Emmanuel Muñoz González (born May 15, 1995) is a Mexican professional wrestler. As of December 2022, he is signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw brand under the ring name Dragon Lee, and is a member of the Latino World Order.
A second-generation wrestler, he is best known for his work for the Mexican promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), where he is a two-time CMLL World Lightweight Champion and a one-time CMLL World Welterweight Champion. Lee is also known for his work in Ring of Honor (ROH), where he is a two-time ROH World Television Champion and ROH World Tag Team Champion with La Faccion Ingobernable teammate Kenny King, and New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), latterly wrestling under the name , where he is a former IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion. He joined WWE in December 2023, where he wrestled on the NXT brand, and within a year, had become the NXT North American Champion.
Muñoz is the son of professional wrestler Arturo Muñoz, known under the ring name La Bestia del Ring. He is the second person to use the Dragon Lee ring persona and mask, the first Dragon Lee being his older brother, Carlos, who now wrestles under the ring name Dralístico. He also has another brother, William, who works under the ring name Rush.
Early life Emmanuel Muñoz González was born on May 15, 1995, in Tala, in the Mexican state of Jalisco, son of professional wrestler Arturo Muñoz, who had worked as Toro Blanco, Poder Boriqua, Poder Mexico, and Comandante Pierroth over the years. His two older brothers grew up to become professional wrestlers as well, with the oldest of the brothers, William, making his wrestling debut in 2008 and would later become known as "Rush". Another of his brothers, Carlos, became a professional wrestler in 2011, adopting the masked character Dragon Lee initially. In 2012, the original Dragon Lee was offered the opportunity to take over the Místico character after the original wrestler under the Místico mask left Mexico. It was public knowledge that Dragon Lee had taken over the Místico character, leaving the mask and character of Dragon Lee behind. Muñoz's uncles are also professional wrestlers, known as Franco Columbo, Pit Bull I, and Pit Bull II; they all had a hand in training Muñoz prior to his professional wrestling debut. At the age of 14, his father took him to Mexico City to start training in amateur wrestling, participating in several wrestling events. He would also participate in boxing; as Muñoz recalls in a 2015 interview, he was disqualified during his first match for performing a suplex (a wrestling throw) on his opponent. At that point, he realized that his future was in professional wrestling.
Professional wrestling career
Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (2013–2019)
Generacion 2014 (2013–2014) Muñoz began training in Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre's (CMLL) gym in 2013, making his first public appearance as Dragon Lee on November 20, winning the beginners category of CMLL's 2013 Bodybuilding Contest. He made his in-ring debut on January 1, 2014, in the La Copa Junior ("The Junior Cup") tournament, eliminating Herodes Jr. before being the third man eliminated by Cachorro. Lee was referred to as part of CMLL's Generacion 2014, a group of wrestlers who all made their debut around January 2014, also including Black Panther, Cachorro, Espiritu Negro, Flyer, Hechicero, El Rebelde and Star Jr. A month later, he was paired with older brother Rush in the Torneo Gran Alternativa ("Great Alternative Tournament"), an annual tag team tournament where a rookie teams up with an experienced wrestler. They defeated Negro Casas and Canelo Casas in the first round and Herodes Jr. and Shocker in the quarter-finals, before losing to Bárbaro Cavernario and Mr. Niebla in the semi-finals.
On March 25, Lee was one of sixteen wrestlers in a torneo 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. Lee, alongside Cachorro, Cavernario, Guerrero Negro Jr., Hechicero, Star Jr., Soberano Jr. and Super Halcón Jr., survived and qualified. The first round consisted of a round-robin tournament where he wrestled against all other participants, after which each wrestler was given points by a panel of judges and from an online poll. The first round saw Lee in fourth place with 423 points following victories over Cachorro, Guerrero Negro Jr. and Soberano Jr., qualifying him for the second round along with Cavernario, Hechicero and Cachorro. Lee ended in third place with 198 points by only defeating Cachorro. At the CMLL 81st Anniversary Show on September 19, Lee teamed with Cachorro and Blue Panther to defeat Felino, Puma and Tiger. On December 9, he unsuccessfully challenged Virus for the CMLL World Lightweight Championship.
Feuds with Kamaitachi and La Máscara (2015–2017) In early 2015, Lee started a storyline rivalry with Japanese wrestler Kamaitachi after having faced each other many times the previous year. They were paired for the Torneo Nacional de Parejas Increíbles ("National Incredible Pairs Tournament"), where rivals team together, but lost in the first round to Mephisto and La Máscara on February 20, after which Kamaitachi stole Lee's mask. The rivalry culminated on March 20 at Homenaje a Dos Leyendas ("Homage to Two Legends") in a mask vs. mask Lucha de Apuestas ("bet match"), where Lee defeated Kamaitachi, forcing him to unmask. On April 5, Lee defeated Virus for the CMLL World Lightweight Championship, his first professional wrestling championship. On May 15, Lee outlasted Cavernario, Fuego, Kamaitachi, Luciferno, Mephisto, Místico, Niebla Roja, The Panther, Titán, Virus and Volador Jr. to win the first round torneo cibernetico of the Leyenda de Plata ("The Silver Legend") tournament, but lost to Negro Casas in the finals on May 22. Over the following months, Lee successfully defended the title against Kamaitachi on four occasions. On September 18, Lee, Místico and Valiente defeated Casas, Cavernario and Mr. Niebla at the CMLL 82nd Anniversary Show. By virtue of holding a title, he participated in the Universal Championship tournament on October 2, defeating Luciferno in the first round, but lost to Shocker in the quarter-finals.
