* ActingForTwo: Notably, the ninjas that served as Mooks throughout the show were not just played by extras; most were, in fact, played by the WMAC Masters (male and female both) who didn't have any fight scenes that episode, as it allowed the producers to keep cast size down and allow the actors to get more screen time and choreography practice in. The only Master who was exempt from this was Hakim "The Machine" Alston, as his massive frame (he stood at 6'4", towering over the rest of the cast) would have immediately given him away, even in ninja garb.
* ActorAllusion:
** Just about everything about "Superstar" Ho Sung Pak is meant to remind you that he played [[Franchise/MortalKombat Liu Kang]]; not only did his fighting gear resemble a PaletteSwap of Liu Kang's, he used the same Bruce Lee kiais even though his specialty was said to be Kung Fu and not Jun Fan, and even his picture on the VersusCharacterSplash was of him doing the pose for Liu Kang's fireball. Fortunately it only went that far, with Pak's character written presumably closer to his real personality.
** Richard "Yin Yang" Branden actually was blind in one eye as a result of a childhood injury, which affected his martial arts training. Despite being a lauded forms performer on the competitive circuit, he never entered free sparring as he felt it would be too dangerous for him to do so.
* AllStarCast: Of a sort. Although none of the show's cast would be considered an A-lister in the world of ''acting'', nearly all of them were massive names in the world of competitive martial arts, including multiple Olympic medalists (Herb "Olympus" Perez and Lynette "Tarantula" Love) and numerous NASKA (North American Sport Karate Association) champions. The only notable exception was Erik Betts who, despite a storied career in stunt-work, had little formal martial arts training, practicing what he described as "Hollywood Kung Fu", a self-taught style that mixed martial arts basics from whatever he could pick up at free seminars with his extensive gymnastics and acrobatics background.
* CastTheExpert: Basically the whole point of the show; what better way to cast a show about a fictional martial arts league than with real martial artists?
* DeletedRole: Several.
** Concept ideas for two fighters named "Hollywood" and "All American" were batted around at the preliminary stage of the show. Neither ever got an actor assigned to them, nor were they ever mentioned in the show, but their ki symbols were included with the Dragon Belt toy. The producers indicated that this was not meant to be foreshadowing for an unproduced third season or an orphaned reference, but a deliberate attempt to make the in-show world seem bigger by referencing fighters that were never seen on-screen.
** In addition, ki symbols were also created for unused concept fighters Han "Bruce" Lee, Tomahawk, and Blade Master, but unlike the Hollywood and All American examples, these never moved beyond the concept stage.
** Martial artist Taimak, of ''Film/TheLastDragon'' fame, was originally hired on to play a character named Striking Eagle (a translation of the Aztec root of his name) and even featured in the pilot episode; however, disagreements between Taimak and the production team led to him leaving the show before it entered full production. Footage from the pilot episode was eventually used in a flashback in Season 2, with Striking Eagle being referenced as a former WMAC Master that was kicked out for faking Native American heritage. The same clip also references an unseen former WMAC Master named "The Ratt"; according to the production team, this was a reference to a shoot with an unknown Eastern European martial artist who was supposed to play The Ratt as a minor character, but delays on the shoot forced it to be abandoned.
* DyeingForYourArt: Several of the actors have discussed being forced to make changes to their hair, most of which were not appreciated:
** Great Wolf spoke of having so many products put in his hair that it would crackle when he laid down at night.
** Lady Lightning negotiated a change to her hairdo because she didn't like the original that was proposed to her.
** When Johnny Lee Smith (Tiger Claw) saw mock-ups of his action figure, he noticed it had blonde hair; when he inquired about it, the show's producers explained they were going to dye his hair blonde. Smith refused and threatened to leave the show if they didn't let him keep his hair brown (the producers eventually relented). A picture of the blonde version of his action figure did make it onto the packaging for the Dragon Belt toy released in 1995, though the action figure itself was released with brown hair.
* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Unfortunately, there hasn't been any kind of video release since it first aired, and even then it was only three tapes holding one episode each, and this doesn't seem to be changing any time soon. However, at least one dedicated fan did manage to tape every episode and [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwP2V32JCEhP2NUNjBHnSvrK7ogEKivPv uploaded all of them to]] Website/YouTube.
* MeanCharacterNiceActor:
** Despite playing a surly, no-nonsense, brooding character on the show, Mike "Turbo" Bernardo was noted by the crew and cast to be quiet, but very friendly.
** "Warlock" Larry Lam apparently complained that, following his character's FaceHeelTurn in Season 2, registration and attendance at his real-life school began to suffer, as some people couldn't differentiate his real life persona from the villainous Warlock he played on the show.
* MerchandiseDriven: The show's creators were very open about the fact that they created the show to push an action figure line and licensing deals, even partnering with a western subsidiary of Japanese toy giant Bandai in order to produce the show's first season. This affected the writing for the show, as the Masters who had a corresponding toy in production (Superstar, Red Dragon, Great Wolf, Tiger Claw, Olympus, Turbo, The Machine, Star Warrior, Panther, and Tsunami) generally got more screen time and were more likely to win their matches, while those without action figures (including Yin Yang Man, Bam, Kid Carmichael, and the female fighters) were seen only sparingly and were almost never allowed to be the overall winner of any given episode. The number of matches fought between two fighters who did not have an action figure ''in the entire series'' can be counted on one hand.
