Wikipedia
Pancrase Inc. was a mixed martial arts promotion company founded in Japan in 1993 by professional wrestlers Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki. The company apparently ceased operations in 2008.
The name was based on pankration, a fighting sport in the Ancient Olympic Games. Suzuki and Funaki practised catch wrestling. They based the promotion and its rules on professional wrestling. The promotion claimed that its events consisted of shoots (actual unscripted wrestling) rather than works (scripted performances). The promotion's champions were called King of Pancrase.
The rules allowed closed-fisted punches, except to the head, and palm strikes to the head. A wrestler must break a submission hold when the opponent reaches the ropes, but a wrestler who claims a rope break loses a point. A wrestler who claims a specified number of rope breaks (between 3 and 5) was disqualified. From 1998 to 2000, the promotion changed its rules to resemble other mixed martial arts promotions.
There were repeated accusations that Pancrase matches were "works" with predetermined outcomes.. Pancrase fighters deny the accusations. Pancrase participant Guy Mezger said that "there was [] not very many works. Maybe 4 or 5 total and most of them were before I was fighting for them. I hate when people say that there was [sic] so many works in Pancrase, they truly do not know what they are talking about."
Beginning in 2007, Pancrase: Legends of Mixed Martial Arts aired weekly on ImaginAsian TV. The network folded in 2011.
In 2008, the Fight Network began airing Pancrase events in Canada and the U.K.