ROH's Pure Championship Is One Of Wrestling's Coolest Concepts - TheSportster

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Rule Of The Pure Championship

The Pure Championship's Best Matches

Ring of Honor’s Pure Championship was ROH’s first midcard title. This championship was different from almost every other championship in all of wrestling, however, as the Pure Championship must be contested under a certain set of “pure wrestling” rules.

The Pure Championship concept was created by Gabe Sapolsky, ROH’s original booker, and Sapolsky wanted to create a secondary championship that would not come across as second best, a trap many midcard championships fall into. Gabe Sapolsky spoke about the birth of the Pure Championship with PWInsider in a February 9, 2004 interview. “We needed a concept that would give ROH another belt, but make it important and its own entity so that it can compete with the World title as being ROH’s top belt. With ROH going into new directions like more storylines, characters, blood feuds, different types of matches, etc., it made sense to have something to show our fans that we will always stay true to our roots no matter what other directions we go in. So no matter what happens in ROH, you are guaranteed a straight forward, no-frills, great wrestling match on every show with a unique twist in the rules for pure wrestling title matches.”

Rule Of The Pure Championship

The rules for Pure Championship matches are as follows:

Every match begins and ends with the Code of Honor handshake.
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 legal.
Closed-fist punches to the face are not permitted; only open-handed slaps or chops to the face are allowed. Punches to other parts of the body are permitted, excluding low blows. The first use of a closed fist will get a warning; the second will be a disqualification.
As in standard ROH matches, there will be a 20-count when a wrestler is on the floor.
Outside interference will result in automatic termination from the roster for the wrestler that interferes.
The Pure Championship can change hands via disqualification and count out.

These rules forced the wrestlers involved in Pure Championship matches to wrestle a smarter style, they needed to be more cerebral, and it gave every match an interesting psychological twist. Every decision a wrestler made was second-guessed, it was unpredictable and would force matches to have creative finishes that were impossible in regular matches.

These matches really showcased the more technical side of wrestling. The first Pure Championship was contested in a tournament held at ROH’s Second Anniversary show, with the finals being AJ Styles vs. CM Punk. This was a genius way to introduce the title, as the match was built around both men using up all of their rope breaks while also getting over that there can be a benefit to burning through the rope breaks, as Styles escaped a submission by using the ropes to twist himself out of Punk’s Cloverleaf. That match showcased some incredible match psychology and really set up the Pure Championship as something special.

RELATED: CM Punk's 10 Best ROH Matches

These kinds of spots could only happen in Pure Championship matches. Another interesting example of the concept was Nigel McGuiness defeating Samoa Joe while Joe had his foot on the rope, but it didn’t matter as Joe had used up all his rope breaks. The rules could also help wrestlers build character, an example of this was Doug Williams, who refused to use rope breaks at all during the matches to make himself look better by winning without any help.

The differences the Pure Championship had with regular championships came to a head when Bryan Danielson and Nigel McGuiness fought each other for both the Pure Championship and the ROH World Championship. McGuiness won the match by count-out but as only the Pure Championship could be won by count-out, he failed to win the ROH World Championship.

The Pure Championship's Best Matches

The Pure Championship has a short linage, despite being created in 2004, the belt was retired in 2006 as Bryan Danielson unified it with the ROH World Championship in an infamous match with Nigel McGuiness in Liverpool, England in one of the company’s best-ever bouts.

Here is a list of excellent matches which showcase just how cool a concept the ROH Pure Championship can be:

CM Punk vs. AJ Styles - Second Anniversary Show 2004
Doug Williams vs. Alex Shelley - Reborn: Completion 2004
Doug Williams vs. John Walters - Scramble Cage Melee 2004
John Walters vs. Jay Lethal - Trios Tournament 2005
Jay Lethal vs. Samoa Joe - Manhattan Mayhem 2005
Samoa Joe vs. Nigel McGuinness - Dragon Gate Invasion 2005
Bryan Danielson (ROH World Champion) vs. Nigel McGuinness (ROH Pure Champion) - Unified 2006