* NoBudget: Renaissance-Atlantic Entertainment, the western subsidiary of Bandai, pulled their financial backing for the show after the first season, meaning the second had to be completed on a shoestring budget. To their credit, the show's producers still managed to put together a compelling product and there were few obvious signs of financial strain in the final results. The most notable fallout from the budget cuts was a sharp reduction in the "flashback" sequences that were a regular feature of the first season, as well as the show parting ways with Shannon Lee, whose segments were deemed too expensive to produce given that they did not add to the action (and, given that the show was starting to move away from its ShowWithinAShow roots and into a more story-driven arc, her emceeing didn't fit the show's new tone).
* RealLifeRelative: Superstar and Star Warrior are brothers (Ho Sung Pak and Ho Young Pak, respectively) and are acknowledged as such in the show.
* UnrelatedBrothers: Warlock and Wizard are not related in real life (though the latter did train under the former prior to the show).
* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** The similarities to ProfessionalWrestling are intentional. It's been revealed that in 1994, the [[Wrestling/{{WWE}} WWF]] was exploring the idea for a Saturday Morning Live-Action show called "World Martial Arts Fighters" which would be filmed at a studio and run weekly shows at a fixed shooting location at Universal Studios. The difference is that real martial artists would be the featured fighters as themselves and not heavily gimmicked characters. What stopped the WWF? None of the real martial artists were willing to lose, kayfabe or not. As a result, he WWF backed out, and 4Kids (as Summit Media) pitched the idea to Renaissance-Atlantic[[note]]Best known as the original co-producers of the Franchise/PowerRangers franchise[[/note]].
** Panther was originally intended to be a regular cast member in Season 2, likely with a bigger role as his action figure was part of the second wave due to be released. Unfortunately, Erik Betts suffered a serious injury during filming early in the season that would ultimately keep him out of action for the entirety of filming. The show's creators originally planned to [[WrittenInInfirmity have his recovery be part of the plot]], including sections filmed with him in the hospital; however, deteriorating relations between Betts and the show's producers over who was to blame for the injury ultimately led to a lawsuit, with plans to incorporate Betts into the second season abandoned, save for a single reference by Tracer during a discussion with Warlock.
** Due to budget cuts, much of the cast and crew saw the writing on the wall by the time Season 2 ended and knew they weren't going to get a third season. However, they were still hoping for a way to conclude the story, possibly via a [[TheMovie movie deal]] or video game. This ultimately didn't come to pass, but the creators had still kicked around some ideas for a continuation to the plot. Among the salient plot points that had been discussed were:
*** The Dragon Star would be confirmed to be a MacGuffin of some sort that allowed people to unlock their full potential as martial artists.
*** All martial arts ability would be found to flow from some mystical source that the Dragon Star was a key to unlocking.
*** [[spoiler: Tsunami]] would continue his work for Jukido, but would eventually have a change of heart following a character arc and would ultimately return to the good guys.
** There are several references in Season 1 encouraging kids to "Join a WMAC club near you!". This was originally intended to be a real thing, as the show's producers hoped to license out the WMAC brand to various martial arts schools. The intended benefits included giving the schools access to martial arts references (i.e. when customers called into a call-center, they would be directed to the closest WMAC-affiliated school in their area), providing them advertising on the show's commercials in their region, and, most notably, having the cast members visit the schools in-character and provide seminars and training sessions. Due to a lack of interest, this ultimately never got off the ground.
** Baby Doll's father was originally supposed to die during his "big stunt" in her flashback in "Double Dragon Star". This was going to be the cause of her hesitation to fight Lady Lightning in the Dragon Star match, as her father's ambition had overreached his skills and he paid for it with his life, with her worried she was going down a similar path. The producers seemed to feel this storyline was too dark for the show, rewriting it so that he survived the stunt and managed to pull it off with no major issues, leaving Baby Doll's hesitation to similarly go for her dream feeling incongruous with the flashback scene.
* WrittenInInfirmity:
** Wanna know why [[spoiler: Jukido attacking Panther]] was entirely offscreen? During the filming of a fight very early in the second season, Erik Betts suffered a major injury, breaking his hip and femur when he landed badly after taking a kick from Herb Perez while playing a ninja. To make matters worse, he developed a blood clot in his leg which very nearly killed him. This precipitated a major rift in the relationship between Betts and the crew of the show, as the two sides disagreed on whose fault the injury was (Betts blamed the creators for switching the type of fall-matt used and not sufficiently rehearsing the stunt, while the creators felt it was a bad accident caused by a mistimed landing of a backflip). There were originally plans to incorporate Betts's recovery into the storyline, filming him in-character at the hospital; however, the deteriorating relationship between the two sides led to Betts filing a lawsuit against the show, its producers, and Herb Perez, shelving the plans to keep him involved with the show.
** Similarly, Yuji "Cyclone" Noguchi spent nearly all of the second season in a cast (notable in that he wasn't part of the cast at all in the first season) due to breaking his leg while filming a stunt involving a trampoline. Unlike Panther, Cyclone did stay as part of the cast and even got a fight scene late in the season. It's not clear if this fight scene was filmed before his accident or after the recovery, as the scenes/episodes for the show were not shot in sequential order, so it's unknown if he was ever intended to have more fight scenes than he got.
----