The very existence of the promotion was to prepare a place for Antonio Inoki in case he got ousted from New Japan Pro-Wrestling due to getting the company into massive debt from one of his failed business dealings.
Hisashi Shinma initially wanted to bring in foreign talent from the WWE as he had good relations with them and was their on-screen President from 1978 to 1984. They could not since they had contract with New Japan Pro-Wrestling at the time, so Shinma instead asked Terry Funk and by association, Giant Baba for help. There were plans to eventually get WWE talent in after their contract with New Japan expired, but by then Shinma had quit the UWF so the deal was off.
Super Strong Machine, Hiro Saito and Shunji Takano were rumored to have considering joining UWF and were seen in the front row near ringside at one of the last shows. With UWF’s closing they instead went to All Japan Pro Wrestling and formed the Calgary Hurricanes stable.
Future FMW star Ricky Fuji wanted to join the promotion, but failed to get in.
Satoru Sayama apparently tried to invite the Dynamite Kid to the UWF, but he declined, opining that not even the craziest person would pay just to watch them shoot on the mat. Apparently something similar also happened with his other rival, Kuniaki Kobayashi, though he eventually came around to doing an exhibition match with Sayama at a Shooto event (getting knocked out cold for his trouble).
Akira Maeda once challenged Tatsumi Fujinami for a match in UWF, one because he was one of the few guys he actually respected in New Japan and two to insult Antonio Inoki as he also made statements that dismissed Inoki as not as great a wrestler as Fujinami.
According to Akira Maeda, Shinya Hashimoto, a martial artist and lover of shoots himself, once considered joining the UWF and even met with him while he was in the hospital for a broken nose by invitation from Nobuhiko Takada. Maeda agreed, but for whatever reason it didn’t happen and Hashimoto stayed with New Japan.
There were talks of the promotion getting a TV deal with Fuji Television for its first show, but it fell thorough due to not having Riki Choshu and Satoru Sayama under contract. After that, there were talks of broadcasting on TBS instead, but it also fell through due to UWF President Noboru Urata and a yakuza member were arrested in October 1984 due to making threats against Sayama's former business manager. The company would eventually get it's own television show for a brief time in 1985 before it's main sponsor was involved in a financial scandal.
Satoru Sayama planned to introduce rules to the promotion that would become the rules Newborn with follow when it started up and even thought of seperating the wrestlers based on a class system, which would later become the basis for the A and B classes in his Shooto promotion.
Future PWFG and Battlarts wrestler Katsumi Usuda tried to get into the promotion but was rejected as he was 16 at the time. He also later tried to get into Newborn, but again they wouldn't let him.
Shooto/Vale Tudo Japan
Bas Rutten apprentice Omar Bouiche was once invited to fight for Shooto via Erik Paulson, but he chose Pancrase instead as it was better known and paid better. He also got calls from the UFC while in Pancrase, but things never worked out for him to fight there.
Enson Inoue applied for UWF-i, RINGS and Pancrase before Shooto. He was rejected by RINGS and UWF-i as they had ruled that new trainees had to be under 22 years old and had to be a certain height, while Pancrase didn’t respond to his application. When he was ousted from Shooto, he apparently sent feelers to Pancrase and RINGS even though he was also with PRIDE.
According to The Great Kabuki, Tiger Mask IV once took the entrance test for the SWS promotion and although he scored top marks in the test, he failed because he didn't meet the height standards. After that he worked part-time as a dishwasher at a hotel to raise funds to go to Mexico and try his luck at a pro wrestling career there, when an acquaintance of his introduced him to the Super Tiger Gym and his eventual master Sayama.
Royce Gracie was originally asked to be in the first Vale Tudo Japan event in 1994 since he was the most well known Gracie at the time. He refused but recommended Rickson in his place.
There were rumors that Meng was originally scouted for Vale Tudo Japan 1995, but he declined as he felt too old and not in condition for competitive fighting, so Craig Pittman was chosen as his replacement.
The fight to determine the alternate for the Vale Tudo Japan 1995 semifinals after Todd Hays dropped out could have been different if Gerard Gordeau wasn’t too exhausted from his earlier fight with Yuki Nakai (though in Gordeau’s case, he may not have been considered at all due to actions in said fight with Nakai). Yoshihisa Yamamoto wasn’t considered since the winner of that redemption fight would have gone on to fight Rickson Gracie, who he already lost to and was also too exhausted anyway.
According to an old edition of Matt Hume's AMC Pankration website, the Vale Tudo Japan matchmakers wanted to put together an additional event in December 1996 featuring a "Superfight" between Hume and Rickson Gracie, since Rickson declared that he won't do tournaments anymore.
Hayato Sakurai and Rumina Sato were offered by UFC to face Carlos Newton and BJ Penn respectively in 2001, but nothing came from it. Sakurai would debut in UFC in his own way in 2002, but only for one match. Another Shooto fighter, Erik Paulson, wanted to compete in the first UFC event back in 1993, but as he was still training under the Gracies at the time, they forbade him in order not to overshadow Royce and he respected their wishes.
Mark Kerr was originally scheduled to be on Vale Tudo Japan 1997 against Ed de Kruijf for his fighting debut in Japan, but PRIDE managed to snatch him away before that, so they replaced him with Tom Erikson.
UWF Newborn
Masakatsu Funaki was apparently invited by Nobuhiko Takada to Newborn at the very start of it. Funaki turned down the offer as he thought New Japan was the more stable option. He later ended up joining nonetheless by instance of his mentor Yoshiaki Fujiwara.
Keiichi Yamada could have joined Fujiwara, Funaki and Suzuki in their exodus from New Japan to Newborn since he trained with them, but he was already portraying Jushin Thunder Liger by that point and was firmly committed to it.
Masakatsu Funaki was originally going to face Maurice Smith at the U-COSMOS show, but he got injured and Minoru Suzuki took his place. Funaki would eventually face Smith, first drawing with him in PWFG show and then beating him in an All Japan Kickboxing Federation event.
Yoshiaki Fujiwara's original opponent for the U-Cosmos event was supposed to be someone called Klen "The Machine" Berg, who was supposedly a Dutch kickboxing super-heavyweight champion with a 21 fight streak with 17 KOs and was also a junior judo champion. He got injured and was replaced by the debuting Dick Vrij.
Mach Hayato and Osamu Kido were asked to be part of Newborn as they were in the Original U. Both turned the offer down: Mach stated he couldn’t keep up due to age and injuries, while Kido was not interested because Karl Gotch was not with them (Gotch was at the time helping Satoru Sayama‘s Shooto get off the ground, though he did eventually join up with Newborn).
Yuki Nakai and Rumina Sato were interested in becoming UWF wrestlers at first, as they believed the promotion did real fighting, but when they realized it was not, they chose to become fighters for Shooto.
Mark Fleming said that he was invited to go wrestle for Newborn. Lou Thesz prevented him from going after receiving advice from Koji Miyamoto of Gong Magazine, who said with some reason that UWF Newborn wasn’t making money and was about to go under. He was also invited to wrestle for PWFG, but it didn’t happen either.
Joe Malenko was asked to wrestle for Newborn, but he never did as he received a better offer from Giant Baba and spent the Newborn years in All Japan Pro Wrestling.
Atsushi Onita went to one of the Newborn shows to issue a challenge to the wrestlers, but his challenge was rejected and he was eventually kicked out for not even having a ticket. The press saw it as UWF refusing Onita’s challenge and some speculated the refusal was out of fear. Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling was originally concocted as a shoot-style promotion as a response and even did different style fights with rounds and knockdown counts in its beginnings before it gave it up to do death matches and the other weird stuff it’s known for.
