Yes, We Are Hybrid Wrestlers!
"Pancrase is not a kill struggle like the Ultimate Fight where the participant is willing to destroy his opponent to win. Pancrase is a sport, like wrestling."
— Masakatsu Funaki, comparing UFC to Pancrase.
As a whole
-
Amateur Cast: There are 2 kinds of amateur events for Pancrase, the amateur Pancrase tournaments and the Pancrase Gate events. - Anti-Hero Team: Like the way UWF Newborn was formed, the founders of Pancrase basically said screw you to Yoshiaki Fujiwara and the other PWFG staff and left to create Pancrase.
- Artifact Title: Currently, Pancrase still has "Hybrid Wrestling" on its logo as an artifact from its shootwrestling days even though they adopted the unified MMA rules in 2014 and even stopped using the wrestling ring in favor of a octagonal cage.
- Attack! Attack! Attack!: Because Pancrase founders believed in the entertaining aspect of the fight, they had the ruleset itself oriented to have dynamic grappling battles with lots of joint locks and little rest.
- Badass Crew: The founders of Pancrase were certainly this. Ken Shamrock's Lion's Den fighters that came later as this as well.
- Cast Full of Pretty Boys: The promotion was mostly filled with handsome young men since its beginning. The early standard wear of speedo-like Underwear of Power also enhanced this appeal.
- Crippling Overspecialization: Pancrase natives were often great offensive grapplers and decorated wrestlers, but aside from some relevant good kickers, they had usually little to no Kickboxing skill. The best Japanese striker among them, Manabu Yamada, precisely came from Shooto. Ironically, their modest striking was enough to introduce in United States the very first well rounded fighters in a time in which UFC fights were still of the martial art vs. martial art kind.
- Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Heelhooks were once banned because of the frequency of injuries. The old rules also banned toe kicks of all things.
- Distaff Counterpart: Pancrase Athena, the women's division with slightly modified rules.
- Follow the Leader: In order to bring in more fighters in the late 1990s, a special ruleset was created called "Pankration rules", which was basically the UFC's rules in the mid-1990s.
- They adopted the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts in 2014.
- Gondor Calls for Aid: After leaving PWFG, the founders first gathered to practice at the All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling Dojo due to connections Pancrase president Masami Ozaki had with their staff.
- Insistent Terminology: Not shoot wrestling or MMA, but "Hybrid Wrestling". It actually faded off a bit with the turn of the millennium, though fighters themselves are still referred to as pancrasists. They also refer to their champions as "King of Pancrase (or Pancrasists)" ("Queen of Pancrase (or Pancrasists)" when they introduced a women's division).
- Later-Installment Weirdness: Pancrase is mostly remembered for begin one of the earliest MMA promotion, having a rule-set resembling professional wrestling, fighting bareknuckle but allowing only palm-strikes, with fighters wearing boots with shin guards and speedos, fighting in a three-rope ring and an insitence to call itself "Hydrid Wrestling" and its fighters "wrestlers". However, by the 2000s they started to change the rules to approach closer to other MMA promotions, by the 2010s they adopted the Unified Rules and in 2014 they exchanged their iconic ring for a 10-sided cage.
- Let's Fight Like Gentlemen / Loophole Abuse: In its early days, Pancrase rules followed a slightly modified system of the rules established in Newborn, where ground-and-pound was not mentioned at all. Their fighters established a gentleman’s agreement to not strike a grounded opponent, though it was not officially part of the rules unlike in RINGS. It took outsiders like Allan Goes to fully exploit this detail, much to the chagrin of the hybrid wrestlers.
- Mighty Whitey: Regardless of the native talent, Pancrase was more relevant for the foreign names it built, namely Rutten, Schilt and the Shamrocks, who went to dominate the promotion.
- One-Hit Kill: Until Funaki and Suzuki created Pancrase, worked shoot matches used to be long and slow in order to maintain the crowd entertained. However, when the two implanted their real matches concept, proved when the first Pancrase event lasted only 28 minutes, the Japanese crowds loved it and coined the word "byosatsu" (秒殺, "instantly finished") to refer this kind of exciting battle (though according to Pancrase president Masami Ozaki, it was mainly Bas Rutten who inspired the phrase). Even so, the two used to carry weaker opponents to avoid a too short fight.
- Power Trio: In the beginning Funaki, Suzuki and Ken Shamrock as they were the best in the promotion at the time and did most of the recruiting for new talent.
- Pro Wrestling Is Real: While the UWF's members vowed for it, Pancrase eventually implemented what they called "kekka no sutairu" ("results-oriented style") in its very beginnings.
- Shout-Out / Spell My Name With An S: The promotion’s name comes from the Ancient Greek martial art of Pankration, particularly the French spelling and pronunciation of the name ("Pancrace").
- Special Guest: Rickson Gracie was in the audience at the 1998 Anniversary Show.
- Spin-Off: Pancrase Australia, Pancrase UK, Pancrase Korea, Pancrase USA, The Bas Rutten Invitational, Strike & Grapple (also known as Light Pancrase), Colosseum 2000.
- Tournament Arc: The King of Pancrase Tournament to crown the first champion of the promotion. The annual Neo Blood Tournaments for the young bloods in the promotion.
- Use Your Head: According to Bas Rutten, headbutts to the chest were legal. Which he did in his second fight with Frank Shamrock.
- "X" Makes Anything Cool: Their logo is an X to symbolize the cross-training of styles that make up hybrid wrestling.
- Wrestler in All of Us: Suzuki and Fuke created Pancrase MISSION in order to prepare for their pro wrestling comebacks. The Pancrase MISSION dojo trains both pro wrestlers and MMA fighters.
open/close all folders
Debuted in the World Pancrase Create Era
Debuted in the Pancrase Inc Era
