Demeanor:  

Red Dragon is a fan-favorite. His high-impact wrestling style, sense of honor and old school attitude made him very popular with wrestling fans around the world.

​Entrance:   

The lights in the arena suddenly cut out, plunging it into complete darkness. After a few seconds, “Kirisute Gomen” by Trivium starts to play. Red strobe lights flicker across the crowd as the eerie guitar intro plays and suddenly, a wall of fire shoots up across the front of the stage. As the song explodes with the words He who walks through fire breathes and Red Dragon bursts on to the stage in time with a series of pyro explosions, looking menacing in the dragon mask that covers the bottom half of his face. He presses his right fist into his open left palm, bowing as part of his martial arts code of honor before walking down to the ring, loosening up his arms, wrists and hands as he reaches the ringside area. Red Dragon climbs the ring steps and flips over the ropes effortlessly. He removes his gi, belt and his dragon mask before acknowledging the fans as his music fades out.

​Appearance:

Red Dragon is very distinguished looking but with an edge to him, like any experienced martial arts Sensei. He has long, black hair with a shaved undercut, his long hair usually tied into a bun or ponytail. Red Dragon is Asian-American with a well-conditioned build and wears crimson red gi trousers with a black belt around his waist. Over his upper torso, he wears a typical sleeveless gi jacket, which is red also with black trim and a dragon logo emblazoned across the back. Red Dragon also sports a menacing mask which he removes before his matches.

​Wrestling Style:

Puroresu/Technical/Submission. Red Dragon is a Grandmaster in Shotokan Karate and also holds a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He mixes his 25 years of martial arts experience with a technically-gifted understanding of Puroresu and mat-based wrestling and submissions that make him a terrifying competitor inside the ring. Red Dragon was trained by legendary Japanese wrestler the Great Muta and in the ring has adopted many of his nuances into his in-ring style of wrestling.

​Pre-Finisher:

"Dragon Fire" (A spray of red mist into the face of an opponent)

“Flight of the Dragon" (Springboard Dragonrana)

​Finisher: 

"Dragon Death Lock" (Gogaplata Shin Choke)

"Becoming the Dragon" (A 360 jumping spinning roundhouse kick to the jaw of an opponent, knocking them out instantly)

"Dawn of the Death Star” (The opponent is lifted into a fireman's carry position before being swung round and over into a Michinoku Driver-style landing, planting the opponent on the back of their head and neck, transitioning into a pinning combination)

​Background: 

Matthew Kiriyama was born in Okinawa, Japan to an American mother and Japanese father. He didn’t spend a lot of time in his country of birth after his family relocated to Sacramento, California when he was just six years old.  Matthew was taught martial arts from a very young age with his father being a sixth Dan black belt in Shotokan Karate. Matthew earned his junior black belt at 10 years old, earning his first full Dan as an adult when he was 14. 

Matthew got into professional wrestling in his late teens, travelling back to Japan and working as a young lion in the New Japan Pro Wrestling where he was trained by the Great Muta. He quickly earned a promising reputation thanks to his martial arts experience, using this to his advantage and combining it with the Japanese puroresu style. 

In 2002, Matthew adopted in the ring name Red Dragon, and joined the Worldwide Wrestling Coalition. He spent a couple of years enjoying moderate success. He won their International Championship and also their World Championship right before the company closed down after their owner, Malice Maverick, suddenly passed away and his family members elected to share their stakes in the company to pay off his estate. It was also during his tenure with WWC that Matthew met future best friends Butch Parker and Hans von Richtoven. 

After this, Matthew took a break from wrestling to focus on his martial arts. He opened a karate school in his hometown of Sacramento and also went on a pilgrimage back to his birthplace of Okinawa where he was awarded the rank of Grandmaster for his services to Shotokan. Not long after, Matthew would also earn his brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. In 2004, Matthew received a call from his friend Butch Parker advising of a wrestling company he was currently working offer that would be perfect for his style called HWA.

Matthew was slightly apprehensive to return to professional wrestling. After all, he had enjoyed a stress-free two years of running his own martial arts schools. Nevertheless, Matthew tentatively made the short journey to Los Angeles to meet with the HWA’s Head of Talent Relations and Recruitment. After a lengthy conversation, Matthew signed an initial three-year contract with HWA, adopting a new persona of Black Dragon. He quickly realigned himself with old friends Butch Parker and Hans von Richtoven, forming the stable known as the Imperium. 

Matthew, as Black Dragon, wouldn’t take long to find success and notoriety. He established himself as an exciting performer due to his agility, speed and technical abilities combined with his martial arts prowess. In his first appearance in a pay-per-view event, Matthew defeated HWA Hall of Famer David Hollis for the coveted United States Championship. However his reign as champion wouldn’t last long. In November of 2004, Matthew was viciously attacked backstage by Hans von Richtoven, as part of a ruse where he also betrayed Butch Parker and joined The Horde - HWA’s most dominant faction. Hans would attack Matthew with a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire, knocking him and taking his ring gear to attack Butch as well. The following night, still suffering with a concussion from the attack by Hans, HWA owner Senester forced Matthew to defend his United States Championship against Hans. The match was short but brutal. Such was the brutality Matthew suffered that he was placed into a medically-induced coma that he did not wake from for over four years. 

Upon awaking from his coma, Matthew had suffered a significant form of amnesia. He recognized everyone he knew from before but anything that transpired before he was attacked by Hans before he couldn’t remember. He returned to HWA as his first wrestling moniker, Red Dragon, and realigned with Butch and Hans who had since put their past differences behind them in the time Matthew was in hospital. Both Butch and Hans tried to figure out a way to let him know what happened when suddenly, after a bump to the head in a match, his memory came flooding back. It took all of Butch’s reasoning as well his own sense of honor to make Matthew see sense and not try and take revenge on Hans for what he did to him and the years of his life cost. But he did and he was able to move on and three of them reformed the Imperium, becoming one of the most popular HWA factions of all time, adding Hans’ younger brother Heinrich to their ranks as well as newcomer Logan Neilson as an honorary member.

Over the next few years, sensing his time in professional wrestling was coming to an end, Matthew slowly stepped away from the squared circle after he decided it wasn’t worth it anymore. He returned home to Sacramento and back to his martial arts schools. Then, in 2016, he was approached by old friend Butch Parker who it just so happened had taken over as HWA co-owner along with his wife, Wisdom.  Butch had asked him if he would like to come and work with him behind the scenes and run the Training Academy he was setting up to help train the next batch of professional wrestling superstars. 

Sensing something different this time around, Matthew didn’t hesitate and he now enjoys a relatively stress-free life running Butch’s wrestling academy. He enjoys a great life working alongside the Parkers as the Head Coach, making his mark on professional wrestling and forging careers for the likes of Sean Parker, Matt Miller, Michelle Learner, Sarah Callahan and Jeremy Branson.

​Career Highlights: 

WWC International Champion, WWC World Champion, HWA United States Champion