• Shang Tsung tells Jax he's free to leave at any time but he must fight his champion. This is very similar to a scene in Kickboxer 4: The Aggressor. Here the host tells some men they are free to leave his island. However, as they leave he signals his goons to gun them down.
• Johnny Cage's whole believing the MK tournament was just one big movie set pays homage to another popular fighting film at the time. Starring Billy Blanks, that film with a similar plot where an actor thinks he's fighting for a movie only to find out he's actually in a snuff film, is King of the Kickboxers.

Are there any other references you can find?