Ring of Honor today announced the return of the Pure Championship. A tournament to crown the first Pure Champion in nearly 14 years begins with first-round matches at Pure Excellence in Columbus, Ohio on Friday, April 10 and Pittsburgh on Saturday, April 11.
New Japan Pro-Wrestling star Will Ospreay created a buzz Twitter recently when he expressed his love for the ROH Pure Championship and said it “would be cool if they brought it back with updated rules.” The official ROH Twitter account replied by asking, “Should we bring it back?” and the response from fans was a resounding yes.
Bored.
What’s one of your favourite titles in wrestling?
Gonna go for an underrated one for me,
I loved the ROH Pure Championship.Things kinda different now but I love the design of it and the rules that went with it. Be cool if they bought it back with updated rules. pic.twitter.com/p3yB6J6C5o
— ᵂⁱˡˡ ᴼˢᵖʳᵉᵃʸ • ウィル・オスプレイ (@WillOspreay) January 14, 2020
The Pure Title was created in 2004. Matches for the ROH Pure Championship are conducted under “Pure Wrestling Rules”. The three Pure Wrestling Rules are:
- Each wrestler has three rope breaks to stop submission holds and pinfalls during the match. After a wrestler exhausts his rope breaks, submission and pin attempts under the ropes by the opponent are considered legal.
- There are no closed-fist punches to the face allowed in a Pure match, only open-handed slaps or chops to the face are allowed. Punches to other parts of the body (save for low blows) are permitted. The first use of a closed fist would get a warning, and the second would cause the wrestler to be penalized a rope break. If he is already out of rope breaks, he would be disqualified.
- A wrestler is subject to a twenty count by the referee if the wrestler goes to the floor.
Unlike other championships, the ROH Pure Championship could change hands on a disqualification or count-out. AJ Styles defeated CM Punk in a tournament final to become the first Pure Champion. The title would later be held by Doug Williams, John Walters, Jay Lethal, Samoa Joe, Nigel McGuinness. In August 2006, in Liverpool, England, then-ROH World Champion Bryan Danielson, aka WWE Superstar Daniel Bryan defeated McGuinness to unify the titles. After the match, Danielson gave the title belt back to McGuinness to keep.
Tickets for both Pure Excellence shows go on sale Wednesday, February 5 at 10 AM ET (3 PM GMT) for HonorClub members and Friday, February 7 at 10 AM ET for the general public.
All pics and videos courtesy of ROH