There were rumors that Akira Maeda was trying to setup a different styles fight against George Foreman for a show at the Tokyo Dome, but it didn’t happen. He apparently tried again in RINGS and Foreman even recorded a bizarre promo to settle up the match, but again it didn’t happen.
Newborn could have lasted longer if Maeda went along with Director Shinji Jin’s idea of doing joint shows with Super World Sports since SWS founder Hachiro Tanaka sponsored the first Newborn event and helped Fujiwara, Funaki and Suzuki transfer over from New Japan.
Kazuo Takahashi originally attempted to join Newborn since his high school friend Minoru Suzuki was there. After it shut down, he considered joining the SWS promotion since his senpai from Nihon University Yatsu Yoshiaki was going to make a dojo affliated with the promotion and even ended up becoming one of the first students there until Suzuki invited him to PWFG.
Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi
According to Bart Vale, an alternative name for the promotion that was considered for a time was “UWF Spirit”.
If Masami Soranaka didn’t pass away, Pancrase might not have gotten its start as Funaki and Suzuki is said to have only came up with the idea of their own promotion after his passing.
Kazushi Sakuraba was originally going to join Pro Wrestling Fujiwara-Gumi instead of UWF-i by mediation of Kazuo Takahashi. We will also never know if he would have joined up with Pancrase or see what he could have done in Battlarts.
Naoki Sano could have stuck with PWFG after the closure of SWS, but instead went with UWF-i as he wanted a match with Nobuhiko Takada.
Roberto Duran was originally brought in to face Yoshiaki Fujiwara and the match would have been one of PWFG’s rare Miami shows. Duran however made them change the match to be held in Japan for tax reasons and for some reason Masakatsu Funaki was selected as his opponent instead of Fujiwara.
There were apparently plans to get boxer Tommy Morrison to fight, possibly against Masakatsu Funaki, but nothing came out of that as Morrison got an offer to fight George Foreman and declined the invitation.
Bart Vale was invited to compete in the first UFC, but turned down the offer without explanation. He also could have ended up fighting Renzo Gracie at the World Combat Championships if he hadn't injured his head against Mike Bitonio. There were plans to hold a second WCC event with Bart and Renzo as a "superfight" bout, but it didn't happen.
Ken Shamrock and Minoru Suzuki’s last match against each other before Pancrase wasn’t originally scheduled to happen. It was supposed to be a rematch between Suzuki and Yoshiaki Fujiwara, but Fujiwara injured himself in training, so Ken was added as a last minute replacement.
After getting fired from SWS, Koji Kitao met with Fujiwara for a possible appearance at PWFG, but Fujiwara left the meeting disgusted when Kitao spent the whole meeting time trying to sell himself to Fujiwara by explaining how he wants to do his matches in PWFG.
After he quit PWFG for the first time, Katsumi Usuda considered learning Sambo after reading about it in a magazine, but went with Seidokaikan Karate instead as it was near his home.
Fighting Network RINGS
Chris Dolman was originally contacted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling since his friend Willem Ruska was there, but decided to help Maeda start RINGS instead after his master Jon Bluming told him about the The 47 Ronin as an example of keeping loyalty towards a friend and leader.
Jon Bluming himself was interested in competing in RINGS after watching his apprentices do so, but being around 60 at the time, he refrained for being too old.
Freek Hamaker was supposed to appear in RINGS Astral Step II: Aqua Heat for a match with Maeda, but they had to rebook it to a rematch with Dick Vrij instead, due to Hamaker getting reconstructive surgery on his knee.
Norman Smiley was apparently contacted by RINGS to wrestle for them as their first US representative, despite having himself the pro wrestling connections RINGS was trying to avoid at the time. He apparently was supposed to debut against another debuting opponent Strom Koba, but he backed out due to receiving a better offer from CMLL and was replaced by Herman Renting. RINGS apparently also tried to poach Allen Coage from UWFI in 1993, but Bad News stuck with UWFI until 1995.
Andrei Kopylov could have appeared in RINGS earlier in 1991 instead of 1992, but he turned them down the first time as he had plans to compete in Canada for the World Sambo Championships that year. When that failed he quickly took up the next offer.
Kopylov was originally supposed to be Volk Han’s partner in the Command Sambo exhibition at the Korakuen Experimental League '93 ROUND 1 show on February 28, 1993, but he was replaced by Vladimir Pagodin as he got injured before the show.
Shooto’s Kenji Kawaguchi had been planned to compete in RINGS according to Maeda, but circumstances forced it not to happen.
Masaaki Satake was supposed to compete in the inaugural Mega Battle Tournament in 1992, but suffered a broken leg that kept him from competing.
Nobuhiko Takada, Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki were challenged by Akira Maeda to face him in a super match in RINGS in January 1994, but they refused and counter-offered that they were willing to compete in RINGS against other opponents if its board of directors fired Maeda. Naturally, negotiations fell short after this.
Bas Rutten could have ended going to RINGS instead of Pancrase, as he originally trained at the RINGS Holland dojo with Chris Dolman and was contacted to fight there before being scouted by Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki. Rutten at the time did not know RINGS was mostly worked. In fact, most of the Dutch fighters Pancrase used had some connection with the RINGS Holland dojo, like Toon Stelling and Semmy Schilt.
After PWFG closed, Yoshiaki Fujiwara and Bart Vale were offered contracts by Akira Maeda to compete in RINGS. They declined to sign up, though accepted to work a few matches for them. It is rumored that Fujiwara didn't stick around because other RINGS members were against him out of factionalism. It wasn’t first time either as after the Pancrase guys left and believing PWFG might shut down over that, Maeda made the same offer, but also included Ken Shamrock as he wasn’t officially affiliated with Pancrase guys at the time.
Kazuo Yamazaki was offered a contract by RINGS after he left UWF-i but he declined and went back to New Japan instead. RINGS also attempted to snatch Guy Mezger from Pancrase, and negotiated extensively with Ken Shamrock and his Lion's Den after they broke away from Funaki, though to no avail, though they did manage to get Maurice Smith, Pete Williams, and Frank Shamrock to fight at some of their events. They almost got Jerry Bohlander for a match against Grom Zaza, but visa issues on Bohlander’s part put a stop to that.
Don Nakaya Nielsen was originally contacted to fight in a different styles fight against Mitsuya Nagai twice. First at the BATTLE DIMENSION TOURNAMENT'93 on January 21 1994, which he missed due to injury, and later at RISING SERIES MINAZUKI show on June 17, 1995, but for unknown reasons cancelled the night before the show. Carl Greco filled in as Nagai’s opponent.
Chris Dolman’s original opponent for his retirement match was supposed to be Yoshihisa Yamamoto, but Yamamoto fought Rickson Gracie just days before the event, so they brought in a debuting Joop Kasteel instead.
Akira Maeda personally offered Shinsuke Nakamura, at that point a promising amateur wrestler, a contract to compete in RINGS. However, Shinsuke refused in order to pursue a career in New Japan Pro-Wrestling.
Katsuhiko Nakajima also caught Maeda's eye during his Kyokushin Karate days and actually promised to join RINGS after graduation, but RINGS dissolved before that could happen.
SUWA initially applied to the entrance test of RINGS before Toryumon alongside his kohai Yasuhito Namekawa, but he did not pass while Namekawa did.
Kiyoshi Tamura invited his old stablemate Masahito Kakihara to join RINGS after the latter quit All Japan Pro Wrestling during the NOAH exodus. Kakihara refused the offer and went to Pro Wrestling Noah instead but he left the latter after a single event due to friction with Takao Omori (ironically Kakihara claimed he was leaving to do Mixed Martial Arts in PRIDE, but he instead returned to AJPW, where the NOAH exodus had left new chances for him).
