South Korean pro wrestler (1954?2018)
Lee Wang-pyo
|
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|
Born
| (
1954-06-11
)
June 11, 1954
Cheonan
, South Korea
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Died
| September 4, 2018
(2018-09-04)
(aged 64)
Seoul
, South Korea
|
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|
Ring name(s)
| Lee Wang-pyo
Jaguar Lee
Rick Wonshu
Lee Hi
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Billed height
| 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in)
[1]
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Billed weight
| 120 Kg (264 Ib)
[1]
|
---|
Trained by
| Kim Il
|
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Debut
| 1975
|
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Retired
| 2015
|
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Lee Wang-pyo
(June 11, 1954 ? September 4, 2018), better known by stage name
Super Dragon
,
[2]
was a South Korean
professional wrestler
and
martial artist
.
[3]
In professional wrestling, Lee was the
promoter
of the top national promotion,
World Wrestling Association
;
[4]
during the 1980s and the 1990s he has been the
babyface
and the
ace
of that promotion, which was called at the time
Korean Wrestling Association
, a position he held until his retirement in 2015.
Lee was one of the most famous professional wrestler in Korean wrestling history.
[5]
He was praised by
Lou Thesz
for his wrestling skills.
[6]
Lee created the martial art known as
gyeokgido
.
[1]
Biography
[
edit
]
He was born in 1954 in a small village in South Chungcheong province in
South Korea
, the second of four children.
[1]
He was notable for his tall stature since young age.
[1]
In elementary school, he was stabbed by an upperclassman. When interviewed about this fact, Lee claimed "The upperclassman couldn’t beat me by force, so he used cowardly means to win".
[1]
He said in an interview that it was in third grade that he decided to practice professional wrestling, inspired by a match involving his future master
Kim Il
that he saw on television.
[1]
In 1975 he began training in professional wrestling in a wrestling gym run by Kim Il: Kim Il notice Lee’s talent and started to personally train the young wrestler.
[1]
Career in professional wrestling
[
edit
]
In 1975 he debuted in the
Korean Wrestling Association
(KWA), which was founded in 1961 by his master
Kim Il
: Lee is now considered his master's successor as the top face of the promotion and his top student.
[7]
The promotion was and still is the top professional wrestling promotion in Korea.
During his career he has wrestled mainly in Korea and
Japan
: particularly, in 1978 Lee wrestled at the
Japan-Korea Triple Competitions
, a series of professional wrestling shows jointly organised by the Japanese
International Wrestling Enterprise
and by the KWA.
[8]
He had also wrestled for
All Japan Pro Wrestling
.
In 1982, he wrestled under the name
Jaguar Lee
in
New Japan Pro-Wrestling
.
In 1985 he became the promoter of KWA, also known as Korean Pro-Wrestling Association (KPWA).
In 1990, he returned to Japan for
Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling
.
In 1993 he won in the KPWA the GWF World Heavyweight Championship and on December 13, 1999 he lost with No Ji Sim to Jason The Terrible and
One Man Gang
in a match for the GWF World Tag Championship.
In 1995, he wrestled for
Tokyo Pro Wrestling
under the name
Lee Hi
.
In 2000 he changes KPWA name to World Wrestling Association: he claimed ties to the original
World Wrestling Association
.
[7]
[9]
Therefore he proceeded to win the revamped version of the WWA World Heavyweight Championship in 2000 defeating
Kurrgan
.
[10]
The KWA/KWPA was affiliated with
National Wrestling Alliance
till 1983; with Wang Pyo as the promoter, the "new" WWA rejoined NWA using
NWA Korea
as an alternative name for the promotion, but still retaining the WWA name.
[7]
On the January 23, 2003 he, along with Kim II, attended the
WWE Raw
show in Seoul.
[11]
On March 21, 2003 in Seoul he defeated
Honky Tonk Man
in a match for the WWA World Heavyweight Championship, before 1,500 fans:
[12]
the match was part of a feud they were having that year.
[12]
In 2008 he defeated cleanly
Kurt Angle
in a WWA show in Korea.
[13]
On November 12, 2008
[14]
he defeated
Bob Sapp
in a match for the WWA World Heavyweight Championship, which was booked as a
MMA
style one, with an armbar submission.
[15]
[16]
The match took place at a
Forever Hero
event at the Olympic Park stadium in Seoul.
[17]
On October 26, 2009, at his second reign, he lost his title in a rematch to
Bob Sapp
at the
Olympic Stadium
in
Seoul
.
[15]
In 2015, he retired after 40 years in the business.
Career in martial arts
[
edit
]
He studied different martial art sports, including
taekwondo
,
judo
and
hapkido
.
[1]
Lee created a legitimate martial art based on his repertoire of wrestling moves, called
gyeokgido
.
[1]
He was a member and a
Grand Master Of Korean Military Arts
of
Korean Martial Arts Instructors Association
.
[3]
Death
[
edit
]
On September 4, 2018, Lee died after a five-year battle with gallbladder cancer. He was 64 years old.
Filmography
[
edit
]
He was well known in South Korea and he has appeared in various media.
- Strike Love
- Korean television drama (2009)
[18]
Championships and accomplishments
[
edit
]
- Korean Pro-Wrestling Association/World Wrestling Association (South Korea)/NWA Korea
In MMA
[
edit
]
Championships and accomplishments
[
edit
]
- Korean Martial Arts Instructors Association
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]