Pan Class
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Pancrase Hybrid Wrestling is a martial arts promotion company in Japan founded in 1993. It was originally a puroresu promotion specializing in shoot-style wrestling, as its founders were pro wrestlers; however, beginning in 1997, it has promoted pure shoot fighting martial arts matches, effectively becoming a true martial arts circuit.
In 1993 Masakatsu Funaki, Minoru Suzuki, Yusuke Fuke and others from the Fujiwara Gumi wrestling promotion left that company, apparently in opposition to mentor Yoshiaki Fujiwara cooperating with leagues like Universal Lucha Libre and W*ING, where showmanship was the rule. These men formed Pancrase, which would focus on pure shoot style wrestling with few gimmicks. The first King Of Pancrase Open Weight champion was Ken Shamrock, famous for his exploits in the Ultimate Fighting Championship circuit and who had previous experience in the Newborn UWF and Fujiwara Gumi. Over the years, Funaki and Suzuki took turns holding the title alongside other big names, such as Bas Rutten, also known as a UFC fighter.
After the collapse of UWF International in 1996, however, Pancrase and its remaining rival RINGS began to focus on making the matches more serious. The outcomes of matches stopped being predetermined and the use of shinguards, the trademark of shoot-style pro wrestling, was stopped. This enabled new talent to rise higher up the card than if they had taken the traditional pro-wrestling route.
Today Pancrase recognizes King of Pancrase titles in the heavyweight, light heavyweight, middleweight, and welterweight divisions. The Open Weight title, however, has been recently restored and is held by Josh Barnett, who also competes in New Japan Pro Wrestling. Minoru Suzuki also has stopped competing for Pancrase and mostly competes for New Japan now.