". MedioTiempo (in Spanish). MSN. Retrieved March 23, 2015.
  14. 14.0 14.1 Valdés, Apolo (March 21, 2015). "Dragon Lee desenmascaró a Kamaitachi". MedioTiempo (in Spanish). MSN. Retrieved March 21, 2015.
  15. 15.0 15.1 Salazar López, Alexis (April 6, 2015). "Resultados Arena México Domingo 5 de Abril '15". Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (in Spanish). Archived from the original on April 6, 2015. Retrieved April 6, 2015.
  16. "La Máscara se convirtió en 'Mr. CMLL'". MedioTiempo (in Spanish). November 26, 2014. Retrieved November 27, 2014.
  17. Meltzer, Dave (January 26, 2015). "Jan. 26, 2015 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: 2014 awards issue w/ results & Dave’s commentary, Conor McGregor, and much more". Wrestling Observer Newsletter (Campbell, California): 22. ISSN 1083-9593.