At Homenaje a Dos Leyendas on March 18, 2016, Lee, Máscara Dorada, Místico and Valiente defeated Fujin, Kamaitaichi, Okumura and Raijin. Lee and La Máscara were paired for the Torneo Nacional de Parejas Increibles on April 22, defeating El Terrible and Máximo in the first round before losing to Atlantis and Gran Guerrero in the quarter-finals. They began a feud in the summer, which sprung from La Máscara's feud with the entire Muñoz family after the dissolution of he and Rush's stable, Los Ingobernables ("The Ungovernables"); the feud initially focused on Rush and La Máscara before shifting from Rush to Lee. On September 2, at the CMLL 83rd Anniversary Show, Lee defeated La Máscara in a Lucha de Apuestas to win the second mask of his career. On October 21, Lee participated in that year's Universal Championship tournament, defeating Luciferno in the first round, before losing to La Máscara in the quarter-finals. They were again paired for the Torneo Nacional de Parejas Increíbles on February 17, 2017, losing to Último Guerrero and Valiente in the first round.
Final storylines and departure (2017–2019) Lee, Stuka Jr. and Titán defeated Los Guerreros Laguneros (Euforia, Guerrero and Niebla Roja) at Homenaje a Dos Leyendas on March 17. He competed in the Reyes del Aire ("Kings of the Air") tournament, but was eliminated from the torneo cibernetico on April 7 by Hechicero. Nine days later, he successfully defended the CMLL World Lightweight Championship against Cavernario. On November 24, Lee, Místico and Pierroth participated in the family-oriented Copa Dinastías ("Dynasties Cup") tournament, but lost to Nueva Generación Dinamita (El Cuatrero, Forastero and Sansón) in the finals. As part of their slowly developing feud, Lee and Sansón participated in the Torneo Nacional de Parejas Increíbles on February 9, 2018, losing to Carístico and Euforia in the first round. He, Místico and Rush defeated Forastero, Sansón and Máscara Año 2000 on March 16 at Homenaje a Dos Leyendas.
At Sin Piedad ("No Mercy") on January 1, 2019, Lee, Penta 0M and King Phoenix defeated El Cuatrero, Forastero and Templario. Lee then participated in that year's Universal Championship on February 2, where he defeated Forastero in the first round and Carístico in the quarter-finals, before losing to El Terrible in the semi-finals. On March 15, at Homenaje a Dos Leyendas, Lee, Caristico and Volador Jr. unsuccessfully challenged Los Guerreros Laguneros for the CMLL World Trios Championship. Four days later, Lee became a double champion, defeating Mephisto for the CMLL World Welterweight Championship. On August 5, he received the opportunity to become a triple champion, but failed to defeat Volador Jr. for the NWA World Historic Welterweight Championship. On September 27, CMLL announced that they had fired both Lee and Rush for not following guidelines set by the programming department. According to Dave Meltzer, CMLL was not happy with Lee, who participated in Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG)'s Battle of Los Angeles after they told him to not work in the tournament.
New Japan Pro-Wrestling (2016–2020) 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, Lee was attacked by Kamaitachi, which led to a match the following day, where Lee lost the CMLL World Lightweight Championship. Lee regained the championship from Kamaitachi on March 4 when the two had a rematch in Mexico City.
On January 5, 2017, Lee made a surprise return to NJPW at New Year Dash!!, attacking 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. He also took part in the Fantastica Mania 2017 tour, successfully defending the CMLL World Lightweight Championship against Bárbaro Cavernario on January 20. Lee unsuccessfully challenged Takahashi for the Junior Heavyweight Championship on February 11 at The New Beginning in Osaka. In May, Lee realized one of his goals in professional wrestling, when he was announced as a participant in the 2017 Best of the Super Juniors tournament. In his opening match of the tournament on May 17, Lee handed Takahashi his first singles loss since returning to Japan at the end of 2016. Lee finished the tournament on May 31 with a record of four wins and three losses, failing to advance to the finals. Lee returned to NJPW in October, teaming with Titán in the 2017 Super Jr. Tag Tournament, from which they were eliminated in the first round by Bushi and Takahashi. At Power Struggle on November 5, he and Titán lost to The Young Bucks. In May 2018, NJPW announced Lee as a participant in the 2018 Best of the Super Juniors tournament. He finished the tournament with three wins and four losses, failing to advance to the finals. At G1 Special in San Francisco on July 7, Lee again unsuccessfully challenged Takahashi for the Junior Heavyweight Championship.