10 Best MMA Wrestling Crossovers

Minoru Suzuki isn’t the most well-known name on this list, but is arguably the most influential.

Suzuki made his wrestling debut in 1988 with spells in New Japan and the UWF, before he and Masakatsu Funaki left the business to form their own hybrid fighting promotion.

The promotion, known as Pancrase, was considered the first MMA promotion in the world, with Suzuki using his catch-wrestling background to become one of the sport’s first stars. He claimed wins over Ken Shamrock, Maurice Smith and Guy Mezger before winning the King of Pancrase Openweight title in 1995.

Suzuki remained one of the sport’s most respected fighters throughout the late nineties, before retiring in 2003 with 30 wins and 19 losses.

With his MMA career over, Suzuki turned back to pro-wrestling, freelancing between promotions in Japan before a four-year spell with AJPW where he became a two-time Triple Crown Champion.

It was during his second spell with New Japan that Suzuki earned his lore, becoming a four-time world champion as well as enjoying a tag-team reign with Yoshihiro Takayama. His matches with Hiroshi Tanahashi and AJ Styles were voted as the Wrestling Observer's fights of the year in 2012 and 2014 respectively.

Suzuki was later inducted to the newsletter's Hall Of Fame in 2017, and even into his fifties still remains one of New Japan's most popular performers.