Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (2013–2019) Muñoz began training in
Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre's (CMLL: Spanish for "World Wrestling Council") 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 won the beginners category of CMLL's 2013 Bodybuilding Contest. He made his in-ring debut for CMLL on January 1, 2014, as part of the 2014
La Copa Junior tournament. During the match, Lee eliminated
Herodes Jr., but was the third man eliminated by
Cachorro. 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, Lee participated in the 2014
Torneo Gran Alternativa ("Great Alternative") tournament, an annual
tag team tournament that has a wrestling rookie team up with an experienced wrestler; he teamed up with older brother Rush. They defeated
Negro Casas and
Canelo Casas in the first round and Herodes Jr. and
Shocker in the second round, before losing to eventual tournament winners
Bárbaro Cavernario and
Mr. Niebla in the semi-final. On March 23, Lee was one of 16 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 was one of the eight survivors of the match alongside Cachorro, Cavernario,
Guerrero Negro Jr., Hechicero, Star Jr.,
Soberano Jr. and
Super Halcón Jr. and thus qualified for the actual tournament. 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 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. Lee only defeated Cachorro during the second round, landing him in 3rd place with 198 points. On August 25, it was announced that Lee would team up with fellow rookie Cachorro for the
CMLL 81st Anniversary Show, marking his 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. In early 2015, Lee started a
storyline rivalry with Japanese wrestler
Kamaitachi, which culminated on March 20 at the
Homenaje a Dos Leyendas ("Homage to Two Wrestlers") show in a
Lucha de Apuestas (or "bet match"), with both wrestlers risking their mask on the outcome. Lee defeated Kamaitachi two falls to one, forcing his rival to unmask. On May 15, Lee outlasted Bárbaro Cavernario,
Fuego, Kamaitachi,
Luciferno,
Mephisto,
Místico,
Niebla Roja,
The Panther,
Titán, Virus and
Volador Jr. to win the first round
torneo cibernetico of the 2015
Leyenda de Plata ("Silver Legend") tournament, one of CMLL's most prestigious annual tournaments. On May 22, he lost to Negro Casas in the finals. During the summer of 2016, Lee became involved in a rivalry with
La Máscara, which sprung from La Máscara feuding with the entire Muñoz family; La Máscara and Rush had teamed together as
Los Ingobernables for years, but the group had broken up over the summer. Initially, the feud focused on Rush and La Máscara but later changed focus from Rush to Lee. On August 5, Lee made a challenge for a Mask vs. Mask
Lucha de Apuestas between the two, which was accepted by La Máscara. On September 2, at the
83rd Anniversary Show, Lee defeated La Máscara to win the second mask of his career. On September 27, 2019, CMLL announced that they had fired both Dragon Lee and Rush for not following guidelines set by the programming department. According to
Dave Meltzer, CMLL was not happy with Lee, since he participated in
Pro Wrestling Guerrilla's
Battle of Los Angeles, after they told him to not work in the tournament.
Ring of Honor (2016–2021) Dragon Lee made his
Ring of Honor (ROH) debut on September 30, 2016, at ROH's
All Star Extravaganza VIII, in a victory over Kamaitachi. On December 2, 2016, at
Final Battle, Lee was unsuccessful in a three-way dance for the
ROH World Television Championship, against champion
Marty Scurll and
Will Ospreay, where Scurll retained his title. On December 13, 2019, at
Final Battle, Dragon Lee defeated
Shane Taylor to win the
ROH World Television Championship. On December 15, Dragon Lee joined his brother
Rush, Amy Rose, and
Kenny King in forming
La Faccion Ingobernable, turning
heel. Following this, Lee started to wrestle a more aggressive style, and wear darker colors. On February 10, (recognized as February 27 due to tape delay), Dragon Lee and King defeated The Foundation (
Jay Lethal and
Jonathan Gresham) to win the ROH World Tag Team Championship for the first time, thus making Lee a dual champion. Both of these reigns ended at the
ROH 19th Anniversary Show, when Lee was sidelined with an ear injury. King lost the Television title on Lee's behalf to Foundation member
Tracy Williams, as well as dropping the tag team championship to Williams and his Foundation stablemate, King's former tag team partner,
Rhett Titus. On November 21, 2021, Lee lost the title against
Dalton Castle.
