Pearce was born in 1967, and first attracted public attention at the age of sixteen when he appeared on Junior Pot Black in 1983, defeated by fourteen-year-old Stephen Hendry 70–23 in the quarter-finals.

[1] Pearce turned professional in 1992, and won nine of his first eleven matches; however, the open nature of the tour at that time was such that these were played in his first two tournaments, and he reached only the last 96 at the 1992 Grand Prix.

In the former, he defeated five opponents including Robin Hull, Tony Jones and the young Stephen Lee, before losing 3–5 to Joe Swail; in the latter, he beat Steven de Baets, Sean Storey, Robby Foldvari, Les Dodd, Mick Price, Jason Prince, David Roe and Dave Harold, setting up an encounter with Rod Lawler.

[2] Having begun the season as the world number 204, Pearce's run to the semi-finals earned him £16,000; the other eight tournaments he had entered had heralded no prize money at all, but by its conclusion he had jumped 109 places to 95th.

At the Grand Prix, he notably beat Ronnie O'Sullivan 5–1 in their last-32 match, but lost his next 0–5 to the Canadian Alain Robidoux; in the British Open, he defeated Simon Morris, Jeff Cundy, Euan Henderson and Chris Small but was again whitewashed, this time losing 0–5 to Mark Williams.