Pancrase held its first event, subtitled “Yes, We Are Hybrid Wrestlers,” on Sept. 21, 1993, two and a half months before UFC 1. The brainchild of Japanese professional wrestling star Masakatsu Funaki, Pancrase presented itself as “shoot wrestling”—i.e. real, unscripted wrestling—with limited striking allowed. Those limits, including no closed-fist striking to the face, would be abandoned in a few years in favor of a ruleset more like that of modern MMA, but even the first events were something fairly new in their conceit.
That inaugural event was loaded with future stars. In the main event, Funaki himself took on Shamrock, losing by arm-triangle choke in six minutes. While Funaki was Pancrase’s founder and biggest star, and Shamrock, Bas Rutten and Vernon White are the names that would be most familiar to the average UFC fan, that first Pancrase event also featured perhaps the promotion’s signature fighter, Minoru Suzuki. (To put Suzuki’s relationship with Pancrase into perspective, he is a 50-fight veteran and all but about three of those fights took place in the Pancrase ring.)
From that auspicious beginning, Pancrase embarked on a journey that continues to this day, 27 years later. Pancrase served as an important career stop for Western standouts such as Josh Barnett and Nate Marquardt, it survived a bitter rivalry with Shooto as well as the rise and fall of Pride Fighting Championships and is still going strong.