Naoya Ogawa would have faced Yoshihisa Yamamoto in RINGS in a judo vs. judo match, but despite it was officially set, it never happened because Ogawa pulled out, citing an injured shoulder and broken finger suffered in his PRIDE fight with Gary Goodridge.
Kiyoshi Tamura could have faced Frank Shamrock earlier at the Mega Battle Tournament '98 (Round 4) show, but Frank suffered an ankle injury so they delayed the fight to the Rise 2 show. He also could have faced Pat Miletich earlier at the 1999 King of Kings Tournament (Round 2) show, but for reasons unknown it was delayed to the Millennium Combine 3 show.
A fight between Volk Han and Joe Slick was scheduled to take place at the 1999 King Of Kings tournament (Round 2) show, but Han suffered a leg injury and the fight was canceled after that.
Volk Han was also scheduled to fight at the 1999 King Of Kings tournament (Round 3) show against either Bobby Hoffman or Brad Kohler, but Han was still recovering from his leg injury and couldn’t compete. They tried to get him to fight Hoffman at the Millennium Combine 1 show, but he was still recovering and dropped the matter.
The RINGS Captured 98 event was not only supposed to be Akira Maeda’s official retirement match, but he tried getting Nobuhiko Takada as his opponent, however negotiations broke down again so Yoshihisa Yamamoto was selected instead. The event also almost had Dick Vrij in a rematch with Paul Valerans and Kiyoshi Tamura getting his rematch with Valentijn Overeem sooner than it actually happened, but they both didn’t happen for some reason, with Overeem getting injured in a fight held in Holland where he dislocated his right shoulder and suffered a broken right collarbone.
Danny Higgins was supposed to be Ricardo Fyeet’s opponent for the Battle Genesis 5 show, but he pulled out and was replaced by a debuting Mick Cutajar.
The RINGS Fighting Extension 4 show originally had Kiyoshi Tamura set to go against Grom Zaza and Masayuki Naruse against Valentijn Overeem, but for some reason the gaijins backed out and were replaced by Nikolai Zouev and Lee Hasdell respectively.
Tsuyoshi Kohsaka could have been booked to win the RINGS Heavyweight Championship in 1998, but it was not so because Kohsaka declined to sign up an exclusive contract with RINGS in order to continue his UFC career.
Randy Couture was originally contacted by RINGS in 1997, but he declined because he didn't want to do worked matches or fights under the old point rules. His teammate Tom Erikson was approached to fight Ricardo Morais, but Erikson's reputation was such that Morais refused and even left RINGS altogether fearing they would trap him contractually to face Erikson at some point. (He eventually did a short return for the promotion's final event.) Erikson ceased negotiations with RINGS because no available fighter wanted to face him, so he had talks with Pancrase at December, but they were unsuccessful as well, until Shooto signed him to a fight in Vale Tudo Japan 1997.
Dan Severn once said that he had hoped to fight in RINGS for at least 3 years. He only got one fight against Andrei Kopylov and was never asked back, though he did fight against Joop Kasteel at a vestigial RINGS Holland event in 2005.
Kiyoshi Tamura was approached to fight in the first Ultimate Fighting Championship event in Japan, but he turned down the offer, disliking the rule that allowed ground and pound and considering the paycheck too small.
Dick Vrij was supposedly going to enter UFC in 1994, but unknown reasons ensured it never happened. He also was slated to take part in World Combat Championships in 1995, but he pulled out, apparently due to an injury.
In 1999, Kazuyuki Fujita requested to leave New Japan Pro-Wrestling with the intention of joining RINGS. New Japan higher ups agreed to the move, as did Akira Maeda, but at the last minute, New Japan owner and Fujita's trainer Antonio Inoki stopped it and decided to train Fujita for MMA to fight in Pride.
Masaaki Satake was considered for Akira Maeda’s final opponent if Maeda couldn’t get Aleksander Karelin.
Aleksander Karelin was considered for UFC 1, but Art Davie realized that he would have to go through the bureaucracy of Russia to do so and quickly scrapped the idea.
Gilbert Yvel was supposed to be part of the first round of the 1999 King of Kings tournament against Yuri Kochkine, but got injured and was replaced by a debuting Alastair Overeem.
Akira Maeda tried to get another match with Alexander Karelin after the 2000 Olympics and even tried to provoke Karelin by publicly saying he should get some credit for the Gardner win by saying he gave Karelin leg damage from low kicks in their match in 1999. Nothing came out of it.
Akira Maeda spoke of wanting to come out of retirement for a match with Rickson Gracie at the 10th anniversary of RINGS show, but also said he would allow Naoya Ogawa the chance instead if he could get it.
After its main backer, the WOWOW Channel, cut back on RINGS funding, Akira Maeda came to New Japan Pro-Wrestling Corporate Office for the first time since he was fired in 1988 to meet with Tatsumi Fujinami. He negotiated to have them send one of their wrestlers (he was interested in either Michiyoshi Ohara, Tadao Yasuda, Kazuyuki Fujita or Kendo Kashin) to the RINGS ten year anniversary show and in exchange Maeda would send some of his guys to New Japan's 10/8 Tokyo Dome event, to which Fujinami agreed. There were even talks of a potential New Japan vs. RINGS match at one of their later shows. It unfortunately didn’t happen because after the meeting, the press was waiting for Maeda after he came out of the office and in a rage, tried to pull the film out of the cameras of the Tokyo Sports reporters that were shooting him and broke some of them. After the incident, Riki Choshu set up a second meeting with the New Japan front office where they decided against working with Maeda because of that incident.
Maeda was hoping to re-organize and re-start the promotion in the fall of 2002 after RINGS had closed down. Whatever his plans were, they didn’t come to fruition.
UWF International
Lou Thesz tried setting up shows in the US, but his efforts didn’t pan out.
Masakatsu Funaki was in attendance for UWF-i second show and he told reporters that he wanted a match with Nobuhiko Takada. When the reporters asked Takada about this, he ignored the question, probably believing a match with a substantially younger and better trained shooter could end badly for him (especially given that Funaki used to be Takada's whipping boy in the UWF Newborn Dojo, so he might have been out for revenge now that he was much more experienced).
Robert Duran was first contacted by UWF-i for a mixed styles match against UWF-i kickboxer Makoto Ohe, which would have been held in the same event as Billy Scott vs James Warring and Nobuhiko Takada vs Trevor Berbick as part of the "wrestling vs. boxing" theme (though since Ohe was only a kickboxer, it would have been a "boxing vs kickboxing" bout). When they found out he was out of shape and overweight, UWF-i quickly scrapped the idea, leading to PWFG to sign Duran to face Masakatsu Funaki instead.
For the previous event, boxer and kickboxer Ernest Simmons was considered for the mixed styles match with Billy Scott, in case they couldn’t get James Warring. He was even featured on the original poster for the event before Warring signed on.
Before they picked Trevor Berbick to fight Takada, they considered trying to get Mike Tyson sign on, but they apparently scrapped the plan after Tyson was defeated by Buster Douglas.
Masahiro Chono also could have had a match against Nobuhiko Takada, similar to Takada’s match with Koji Kitao in 1992. Ken Suzuki and Lou Thesz (who was once Chono’s trainer) even visited New Japan’s headquarters without prior notice to challenge Chono and a meeting was arranged between the two companies. However, it didn’t go anywhere and UWFI revealed this to the public, which damaged New Japan’s image and pissed off Riki Choshu.
There were talks of bringing back Koji Kitao back after his bout with Takada for a proposed match against Gary Albright, but it never came to pass.
