Bruce Lee.
Bruce Lee, goes by his stage name in the story as Great Lee, is a character who is one of Bruce Lee's impersonating successors that came after the death of the famous actor, philosopher and martial artist. This new Lee is a master of both Chinese boxing and kickboxing, and his signature move is the Dragon Stomp. The first time he appeared was in the 21st Budokai against Krillin, in which he tried to use his signature move on Krillin. Krillin simply got up and laughed it off. Afraid, the Lee forfeited the match. Later he was seen in West City charging money to any fighter who challenges him, after defeating a man with a shaved head he takes on Goku and takes several hits to the face before giving up in the same fashion as he did aganst Krillin. He seemed to have gotten stronger, however when he is seen again his voice was not the same as before and he wears blue boxing gloves.
Production[]
Akira Toriyama was a fan of Hong Kong martial arts films, particularly Bruce Lee films such as Enter the Dragon (1973) and Jackie Chan films such as Drunken Master (1978), and wanted to create a manga inspired by martial arts films. This led to Toriyama creating the 1983 one-shot manga Dragon Boy, which he later redeveloped into Dragon Ball. Toriyama wanted to create a story with the basic theme of Journey to the West, but with "a little kung fu." The title Dragon Ball was inspired by Enter the Dragon and later Bruceploitation knockoff kung fu films which frequently had the word "Dragon" in the title. The character Great Lee in the manga is a parody of the Bruceploitation genre and the numerous Bruce Lee impersonators.
According to Toriyama, Goku as an adult developed much more than just being a Jackie Chan-based character, his has a pose and piercing eyes that were based on real-life Bruce Lee's paralyzing glare and fighting stance.
Dragon Ball Z anime character designer Tadayoshi Yamamuro also used real-life Bruce Lee as a reference for Goku's Super Saiyan form, stating that, when he "first becomes a Super Saiyan, his slanting pose with that scowling look in his eyes is all Bruce Lee."