Establishment and first event In 1993,
Masakatsu Funaki,
Minoru Suzuki,
Ken Shamrock,
Takaku Fuke, and others from the shoot-style
Fujiwara Gumi wrestling promotion left the company, due to (mentor and promoter)
Yoshiaki Fujiwara's decision to cooperate with the likes of
Universal Lucha Libre and W*ING and favoring showmanship over in-ring work. As suggested by
Karl Gotch, Pancrase was formed by Funaki, Suzuki and Fuke, and the promotion would focus on pure shoot-style
wrestling with limited gimmicks and no predetermined outcomes. Funaki and Suzuki were students of wrestler
Antonio Inoki. They were inspired by the 1976
Muhammad Ali vs. Antonio Inoki event that pit a boxer against a wrestler. On May 16, 1993, they established
World Pancrase Create Inc. (WPC) with the capital of 30,000,000 Japanese yen. On September 21, 1993, Pancrase promoted their first event at
Tokyo Bay NK Hall. All the matches were finished with knockout and submission.
Early era The first King Of Pancrase Open Weight champion was
Ken Shamrock (later becoming famous for his exploits in the
Ultimate Fighting Championship), who had previous experience in the newborn
UWF and Fujiwara Gumi. Over the years, Funaki and Suzuki held the title alongside other big names, such as
Bas Rutten,
Frank Shamrock and
Guy Mezger. Pancrase now recognizes King of Pancrase titles in the super heavyweight, heavyweight, light heavyweight, middleweight and welterweight divisions, and there are plans to award new lightweight and featherweight champions in the future. The open weight title was recently restored and is currently held by
Josh Barnett, who formerly competed in
PRIDE and the
Ultimate Fighting Championship. Minoru Suzuki no longer competes for Pancrase, as he returned to regular professional wrestling in 2003 as a freelancer.
Founding of Pancrase Korea Pancrase Korea is the
South Korean subsidiary of the Pancrase Inc. and held several events from 2007 to 2010. The first Pancrase Korea event was an amateur one held on March 10, 2007, in
Busan and the last one was the semi-professional
Neo-Blood Tournament 2 & Hybrid Challenge 12 held on September 12, 2010, in
Seoul.
Changes in management In May 2008, "
Pancrase Inc." was established as a new management company for Pancrase, and WPC alienated Pancrase Inc. their all of business as on May 27, 2008. When Pancrase Inc. was established, Yasushi Sakamoto, a managing director of WPC, was installed as the executive president. On October 14, 2008, Pancrase Inc. moved its office to
Nishi Ikebukuro in the ward of Toshima in
Tokyo. In September 2009, Pancrase Inc. moved its office from
Nishi Ikebukuro to
Aobadai in ward of Meguro in Tokyo, and moved again to
Kameido in the ward of Koto. On October 1, 2010,
Ryo Kawamura, who was the current
mixed martial artist was installed as the executive president. Yasushi Sakamoto, the former president, had become a managing director. Kawamura held a press conference in
Yokohama, Kanagawa, on October 22, and explained about restructuring and announced that "
Commission Council" had been established as a third party . On June 1, 2012, Pancrase announced that the promotion had been sold to Masakazu Sakai and his
Smash organization, with Sakai taking over as the new president and his partner
Yuji Shimada as the event producer of the promotion. As part of the reconstruction of Pancrase, the new owners intend to replace rings with cages, holding events to test the new format in 2013. Pancrase 257 on March 30, 2014, was the last event where Pancrase used a ring, and by Pancrase 258 on May 11, 2014, Pancrase adopted the decagon or the ten-sided cage of their American partners
World Series of Fighting.
Organizational change On March 9, 2022, the Smash Martial Arts Department Pancrase Business Headquarters will be reorganized and operated as the "Pancrase Executive Committee". In addition, the King of Pancrase Executive Committee will also be reorganized and operated as the "King of Pancrase Council". ==Rules==