A proposed match between Gary Albright and Mark Fleming was in the works being billed as "American #1 vs American #2", but there was a disagreement with the finish; the bookers (Yoji Anjo and Yuko Miyato) wanted Albright to beat Fleming with a full nelson suplex, but both Fleming and Albright disagreed as Fleming's neck injuries would not allow him to take the bump, and Fleming meeting with Lou Thesz about it didn't help (Thesz basically said to go along with it, which Fleming took to mean that he didn't care about his health and damaged their relationship), if anything it was the final straw for Fleming. Miyato and Anjo tried to apologize and change the finish, but it was too little too late for Fleming and he quit the UWFI.
At their last show in 1992 "Double Impact", Kazuo Yamazaki was supposed to be matched up against Gary Albright, but a dislocated shoulder in training led to him being replaced by Masahito Kakihara.
The UWF-i staff tried to put together an all star tournament and sent letters to all the top wrestlers of the era: Mitsuharu Misawa from AJPW, Shinya Hashimoto from NJPW, Akira Maeda or Chris Dolman from RINGS, Genichiro Tenryu from WAR and Masakatsu Funaki from Pancrase, but none of them accepted; Funaki was not interested, Tenryu gave in but put an excuse, Maeda countered with an offer of a tournament of his own and demanded to bring an entire bunch of RINGS wrestlers to compete in the league and to book the first rounds in one of his own events, and Hashimoto and Misawa talked harshly against the idea. The traditional pro wrestlers in this list probably deduced that the tournament might be a plan to attract them to UWF-i to allow its wrestlers to legit shoot on them and destroy their aura.
Masahito Kakihara or Kiyoshi Tamura could have been sent to challenge Rickson Gracie in his dojo in Los Angeles instead of Yoji Anjo. Even before that, the original plan devised by Yuko Miyato was to send either of them to learn the style of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Rickson and then challenging him.
After Hiromitsu Kanehara took world champion Changpuek Kiatsongrit to the judges in a shoot, K-1 chairman Kazuyoshi Ishii was reportedly so impressed that he offered Kanehara a contract, but he rejected it and sticked with UWF-i.
Davey Boy Smith was contacted by UWF-i to work for them in the hopes of hyping a match between him and Nobuhiko Takada. They actually drew up a contract, which his son says he kept, and Smith even prepared to move to Tennessee to train with Billy Robinson and the other American UWF-i guys. However, he backed out after getting a better offer from All Japan Pro Wrestling, which led to UWF-i to hire their next choice, Big Van Vader. Road Warrior Animal was also contacted in a similar way.
According to Yoshihiro Takayama, UWF-i also tried to get Hulk Hogan of all people to work with them. He declined as he didn’t want to work shoot-style.
There was a rumor that Yuko Miyato was scheduled to wrestle Masahiro Chono during the Clash!! New Japan Pro Wrestling vs. UWF International All-Out War show. However, it was revealed later that Miyato was not even invited to show up.
Yuji Nagata initially thought about joining UWF-i at the beginning of his career, as he loved their style, but Hiroshi Hase eventually convinced him to join NJPW instead. Nagata later trained with former UWF-i member Kazuo Yamazaki while in NJPW, so he got to fulfill a bit of his dream.
Along with New Japan and WAR, All Japan Pro Wrestling was considered as another platform for cross promotion, but whatever talks had between them led nowhere.
Pancrase
After leaving PWFG, Masakatsu Funaki was scouted by K-1 executive Kazuyoshi Ishii to compete in their '93 GP tournament, but declined as he was starting up Pancrase.
Toon Stelling could have started at Pancrase’s debut show alongside Bas Rutten, but he was injured at the time and couldn’t make it. The famous Ramon Dekkers also expressed interest, but he was also injured at a time and also had a Kickboxing bout planned that would conflict with the debut show.
After his tenure in UWF-i, Kiyoshi Tamura was in talks with both Pancrase and RINGS and almost signed up with the former, as Pancrase was precisely what had ignited his interest for MMA in first place. He ended up choosing the latter, though, as they offered him a better contract and a more relaxed schedule.
Scott Bessac was originally the one who Art Davie contacted for UFC 1, but he declined and recommended his teacher Ken Shamrock instead as he felt he was a better fit (he was, although in reality Shamrock was not much more experienced than him).
When Pancrase brought in Frank Lobman for the Kickboxing match against Ken Shamrock, Bas Rutten, who had previously lost to Lobman in kickboxing, wanted to arrange a rematch under Pancrase rules first and then have the rubber match under Muay Thai rules, but Lobman refused.
Ken Shamrock was asked to lose his King of Pancrase title to Bas Rutten a few weeks before his rematch with Royce Gracie. Shamrock refused and actually beat Rutten in about a minute.
Funaki was offered a spot in Ultimate Fighting Championship after UFC 3, but he declined, claiming to be against the rule that allowed closed-fisted punching to the face.
We would have seen a fight between Jerry Bohlander and Kazuo Takahashi at UFC 12 if Takahashi didn’t break his hand when beating Wallid Ismail.
Pancrase management wanted to scout the Machado brothers as potential fighters, so they sent Funaki and Shamrock to their school to negotiate the matter. However, the Machados weren't interested at all and declined the offer. They even refused to roll with Funaki and Shamrock without gi in order to give them no opportunities, fearing the two shooters would attempt to injury them in revenge for their declination. (One of them did roll with Funaki in no-gi, but he forced Funaki to wear a shirt and comitted a foul that angered Funaki by choking him with the shirt.)
Early Lion’s Den trainees like Danny Zuniga, Noah Schnabel, Jerry Bohlander, Mikey Burnett, Joe Hurley, Ashe Bowman, Matt Rocca (though he did fight in Shooto) and even Ken’s real blood brother Robbie Kilpatrick were intended to fight in Pancrase, but unknown reasons impeded it.
Kiuma Kunioku and Sean Daugherty was originally going to debut in Pancrase in 1994 against each other, until Sean suffered a neck injury. Sean was also going to fight in 1998, he then suffered a shoulder injury and wouldn’t fight for Pancrase until 2000.
The main event of the Truth 6 show was supposed to be Ken Shamrock vs. Masakatsu Funaki IV, but Ken pulled out due to a knee injury and they replaced him with Vernon White instead.
Noboru Asahi thought about moving to Pancrase with fellow shootist Manabu Yamada, but realized that he was too small and couldn’t gain the necessary weight.
Caol Uno tried the entrance exam for Pancrase along with his friend Osami Shibuya. He failed while Shibuya got in.
Larry Papadopoulos and Alex Cook were invited to fight at the Caged Combat 1 Australian Ultimate Fighting event in 1997. They refused as they were still contracted with Pancrase, who asked them not to fight there as it was an unproven promotion, though Papadopoulos did come as a consultant to promoter Randy Bable and as a cornerman to Neil Bodycote. Seidokaikan member and RINGS alumni Adam Watt was also invited, but he was not interested.
They were actually signed on to fight in a planned second show called Caged Combat 2: The Rumble on the Reef, with Chris Haseman and Elvis Sinotic returning and even Paul Varelans and Tom Erikson signed on. However, the planned event never came to fruition due to problems behind the scenes
A rematch between Bas Rutten and Guy Mezger was supposed to happen at the 1997 Neo-Blood Tournament Round 1 event. It was scrapped as Guy was in a bad car accident before the event, so Bas did a Muay Thai exhibition match with Ryushi Yanagisawa instead.
There were negotiations between with Takada Dojo in late 1998 to send some of their fighters to Pancrase shows, but only Minoru Toyonaga appeared for them (twice).
A follow up to Coliseum 2000 was planned and would have featured Rickson Gracie against either Naoya Ogawa or Yuki Kondo, but Rickson’s retirement put a stop to those plans and the event never materialized.
Minoru Suzuki’s last MMA fight was originally going to be against Kensuke Sasaki. Due to to getting injured in training, Sasaki was replaced by Jushin Thunder Liger instead. It was strongly rumored, however, that it was all a coverup for Sasaki opting out at the last minute.
