Pankration was a sporting event introduced into the Greek Olympic Games in 648 BC, which was an empty-hand submission sport with few rules. The athletes used boxing and wrestling techniques but also others, such as kicking, holds, joint-locks, and chokes on the ground, making it similar to modern mixed martial arts. The term comes from the Greek παγκράτιον [paŋkrátion], meaning 'all of power', from πᾶν (pan) 'all' and κράτος (kratos) 'strength, might, power'.
Pancrase is a Japanese mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion company based in Tokyo. It was founded in 1993 by professional wrestlers Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki.
Ronald Dayne is a former professional American football running back who played in the National Football League (NFL) for eight seasons. Dayne played college football for the University of Wisconsin and won the 1999 Heisman Trophy. He was a first round pick of the New York Giants in the 2000 NFL Draft and also played for the Denver Broncos and Houston Texans during his 7-year NFL career.
The Big Break is a reality television program broadcast by the Golf Channel. The show's premise was to award an aspiring professional golfer exemptions into selected events or full-season exemptions on lower-level tours. The series debuted on October 6, 2003.
James Hong is an American actor, producer, and director. He has worked in numerous productions in U.S. media since the 1950s, portraying a variety of roles. With more than 650 film and television credits as of 2022, he is one of the most prolific actors of all time.
Breaking is a martial arts technique that is used in competition, demonstration and testing. Breaking is an action where a martial artist uses a striking surface to break one or more objects using the skills honed in their art form. The striking surface is usually a hand or a foot, but may also be a fingertip, toe, head, elbow, knuckle, or knee. The most common object is a piece of wood or brick, though it is also common to break cinder blocks, glass, or even a piece of metal such as steel bars. Glass is usually discouraged, since its shards may cause injury when broken.
Mearion Shonie Bickhem III, better known as Shonie Carter, is an American mixed martial artist. He is a former WEC Welterweight Champion, a UFC veteran, and a contestant on The Ultimate Fighter 4 reality show. He has also competed in Pancrase, Shooto, King of the Cage, M-1 Global, KSW, and Bellator. He is known for his flashy dress, colorful vocabulary, outlandish personality and use of the spinning backfist in competition.
Rory Michael Singer is an American mixed martial artist and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Black Belt. Although Rory had made a name for himself as a 185-pound prospect; his big break came after meeting the producers of TUF. They were filming Forrest Griffin at The HardCore Gym for his fight against Stephan Bonnar in the finals of season 1. Forrest went on to win Season 1 and Rory was approached soon after to appear on Season 3.
Sleeping at Last is a musical project led by singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Ryan O'Neal. The project initially began in Wheaton, Illinois as a three-piece band with Ryan O'Neal as the lead singer and guitarist, his brother Chad O'Neal as the drummer, and Dan Perdue as the bassist. The band independently recorded their debut album, Capture in 2000, which they used to attract the attention of Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan, who helped them get signed to a major record label, Interscope Records. The band released their only major label album, Ghosts in 2003, before going independent again and releasing Keep No Score in 2006, and Storyboards in 2009.
The fourth season of the television series, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit premiered September 27, 2002 and ended May 16, 2003 on NBC. This was the last season of the series to air on Friday nights at 10pm/9c.
Leo Howard is an American actor and martial artist. Howard is known for incorporating his karate skills into his feature film and television roles; as "Young Snake-Eyes" in the 2009 action film G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, as "Young Conan" in the 2011 fantasy film Conan the Barbarian, and as Jack on the Disney XD comedy series Kickin' It. Howard was certified as the youngest TV director ever by the Guinness World Records for his work on the episode "Fight at the Museum" in the fourth season of the Kickin' It TV series at age 16. He also played CeCe's rival Logan on Shake it Up in the third season.
Nils Allen "Booboo" Stewart Jr. is an American actor. He is known for playing Seth Clearwater in The Twilight Saga, Warpath in X-Men: Days of Future Past, Jay in the Disney television film franchise Descendants, Luca in Good Trouble and Willie in Julie and the Phantoms.
Craig Pumphrey is a martial arts expert and Guinness World Record-holding professional breaker.
Paul Pumphrey is a martial arts professional and a world champion breaker.
Jim Arvanitis is a Greek-American martial artist and professional trainer of Mixed Martial Arts/Hybrid Reality Combat based on the pankration model, and author of several books and videos relating to pankration. He is considered Pankration's Renaissance Man and the founder of Neo-Pankration, a blend of the remnants of the ancient pankration and elements found in modern sources such as Western boxing, savate, Greco-Roman wrestling, Muay-thai, and combat judo. He holds the rank of Great Grandmaster, 11th Dan from the World Pankration Dan Ranking.
RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars is an American reality competition spin off edition of the original RuPaul's Drag Race, which is produced by World of Wonder, for Logo TV and later VH1. The show premiered on October 22, 2012, on Logo TV, before relocating to VH1. However, it was announced on February 20, 2020, on the show's official Twitter account that the fifth season would premiere on June 5, 2020, on Showtime. Following the cast announcement on May 8, 2020, producers announced that the show would remain airing on VH1 instead of Showtime due to the COVID-19 pandemic which caused "various scheduling and programming adjustments". On February 24, 2021, Paramount+ announced via Twitter that the streaming service would be the new home to the series for the sixth season.
Jackie Cox is the stage name of Darius Rose, a Canadian drag queen based in New York City, known for being a competitor on the twelfth season of RuPaul's Drag Race and ultimately placing fourth in the competition.
MTV Spring Break refers to the channel's annual spring break coverage, featuring numerous live performances from artists and bands on location. The annual tradition continued into the 2000s, when it became de-emphasized and handed off to mtvU, the spin-off channel of MTV targeted at college campuses.
