Ultimo Dragon Talks Traveling With John Cena, Botched Hand Surgery

Ultimo Dragon and John Cena may not seem to have much in common, but they actually spent time traveling together during Ultimo’s time in WWE.

During an appearance on a recent episode of Chris Jericho’s Talk Is Jericho podcast, Ultimo Dragon, whose real name is Yoshihiro Asai, talked about his travel group during his WWE tenure: Funaki, the Basham Brothers… and Cena, who actually did most of the driving.

Asai described Cena as “a very good guy. Very, very good guy.“

Amused at the seemingly random collection of wrestlers traveling together, Jericho asked Asai how Cena became part of that group.

“I don’t know,” Asai said. “Maybe Funaki. John Cena is [a] very good friend of Funaki. People are surprised, no? What? You [Cena] are [the] driver? I don’t think so.“

Cena hasn’t been driving the car for anyone for quite some time on WWE trips, traveling by personal bus instead. 

“It’s so strange but it’s very typical John,” Jericho added. “John’s a strange guy to be around.“

Ultimo Dragon made his televised debut in WWE in June of 2003 but was gone from the company less than a year later. He came to WWE after being out of active wrestling for about six years due to nerve damage that was suffered during a surgery to repair an arm injury while he was in WCW.

Asai told Jericho he needed the surgery just to have bone chips removed, but instead, the doctor cut his medial nerve.

“He f—ed up,” he said of the doctor. “He f—ed up other guys. Maybe not only me. Maybe three, four guys. … He’s a bad doctor.“

After returning to Japan, Ultimo Dragon told Jericho he had three more surgeries by doctors in Japan over the next six years before he could return to the ring. During that time, he opened the Toryumon promotion, which became the predecessor to the current Dragon Gate promotion in Japan. Even though he has returned to the ring, Ultimo Dragon told Jericho he still has numbness issues and can’t even grab the ring ropes with his left hand.

Click here to listen to Ultimo Dragon’s entire interview with Jericho.