Chuck Liddell was scheduled to fight Osami Shibuya at the Pancrase: Trans 1 show, but for some reason the fight was cancelled.
New Stage Battle Wrestling
The main reason Satoru Sayama partnered up Masashi Aoyagi‘s New Stage Battle Wrestling with his Shooto organisation was to announce his return to pro wrestling and challenged Masashi Aoyagi for his return match. For reasons unknown it never happened and Sayama returned to New Japan instead for a match with Jushin Thunder Liger.
Kingdom
Kingdom had plans for Naoya Ogawa to wrestle for them with Antonio Inoki's blessing. Both even appeared at the Kingdom Birth Step 2 show, shaking hands with Nobuhiko Takada. For whatever reason negotiations fell off as Ogawa never wrestled for them and Inoki started up UFO a year later with a similar style to Kingdom's with Ogawa as The Ace.
Kingdom contacted Wallid Ismail to wrestle for them on their Ambition show on December 14th, 1997, but Ismail no-showed since he had a vale tudo match in Sao Paolo four days earlier.
Naomichi Marufuji, a Super Tiger Gym alumni, passed the entrance exam for Kingdom and was told that he could join after he graduated from high school, but it closed before he could debut, and later debuted in traditional pro wrestling for All Japan Pro Wrestling. He also took an entrance exam for Pancrase, but he didn’t pass because he was injured at the time. Marufuji could have had a MMA career if he seriously considered it, with Tsuyoshi Kohsaka praising his fighting skills; he even got to be a sparring partner for Yoshihiro Takayama when the latter was doing MMA.
Hiromitsu Kanehara was originally the guy Kingdom was going to send as their main champion to the UFC Japan event in 1997. Only when he got injured in training was replaced by the eventual winner and future legend Kazushi Sakuraba.
There were rumors that a rematch between Yoji Anjo and Tank Abbott would take place at a Kingdom event, but it never happened.
Unified Shoot Wrestling Federation
Shannon "The Cannon" Ritch was supposed to fight at USWF 16 in a middleweight title fight against Ali Elias and was advertised as such, for some reason he dropped out of the fight and was replaced by some guy named Bruce Hunter.
After Ogawa won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship from Dan Severn, he challenged Nobuhiko Takada to a match for the title. Takada was too busy with PRIDE and didn’t respond, so Ogawa instead challenged him to a fight at PRIDE 6, but it was cancelled due to negotiations breaking down.
There were plans for Antonio Inoki’s UFO promotion to work with RINGS, but they fell through after Satoru Sayama disagreed with that decision and left UFO altogether. The deal would have involved Dick Vrij and Hans Nijman on a UFO event with Vrij challenging for Ogawa’s NWA World Heavyweight Championship, the Yamamoto vs Ogawa match in RINGS and a joint show with PRIDE, headlined by a Wallid Ismail vs. Royce Gracie match.
Marco Ruas was originally supposed to be at UFO Legend against Kazunari Murakami, but a hand injury forced him out and was replaced by Wallid Ismail.
Seikendo
Kurt Angle, Danny Kroffat, and Jose Estrada Jr. were apparently supposed to be at one of the Ultimate Boxing events as part of proposed partnership Seikendo wanted with WWE. It didn’t happen.
Hans Nijman was supposed to be part of the Seikendo vs Pride FC event alongside Dick Vrij going against Andrey Kirsanov, but for some reason the bout was cancelled and he was replaced by Glenn Brasdorp.
Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye
There was talk of replacing Mark Kerr with Kazuyuki Fujita as the tag team partner of Mark Coleman against Yuji Nagata and Takashi Iizuka because of his recent loss to Igor Vovchanchyn, but Kerr fought against that suggestion as he really wanted to do this match and team with his friend Coleman.
In December 2001, Guy Mezger was proposed the idea of fighting at that year’s Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye show while wearing Tiger Mask attire and mask, but he didn't accept. He was also offered to do this in Pride, but again refused.
There were apparently serious talks of Osaka Pro comedy pro-wrestler Ebessan potentially taking on Alistair Overeem at the 2003 event, but thankfully nothing came of it.
There was also supposed to be a fight between Mirko Filipović and Yoshihiro Takayama, but a back injury kept Cro Cop from competing.
HERO'S
Ikuhisa Minowa was originally supposed to fight Ralek Gracie in his debut at HERO'S 10, but Ralek got injured and was replaced by Rickson Gracie student Kevin Casey.
Futen
Daisuke Ikeda was originally going to retire after the first Futen event and only told his opponent Yuki Ishikawa before the event. It instead reignited his passion for wrestling and continued his career.
Bloodsport
Low Ki was originally scheduled to be Matt Riddle's opponent for the main event of Matt Riddle's Bloodsport, but had to withdraw just days before (and kept the deposit) by claiming to have suffered an injury beforehand. He was replaced by Minoru Suzuki.
Jon Moxley was originally supposed to be Josh Barnett's opponent for the main event of Josh Barnett's Bloodsport 2, but that match was put off due to Jon dealing with a MRSA infection from being set on fire from another match. He was replaced by Chris Dickinson.
In an interesting reversal at Josh Barnett's Bloodsport 3, Barnett was unable to wrestle on the show due to prior commitments (though was still present as a producer), so Moxley was matched against Dickinson for that show.
Josh Barnett's Bloodsport 3 was originally supposed to feature what Barnett dubbed The Gotch-Robinson Cup, an eight man tournament for said cup. The show was originally scheduled to be held on April 2, 2020, at The Cuban Club in Tampa, Florida, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Florida. For whatever reason the tournament never came to be when the show finally aired in October 10, 2020.
Dickinson was also originally supposed to face off against Minoru Suzuki at Josh Barnett's Bloodsport 3, but thanks to COVID-19 pandemic limiting air travel, Suzuki wasn't able to make it to the changed date.
Deonna Purrazzo was originally supposed to be in the women's tournament of Josh Barnett's Bloodsport 3, but pulled out due to COVID-19 concerns and was replaced by Leyla Hirsch.
Davey Richards was originally supposed to face Jon Moxley at Josh Barnett's Bloodsport 9, but he had to retire (again) due domestic violence allegations. He was replaced by Alex Coughlin.
Crossovers
Nobuhiko Takada once remarked that he would have liked to fight Maurice Smith, which caused the All Japan Kickboxing Federation to book a match between them at one of their events... without negotiating with Takada at all. On the event it was booked, Takada didn’t show up, so they rang a ten-count and declared Mo Smith the victor.
Nobuhiko Takada could have appeared in the first UFC event in Japan facing Ken Shamrock, possibly in a worked match to put him over after his defeat to Rickson, but he was removed from the event when negotiations fell apart and Shamrock was with the WWE at the time and they didn’t want to risk an injury to one of their stars. There were talks about them facing each other in PRIDE but nothing came off it.
There were also talks of Takada going against Tank Abbott at another of the UFC Japan shows, but nothing came off it.
Ken Shamrock was suppose to face Mark Coleman at Pride 12, Igor Vovchanchyn at Pride 13, and Ian Freeman at UFC 43. Coleman backed out of their fight, and Ken got injured before his fights with Igor and Ian and was replaced by his students Tra Telligman and Vernon White respectively.
Ultimate Fighting Championship was interested in getting Kazushi Sakuraba in 2003 as part of a working agreement with PRIDE, but the contract conditions weren't good enough, so PRIDE instead offered Hirotaka Yokoi, whom UFC naturally turned down. Pride also offered Sergei Kharitonov, but he was allegedly turned down because he was a "no-name Russian" that was too good for the comparably thin UFC heavyweight division at the time.
