ROH Pure Champion

The ROH Pure Championship is a professional wrestling championship contested for in the American professional wrestling promotion Ring of Honor (ROH). The reigning champion is Lee Moriarty in his first reign.

History

The title was originally named the ROH Pure Wrestling Championship and A.J. Styles defeated CM Punk in the final of an eight-man, one night tournament to crown the first champion. The tournament took place at the ''Second Anniversary Show'' and also featured John Walters, Chris Sabin, Doug Williams, Matt Stryker, Josh Daniels and Jimmy Rave.

Styles was forced to vacate the Pure Wrestling title in the wake of the Rob Feinstein controversy that resulted in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) abruptly ending its talent-sharing agreement with ROH (pulling all of its contracted performers, including Styles, from all ROH shows). However, for almost ten years ROH considered the Pure Wrestling Championship and the Pure Championship two distinct titles—not a single title that was merely renamed/re-branded. There was no mention of Styles on ROH's website as having held the Pure Championship, and it was seldom, if ever, acknowledged in commentary that Styles held the previous version of the title or that it even existed until in January 2014, when ROH released a DVD about Styles, describing him as the first ROH Pure Champion. Doug Williams would win the vacant title after he defeated Alex Shelley in the final of a one night mini-tournament at ''Reborn: Completion'' on July 17, 2004.

Retirement

On April 29, 2006, ''Weekend of Champions: Night Two'' saw the first ever title vs. title match in Ring of Honor as ROH World Champion Bryan Danielson took on ROH Pure Champion Nigel McGuinness. The match was contested under Pure title rules, but both the World and Pure titles were on the line. McGuinness won the bout by countout, but since only the Pure title could change hands on a countout, he did not win the ROH World Championship. The two faced each other again on August 12, 2006 in Liverpool, England, with Danielson defeating McGuinness to unify the ROH Pure Championship with the ROH World Championship. Having the title put on the line in the United Kingdom while. Danielson and McGuinness competed in a rematch for the ROH World Championship later that month, wrestling to a one-hour draw. After the match, Danielson announced that the ROH Pure Championship had been officially retired, and gave the title belt back to McGuinness to keep.

Revival

On January 30, 2020, nearly 14 years after it was retired, Ring of Honor announced they were reinstating the ROH Pure Championship, with a tournament to crown a new champion beginning in 2020. Following ROH taking a five-month hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a 16-man tournament was conducted in August 2020 to crown the new champion, which ultimately became Jonathan Gresham.

Pure wrestling rules

* Matches for the ROH Pure Championship are conducted under "Pure Wrestling Rules." As of 2023, the rules are as follows:

# Each wrestler has three rope breaks to stop submission holds and pinfalls.
# After a wrestler exhausts his rope breaks, submission and pin attempts on or under the ropes by his opponent are considered legal.
# No closed-fist punches to the face permitted.
# Open-handed slaps or chops to the face are permitted.
# Punches to the rest of the body are allowed, excluding low blows.
# The first use of a closed fist to the face receives a warning.
# The second use of a closed fist to the face results in disqualification.
# The title can change hands via disqualification and countout.
# Outside interference will result in automatic termination from the roster for the wrestler that interferes.
# If a title match reaches its time limit without a winner being declared, the winner is decided by a panel of three judges.

Inaugural championship tournament (2004)

Tournament bracket

Belt designs

The Original ROH Pure title design (2004–2006; 2020–2023) is similar to the first design of the ROH World Championship from years 2002 to 2004 was with different wording in the middle center plate and slightly different middle and side plats with different shaping, wording and designs that are also slightly different from the first ROH World title design from 2002 to 2004 as well.

On March 31, 2023, a new design of the championship belt debuted on Supercard of Honor, making it the second design in the title’s history. The main plate is silver with the top saying "RING OF HONOR," a red text in the middle saying the word "PURE," and text on the bottom saying "WRESTLING CHAMPION." The side plates are also silver with the current Ring of Honor logo.

Reigns

Overall, there have been 15 championship reigns between 13 different champions. The title has been vacated once. A.J. Styles was the inaugural champion, while Jonathan Gresham was the first champion upon the title's revival. Wheeler Yuta is the only champion to have more than one reign with the title, with a total of three reigns. Nigel McGuinness had the longest reign at 350 days with 17 title defenses. Bryan Danielson had the shortest reign at less than a day since the title was decommissioned after being unified with the ROH World Championship.

Lee Moriarty is the reigning champion in his first reign. He defeated Wheeler Yuta at Death Before Dishonor on July 26, 2024, in Arlington, Texas.

References

External links

ROH Pure Championship title history at Cagematch.net

{{ROH Pure Championship

World professional wrestling championships
Ring of Honor championships