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Dragon Lee (2018)

125 Pts.



Dragon Lee is one of the most athletically gifted wrestlers in the world and it’s always a treat to see him in New Japan Pro Wrestling. Lee’s first appearances this year were for the annual Fantastica Mania tour, a co-promoted series of shows with New Japan’s partner promotion CMLL. Lee was one of many luchadores brought over from Mexico for the tour, where he mainly competed in tag matches against Los Ingobernables de Japon due to his eternal rivalry with Hiromu Takahashi. On the final two nights of the tour, he and his brother Mistico competed in a four-team “brothers” tag tournament. They defeated El Cuatrero & Sanson in the semifinals, but lost in the finals to Gran & Ultimo Guerrero.


Lee returned in the spring for his third Best of the Super Juniors as part of a stacked B Block. His matches were some of the best of the entire tournament, including his battles against SHO (5/19), Takahashi (5/25), and El Desperado (6/3). Lee finished the tournament with only six points, but his win over Takahashi proved fruitful later in the summer. After Takahashi defeated Will Ospreay at Dominion to win the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship, he successfully defended it against Desperado at Kizuna Road and then named Lee as his next challenger. The two clashed for the title at G1 Special in San Francisco and were well on their way to an instant classic (which often happens when Hiromu and Dragon Lee wrestle each other) when disaster struck. Lee gave Hiromu the Dragon Driver (a move he had safely performed numerous times before, including on Takahashi just a few months prior to win their BOSJ match) and accidentally released him from his grip instead of holding him for the package pin. This caused Hiromu to land directly on his neck at an awkward angle while skidding across the ring. The two were able to finish the match, but it was later revealed that Hiromu had suffered a neck fracture and would be on the injured list for quite some time. It was a tragic moment, but one that was recognized as purely accidental and not Dragon Lee’s fault.

Lee was expected by many to take part in the Super Jr. Tag League in October. Before he could, he first had to compete on a Mexican reality game show on a tropical island called Extalon. Dragon Lee ended up staying on that island a lot longer than he probably wanted to because he wound up having to miss the entire tournament. Oops.