Ernesto Hoost was Art Davies’ original choice for a Dutch martial artist at UFC 1, but Hoost was unavailable due to having a Kickboxing match in Japan, to which Jan Plas offered Gerard Gordeau as his replacement. Peter Aerts was also considered, but he was uninterested and the UFC at the time couldn’t pay him enough.
Gordeau was also invited to compete at UFC 2, but he refused due to a number factors, among them money. He did bring in and corner his friends Remco Pardoel and Freek Hamaker.
Scott Sullivan was invited to fight in the first UFC in 1993, but didn't think his skills would work well against Royce Gracie.
Bas Rutten could have competed in the first UFC events, as he heard it from Ken Shamrock and his own friend Gerard Gordeau, but he was not interested at the moment, as he had a better pay and a more safe career grooming in Pancrase. He also could have fought later in PRIDE (possibly against Kazunari Murakami or a rematch with Ken Shamrock), but they offered him a better contract as a commentator and he stuck with it.
Bas Rutten’s UFC debut was originally going to be the main event to UFC: Ultimate Brazil (aka UFC 17.5) against Randy Couture for the UFC heavyweight title, however the fight was cancelled when Couture instead signed with Vale Tudo Japan, and was stripped of the title.
During a proposed deal with Pride, UFC 46 almost had a Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Wesley "Cabbage" Correiera match-up, but PRIDE however turned down the fight as they thought it wasn't a big enough fight for Fujita.
Dan Severn was originally supposed to fight Maurice Smith at UFC 15 for the heavyweight championship, but he fought in Pride 1 against Kimo Leopoldo a week before the event and was too banged up from that to compete. He got replaced by Tank Abbott and blacklisted from the UFC as a result. Ironically, it has been said by insiders that Tank was supposed to be Kimo’s original opponent for the Pride fight, but encountered VISA issues and couldn't fly to Japan.
Chris Haseman and Elvis Sinotic were once signed to fight each other at UFC 110 to settle their rivalry, but Sinosic was forced out with a shoulder injury, and Haseman was removed from the card.
Various other wrestlers were contacted to fight at PRIDE 1, among them, Akira Maeda, Masakatsu Funaki, Kiyoshi Tamura, Shinya Hashimoto, Minoru Suzuki, Riki Choshu, and even Mitsuharu Misawa, although little came out of the discussions since accepting the offer would've meant they would've had to fight on the under card below the Takada vs. Rickson main event and they felt that would've hurt their stock.
Guy Mezger could have fought Enson Inoue instead of Tito Ortiz at UFC 13, if Enson didn’t get injured from his fight against Royce Alger on the same night.
Yoji Anjo was originally scheduled to fight Frank Shamrock at UFC 23 (aka UFC Japan 2). The fight was canceled due Frank backing out.
Pete Williams could have fought in UFC 8 instead of Jerry Bohlander. They had a gym fight to determine who would fight there, with Bohlander coming out the victor.
Yoji Anjo was once offered a fight with Mirko Cro Cop in K-1 when Mirko was still billed as "Mirko Tiger". Anjo apparently watched a few of his fights and wisely declined the offer.
Yoshihisa Yamamoto made appearances in both Pro Wrestling ZERO1 in 2001 after he left RINGS and New Japan Pro-Wrestling in 2005 after he left Takada Dojo, where he would confront Naoya Ogawa in the former and Yuji Nagata in the latter with the presumption being that he was eventually going to wrestle them. For some reason neither match happened and Yoshihisa went back to MMA after both incidents.
Shinya Hashimoto offered a challenge to both Rickson Gracie and Nobuhiko Takada to reporters after their PRIDE 4 fight. Whether or not it was suppose to be a serious challenge it's not known as they ignored him.
Tatsuo Nakano was approached by Nobuhiko Takada for a possible undercard fight in PRIDE the same night as Takada’s retirement fight with Kiyoshi Tamura. He declined as he felt he lacked conditioning and was unable to attend the event altogether due to personal reasons.
Most of the Kingdom roster was offered to fight in PRIDE 1 to give it a more "UWF-i vs. Gracie family" feel, including Kanehara, Anjo and Sakuraba, but the idea was scrapped when Kingdom executives turned down the offer. Sakuraba ended up debuting in PRIDE 2 anyways, but Kanehara and Anjo wouldn't follow him until PRIDE 23 and Shockwave 2004 respectively.
Matt Hume competed in the first ADCC Championships in the 77kg category, but had to drop out before the semifinals due to injury. The person he beat, Luis Brito, went on to be the silver medalist, beating John Lewis in the semifinals and losing to eventual winner Renzo Gracie.
Genichiro Tenryu was approached by Japanese promoters to take part in the first Ultimate Fighting Championship event in Japan in 1997, as he was reputed to be a tough guy who might do well in mixed martial arts. He would had fought as a WAR representative and his opponent would have been possibly Don Frye. However, negotiations fell apart as both Tenryu and the UFC officers agreed that he was too old to compete in MMA and that Frye was too nasty of an opponent for him. Other WAR wrestlers with MMA experience like Koji Kitao and Koki Kitahara were offered to replace him, but UFC declined, as they did not want to get involved with pro wrestlers without the name value of Tenryu.
Naoki Sano or Gary Goodridge could have faced Kimo Leopoldo at PRIDE 3, but Kimo tore his ACL in training about a week before the fight and Goodridge was matched against Amir Rahnavardi instead.
Masakatsu Funaki was considered to replace Nobuhiko Takada as Rickson Gracie’s opponent at PRIDE 4, but after being knocked out by Semmy Schilt the promoters scrapped the plan and Funaki only got to face Rickson at the Coliseum 2000 event.
Kazushi Sakuraba could have fought Frank Shamrock on three occasions. After Frank requested to fight Sakuraba, PRIDE offered him a place in the Grand Prix 2000 in order to secure a potential match against Saku, but he was not interested, as he thought PRIDE was using Saku as a carrot to have him fighting through their cards. They later considered replacing Royce Gracie (who they were annoyed with as he kept demanding rule changes to his fights) and taking his place in the tournament, Frank was actually ready to take the deal, but was talked out of it because he hasn't done any serious fight training since September. They then offered Frank a fight against Sakuraba at PRIDE 10, but the American refused again, wanting at least three more months to train properly. After that, the negotiations went sour and the matchup was forgotten.
Masaaki Satake could have faced Enson Inoue at the first round of the PRIDE Grand Prix 2000, but the promoters instead decided to no longer put off the promised Mark Kerr vs Enson Inoue fight for a third time and instead matched Satake with Mark Coleman.
Tra Telligman could have faced Carlos Barreto earlier at the PRIDE Grand Prix 2000 in a tournament alternates match, but Barreto suffered a right shoulder injury in training, and that, combined with his trainer Carlson Gracie's inability to get a visa, led the match not taking place. Barreto had come to Japan hoping he'd recover and be able to fight, but after Gracie didn't arrive, he also felt the shoulder hadn't recovered enough.
Antonio Inoki really wanted to get Kazuyuki Fujita into the first round match of the PRIDE Grand Prix 2000 against Royce Gracie, but the promoters disagreed and put Fujita in a match with Hans Nijman and Royce with Nobuhiko Takada instead.
Despite his losses, Nobuhiko Takada tried desperately for a third fight with Rickson Gracie, but the Brazilian refused. He also similarly tried to rematch with Royce Gracie, but he also refused.
We could have gotten a competitive fight between Kazuyuki Fujita vs Mark Coleman, if Fujita didn’t hurt his knee in his fight with Mark Kerr.
Minoru Toyonaga was originally supposed to face Carlos Newton at PRIDE 9, but he was taken out due to a brain hemorrhage which later forced him to retire from fighting altogether and was replaced by Naoki Sano.