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, 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. The following 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 the following October, teaming with Titán in the
2017 Super Jr. Tag Tournament, from which they were eliminated in the first round by
Bushi and Takahashi. On May 7, 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. On
G1 Special in San Francisco, Lee unsuccessfully challenged Takahashi for the Junior Heavyweight Championship. On April 6, 2019, at the
G1 Supercard, Lee defeated
Taiji Ishimori and
Bandido in a triple threat match to win the Junior Heavyweight Championship for the first time, and in the process, became the third Mexican to hold the title (behind
Juventud Guerrera and
Místico, who were the first and second, respectively). On December 8, 2019, Dragon Lee, now having changed his ring name to Ryu Lee, challenged
Jyushin Thunder Liger to be Liger's final opponent at
Wrestle Kingdom 14. On January 5, 2020, he 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 Junior Heavyweight title.
Independent circuit (2018) While working for CMLL, Dragon Lee was allowed to take independent bookings for days where he was not needed for CMLL shows, allowing him to work on both the Mexican and United States
independent circuit, mainly against other CMLL wrestlers. In early 2018, he unsuccessfully challenged
Shane Strickland for the PCW Light Heavyweight Championship as part of PCW's
Opposites Attack pay-per-view. On July 6, Lee competed in the
All Pro Wrestling/Pro Wrestling Revolution jointly promoted "King of Indies" tournament, defeating
Ryusuke Taguchi in the first round,
Brody King in the semi-finals and
Flip Gordon to win the whole tournament. On October 9, 2021, at
Héroes Inmortales XIV, Lee returned for AAA accompanied by his brother
Dralístico, challenged
Los Lucha Bros (
Fénix and
Pentagón Jr.) for the
AAA World Tag Team Championship, after they had retained the title over
Jinetes del Aire (
Hijo del Vikingo and
Laredo Kid).
All Elite Wrestling (2022) Lee made his
All Elite Wrestling (AEW) debut on the August 17 edition of
Dynamite, participating in the first round of the
AEW World Trios Championship tournament, where he 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 emerging victorious, after Omega pinned Lee. After the match, El Idolo and Rush attacked Lee and removed his mask.
WWE (2022–present) NXT North American Champion (2022–2024) On December 28, 2022, after defeating
FTR for the
AAA World Tag Team Championship at
AAA Lucha Libre: Noche de Campeones with his brother,
Dralístico, Lee announced that he had signed a contract with
WWE and that he expected to start working with them in January 2023. On March 21, 2023, Dragon Lee was chosen as one of
Wes Lee's opponent in a match for the
NXT North American Championship at
NXT Stand & Deliver on April 1, where he took part in a
fatal five-way match for the title in a losing effort. At
NXT Battleground in May, Lee challenged
Noam Dar for Dar's
NXT Heritage Cup but lost due to interference from
Jakara Jackson and
Lash Legend. From August to December 2023, his first storyline in WWE was a feud with
Dominik Mysterio, who was the NXT North American Champion. Lee faced Mysterio several times for the title, but was defeated each time. Lee began to appear on
SmackDown in September and was quietly drafted to the brand. Lee faced
Santos Escobar at
Survivor Series: WarGames, but Lee lost the match. At
NXT Deadline, Lee defeated Dominik to win the
NXT North American Championship, marking his first title win in WWE. On the December 12 episode of
NXT, 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 4 at
Vengeance Day, Lee failed to win back the title from Femi in his rematch.
Latino World Order (2024–present) 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. However, Lee was found attacked backstage, which rendered him unable to compete in the match. On the April 26 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 the
Raw brand. In November, Lee joined the
Speed Championship #1 contender's tournament, defeating NXT's
Tavion Heights and Raw's
Akira Tozawa in the quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively. He then received a bye to the championship match, where he defeated
Andrade to win the
WWE Speed Championship during the November 15 tapings of
Speed, which aired on November 20. He held the title until May 5, when he lost it to
El Grande Americano. On July 25, Lee made his return to AAA (now the sister promotion of WWE) at Alianzas, where he,
Dominik Mysterio, and
El Grande Americano accepted the open challenge of
AAA Mega Champion El Hijo del Vikingo, leading to a four-way match for the title being scheduled at
Triplemanía XXXIII, which was won by Vikingo. On the October 20 episode of
Raw,
AJ Styles and Lee won the
World Tag Team Championship by defeating
Finn Bálor and
JD McDonagh of
The Judgment Day. On December 13 at
Saturday Night's Main Event XLII, Lee and Styles defeated
NXT wrestlers
Je'Von Evans and
Leon Slater. On the December 29 episode of
Raw, they lost the World Tag Team Championship to
The Usos, ending their reign at 70 days. At the
2026 Royal Rumble, Lee entered the match at number 19 and was eliminated by Bronson Reed. == Personal life ==