There were talks of a potential Yuki Kondo vs. Renzo Gracie fight in PRIDE, but it never went anywhere. Though Kondo eventually did fight Gracie at a ONE Fighting Championship event in 2018.
Willie Peeters was a late replacement for Marcelo Tigre (in what would have been his PRIDE debut) in his fight with Heath Herring. He took the fight on three days notice.
PRIDE tried signing Naoya Ogawa to fight Nobuhiko Takada several times. After the last negotiations fell off, PRIDE management thought of making Takada publicly challenge Ogawa while doing commentary for the second fight between Kazushi Sakuraba and Wanderlei Silva, hoping it would lead Naoya to accept. However, knowing it would be useless again against the stubborn Ogawa, Takada took over the decision, and instead of challenging the judoka, he proclaimed Ogawa was nothing and that he wanted to fight a real opponent in form of Mirko Filipovic. This secured another big bout for PRIDE and damaged Ogawa's reputation.
Pride 20 had a lot of card changes, fights originally on the card include Renzo Gracie vs. Sanae Kikuta, Ricardo Arona vs. Sanae Kikuta, Quinton Jackson vs. Yuki Kondo, Sam Greco vs. Gilbert Yvel, Mario Sperry vs. Dan Henderson, etc.
Takanori Gomi could have gone against former WBC Super Flyweight boxing champ Masamori Tokuyama at Pride’s 2006 NYE show. The original plan was for the bout to be contested under boxing rules, with four rounds, and only knockouts "counting." However once news broke of the idea, many situations arose making it impossible for the fight to take place. One of the talking points about the fight was the 20 kg weight difference between the fighters. The boxing comission also approached Tokuyama and informed him that if he went ahead with the fight then he would have to relinquish his title and would have to temporarily retire from boxing.
Before fighting for PRIDE, the UFC had made Shinya Aoki an offer to fight BJ Penn in the UFC. Aoki considered the offer as he could've made a living from MMA if he fought 4 times a year in the UFC, however his manager Mr. Hasegawa advised him against it and Aoki declined the offer. In hindsight Aoki said he felt it was the right decision careerwise as he didn't feel he had reached that level professionally at that point. Aoki also spoke about the thoughts of taking a hiatus from MMA and focusing solely on becoming a police officer as there was no money to be in MMA until he began fighting in PRIDE. He said PRIDE paid and treated him well.
Kazushi Sakuraba could have debuted originally in PRIDE 1 against Renzo Gracie instead of Akira Shoji, but it didn't happen due to bad negotiations between Kakutogi Revolution Spirits and Kingdom. He also could have faced Royler Gracie at PRIDE 2 instead of stablemate Naoki Sano, but again negotiates broke down and he got Vernon White instead. He also could have had a rematch with Carlos Newton at PRIDE 4 instead of Allan Goes.
Marco Ruas’ original opponent for Pride 4 was Mario Sperry, who pulled out and was replaced with Alexander Otsuka.
Enson Inoue was originally supposed to fight Mark Kerr earlier at PRIDE 5, but an elbow injury took Kerr out of the match. Replacements considered included Mario Sperry, Naoya Ogawa (in what would have been his PRIDE debut) or even a rematch with Frank Shamrock, but they instead got him an unknown karate fighter in Soichi Nishida. They also could have faced off at PRIDE 6, but that time Enson had to step away due to a broken hand and Kerr was matched up with Nobuhiko Takada instead.
Don Fyre’s original opponent for Pride 21 was Mark Coleman, before he pulled out due to a serious neck injury and was replaced by Yoshihiro Takayama.
Gilbert Yvel was originally supposed to fight Wanderlei Silva later on the Pride 11 show after their original match ended in a no contest after Silva accidentally kicked him in the groin, but he didn’t recover in time. Pride tried to arrange a rematch, but for some reason it never happened.
Gilbert Yvel had at least 3 cancelled fights in Pride against guys like Sam Greco, Sergei Kharitonov (the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) refused to grant Yvel a license to fight in their state due to his history of poor conduct), and Bozigit Ataev (who backed out claiming a stomach illness).
In the middle of his “negotiations” with PRIDE over the rules for his fight with Kazushi Sakuraba, Royce Gracie also challenged Naoya Ogawa to future fight, strangely Ogawa never responded to the challenge.
Naoya Ogawa could have ended fighting Rickson Gracie in two separate occasions. The first one even had the match signed up for a follow up of the Colosseum 2000 event, with Ogawa preparing to forfeit the NWA World Heavyweight Championship in order to focus on preparing for the fight, but Rickson backed down due to the death of his son Rockson. The second time was years later, when Rickson returned to Japan by UFO's invitation and they talked of a match with Ogawa, but the thing fell off again.
Aside from Guy Mezger as described above, Tiger Mask IV was approached by PRIDE management to fight for them and even offered to let him fight with his mask on, but he declined as he got a better offer from New Japan Pro-Wrestling.
Kazushi Sakuraba could have faced Wanderlei Silva for the first time even earlier at PRIDE 7, but the promoters decided to delay it and put them in separate fights with Anthony Macias and Carl Malenko respectively.
After his fight with Wanderlei Silva, there were suggestions for Kiyoshi Tamura to portray Tiger Mask in the PRIDE ring, having his first match against Ryan Gracie. However, those plans were abandoned. Pride even had scheduled an anime to go along with the character similar to the original Tiger Mask anime series, but the idea never materialized as the creators of the anime backed out.
Knowing his experience and popularity in shoot-style, Mixed Martial Arts company PRIDE Fighting Championships once wanted to bring Vader as a fighter, and he actually started to train in the Team Hammer House. At the end, however, the DSE management opted not to book him in MMA bouts after seeing his poor physical condition in his only match in Fighting Opera Hustle. He was also supposed to be Kimo’s original opponent for the U-Japan event, but the same thing happened and was replaced by Bam Bam Bigelow.
After his gutsy performance against Gary Goodridge, Yoshiaki Yatsu was considered for a Pride fight against Kazuyuki Fujita since both were former Japanese Olympic-level amateur wrestlers, but nothing came out of it.
There were plans for a Pride fight between Kazuyuki Fujita and Rulon Gardner (the guy who beat Aleksander Karelin for the gold medal in the 2000 Olympics) between 2000 and 2001, but that went nowhere and Gardner had his only fight years later in 2004 against Hidehiko Yoshida.
After its purchase by Zuffa, The first event of this new revamped PRIDE was scheduled to include a lightweight grand prix. The first round of the grand prix was scheduled to take place on May 20, 2007 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. The second round was scheduled to take place on July 16, 2007 at the Nihon Gaisha Hall in Nagoya, Japan. The finals were scheduled to take place on September 30, 2007 at the Saitama Super Arena. Takanori Gomi, Hayato "Mach" Sakurai, Tatsuya Kawajiri, Mitsuhiro Ishida, Gilbert Melendez, Joachim Hansen, Luiz Azeredo, Marcus Aurelio, Shinya Aoki Satoru Kitaoka (who had defeated Fabricio Monteiro in a qualifying match in DEEP) were some of the names scheduled to participate in this upcoming tournament. There was talks of Georges St. Pierre, Matt Hughes and then UFC lightweight champion Sean Sherk also participating in the tournament as UFC representatives. The tournament however never took place as the Fertitas had purchased PRIDE months before the event and thought it was a bad idea to put on such a big card in that short of a time frame.
Frank Shamrock was apparently scouted by K-1 for a time.
Dick Vrij was considered as a possible opponent for Akebono in K-1, as he was a famous shoot-style wrestler with few actual fighting skills who might have given Akebono a much needed victory. However, Vrij declined for being over 40 and having persistent injuries.
Shigeru Saeki's DEEP organization was originally scheduled to be a pro-wrestling organization that then ended up turning into an MMA organization. DEEP original matchups were scheduled being Nobuhiko Takada vs. Cactus Jack and The Road Warriors, Hawk and Animal vs. NO FEAR, Yoshihiro Takayama and Takao Omori. Yuji Shimada even advised Saeki about negotating a talent exchange relationship with WWE. All of Saeki's pro wrestling ideas feel through and talks with several Brazilian fighters such as Royler Gracie kicked off and a strong relationship with Pancrase began and DEEP changed it's idea and turned into an MMA organization.
Tatsuhito Takaiwa was going to compete in a MMA fight in DEEP against Ikuhisa Minowa, who had promised to use Takaiwa's Death Valley driver some day in MMA, but Pro Wrestling ZERO1 shut down the idea, fearing that Tatsuhito's aura would suffer if he was defeated (and he would have, given that the matchup was literally a rookie vs. veteran affair).
Ikuto Hidaka was supposed to have his MMA debut in PRIDE, though for some reason the fight fell through. He later had his debut and only MMA fight in DEEP against his friend Takafumi Ito.
MMA promotion DEEP was interested in hosting a "Pancrase vs. RINGS" match between Minoru Suzuki and either Kiyoshi Tamura or Wataru Sakata at one of its first events, but negotiations failed, as Tamura turned down the offer apparently due to the paycheck and Suzuki though Sakata was too bad of a replacement. Masakatsu Funaki offered Yoshiki Takahashi instead of Suzuki, but Pancrase chairman Masami Ozaki vetoed it.
Deep was also interested in a "Pancrase vs Shooto" match between Yuki Kondo vs. Hayato "Mach" Sakurai bout, but they opted not to even try to put it on because they knew it would be a problematic fight to put on.
Several other Deep fight ideas in its early events include Pancrase fighter Kengo Watanabe vs. Road Warrior Animal, which fell through as Animal turned down the fight and Sanae Kikuta vs. Ricardo Arona, but Arona turned down that fights well.
In 2009, DEEP also considered hosting shoot-style rules matches at their shows, but nothing came off it.
A match between Kazushi Sakuraba and Kiyoshi Tamura was in the works in at least three separate occasions through the history of PRIDE, as Saku used to challenge Tamura after every big match and Tamura always had an excuse to decline. PRIDE even offered them a tag team MMA match similar to those which ZST would host years later, and Tamura actually accepted, but then it was Saku who objected to the idea because he wanted an individual bout. The matter was so heated that Tamura actually promoted his autobiographical book by announcing he would reveal in it the reasons why he never fought Sakuraba in PRIDE.
Pride 34, what would come to be the promotion's final card, the original main event was supposed to be Kazushi Sakuraba versus Kiyoshi Tamura, which was then scrapped for a hypothetical Saku vs. Wanderlei Silva IV showdown, a bout made impossible because Wanderlei got knocked out just a few weeks prior by Dan Henderson.
Before his match against Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Kazushi Sakuraba was originally offered to fight Mexican wrestler-turned-fighter El Solar in a special fight in which Saku would wear his famous "Saku Machine" mask, but he declined the offer and chose Nogueira instead.
Kazushi Sakuraba could have faced Allan Goes in a rematch on PRIDE 6, but he was replaced by Ebenezer Fontes Braga.
Kazushi Sakuraba could have fought Kevin Randleman earlier in the Pride Grand Prix 2000 Opening Round, it didn’t happen as the UFC managed to get Randleman to back out by promising a fight with Pedro Rizzo. Alex Andrade was also considered for Saku’s opponent instead of Guy Mezger who wanted to refuse as he wasn’t in shape, but PRIDE decided Andrade wasn’t a big enough name and got Mezger to be in the fight.
Guy Mezger was promised a rematch with Sakuraba, which ended up never happening since once Sakuraba had beaten Royce Gracie to become a big star, it made no sense as far as the promotion felt for him to risk that stardom against a quality fighter who was a tough style match-up for him but that the fans didn’t see as a potential superstar.
According to Vernon White, Ken Shamrock’s first pick as his opponent for the No Holds Barred Exhibition on WWE Raw 7 April 1997 was Paul Valerans, but he refused as he didn’t want to bleed.
Others
A third UWF had been planned after the folding of Newborn, but differences of thinking between its members made them split apart (namely, Shigeo Miyato and Yoji Anjo did not like Maeda, while Fujiwara and his apprentices had a different vision about the product they wanted to do).
After the first UWF dissolved, Giant Baba offered a hefty pay to Akira Maeda to join All Japan Pro Wrestling. However, when Akira found out that only him and Takada would be contracted while the rest of their companions would be left to their luck, he declined the offer and returned with them to New Japan, despite knowing it would bring him heat with Antonio Inoki.
Akira Maeda was sent offers to join the at the time newly formed SWS promotion, but he turned it down as he was the still with Newborn UWF and didn't want to do any other style. Failing that the SWS heads sent him another offer to do a cross promotion event at the Tokyo Dome which would feature him against Genichiro Tenryu as the main event, which he turned down flat.
During Tamura's return to pro wrestling at his U-STYLE project in 2003, there were talks about wrestling for All Japan Pro Wrestling, as his trainee Ryuki Ueyama had done a special match for them. Although Tamura was open to the possibility, it didn't happen, so he focused in U-STYLE and PRIDE instead.
Royce Gracie received offers by RINGS, Pancrase and New Japan Pro-Wrestling after winning the first Ultimate Fighting Championship, but the price he asked was too high and they dumped him because he wasn't famous enough at the time to pay him so much.
There were plans to get Rickson Gracie to work for UWF-I, but knowing that they only did works, he declined every offer they threw at him. RINGS later tried as well, with similar results.
Sanae Kikuta tried to enter New Japan Pro-Wrestling twice but failed the entrance exams. Kenichi Yamamoto was a fellow examinee during Kikuta's second try.
Yuki Nakai in his Hokkaido University days initially planned to join the Kyokushin Karate club under the prestigious Kaoru Takagi, but he ended up settling on the Kosen Judo club under equally famous kosen judo master Kanae Hirata.
Dave Meltzer once wrote that Kurt Angle was once offered a contract by either RINGS or UWF-I.
According to Ken Shamrock, Dan Severn actually asked to be part of the Lion’s Den before his UFC debut and even sent him a tape that showed off his skills. Ken for his part asked Dan to come in for the infamous tryouts, but Dan didn’t want to do those and eventually got into the UFC his own way.
After Jushin Thunder Liger’s Pancrase fight with Minoru Suzuki, and likely due to Liger's sound lack of success there, Sanae Kikuta offered to train Liger for MMA. The latter declined, however, as he had fought that card only to replace Kensuke Sasaki and didn't intend to continue a fighting career himself.
A plan was made for Billy Robinson and Antonio Inoki to announce the formation of a new promotion, the CACCA (Catch-As-Catch-Can Association). They would be the public faces of the promotion, an alliance dating back to their one-and-only singles match, a 60 minute draw in 1975 that was generally viewed as one of the greatest matches of that era. This would have put Robinson back in the spotlight, since Inoki has his own promotion as well as being in the Senate. The wrestlers would come from Miyato’s gym, several wrestlers trained by Kazushi Sakuraba and wrestlers trained by Kiyoshi Tamura at his U-File Camp. The idea was to be like a modernized version of the 80s and 90s UWF style pro wrestling. The matches were to be worked, and with relying on all new talent, it would have been at best just another of the dozens of pro wrestling groups in the country that are indie level that almost nobody is even aware of. With Robinson having passed away, since he was to be a key part, there is no word on the future of this plan, and as Inoki has also since died, the would be organization has likely died with them both.
