The ROH Pure Championship is a professional wrestling championship contested for in the American professional wrestling promotion Ring of Honor (ROH).
The championship is generally contested in professional wrestling matches, in which participants execute scripted finishes rather than contend in direct competition. The current champion is Wheeler Yuta in his third reign.
ROH Pure Championship | |||||||||||||||||||
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Details | |||||||||||||||||||
Promotion | Ring of Honor (ROH) All Elite Wrestling (AEW) | ||||||||||||||||||
Date established | February 14, 2004 | ||||||||||||||||||
Current champion(s) | Wheeler Yuta | ||||||||||||||||||
Date won | November 25, 2023 | ||||||||||||||||||
Other name(s) | |||||||||||||||||||
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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.
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. 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.
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.
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.
At ROH Supercard of Honor 2023, a new and second title design was revealed. 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.
Overall, there have been 14 championship reigns between 12 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 then one reign with the title, currently in his third reign. 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.
Wheeler Yuta is the current champion in his third reign. He defeated Katsuyori Shibata at Rampage on November 25, 2023 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Name | Years |
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ROH Pure Wrestling Championship | 2004 |
ROH Pure Championship | 2004 – present |
No. | Overall reign number |
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Reign | Reign number for the specific champion |
Days | Number of days held |
Defenses | Number of successful defenses |
<1 | Reign lasted less than a day |
+ | Current reign is changing daily |
No. | Champion | Championship change | Reign statistics | Notes | Ref. | ||||
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Date | Event | Location | Reign | Days | Defenses | ||||
1 | A.J Styles | February 14, 2004 | Second Anniversary Show | Braintree, MA | 1 | 70 | 1 | Defeated CM Punk in the ROH Pure Championship tournament finals to become the inaugural champion. | |
— | Vacated | April 24, 2004 | — | — | — | — | — | Vacated when Styles was pulled from all ROH shows by Total Nonstop Action Wrestling following the Rob Feinstein controversy. | |
2 | Doug Williams | July 17, 2004 | Reborn: Completion | Elizabeth, NJ | 1 | 42 | 3 | Defeated Alex Shelley in a tournament final. | |
3 | John Walters | August 28, 2004 | Scramble Cage Melee | Elizabeth, NJ | 1 | 189 | 6 | ||
4 | Jay Lethal | March 5, 2005 | Trios Tournament 2005 | Philadelphia, PA | 1 | 63 | 2 | ||
5 | Samoa Joe | May 7, 2005 | Manhattan Mayhem I | New York, NY | 1 | 112 | 6 | ||
6 | Nigel McGuinness | August 27, 2005 | Dragon Gate Invasion | Buffalo, NY | 1 | 350 | 17 | ||
7 | Bryan Danielson | August 12, 2006 | Unified | Liverpool, England | 1 | <1 | 0 | This was a title unification match with Danielson's ROH World Championship on the line. | |
— | Unified | August 12, 2006 | Unified | Liverpool, England | — | — | — | Title was deactivated sometime after it unified with the ROH World Championship. | |
8 | Jonathan Gresham | October 30, 2020 | Ring of Honor Wrestling | Baltimore, MD | 1 | 317 | 7 | Defeated Tracy Williams in the final of a tournament to crown a new champion for the revived title. | |
9 | Josh Woods | September 12, 2021 | Death Before Dishonor XVIII | Philadelphia, PA | 1 | 201 | 5 | During this reign, Tony Khan purchased Ring of Honor. | |
10 | Wheeler Yuta | April 1, 2022 | Supercard of Honor XV | Garland, TX | 1 | 159 | 3 | ||
11 | Daniel Garcia | September 7, 2022 | Dynamite | Buffalo, NY | 1 | 94 | 2 | This was an All Elite Wrestling event. | |
12 | Wheeler Yuta | December 10, 2022 | Final Battle | Arlington, TX | 2 | 111 | 4 | ||
13 | Katsuyori Shibata | March 31, 2023 | Supercard of Honor | Los Angeles, CA | 1 | 239 | 5 | ||
14 | Wheeler Yuta | November 25, 2023 | Rampage | Pittsburgh, PA | 3 | 158+ | 3 | This was an All Elite Wrestling event. |
As of May 1, 2024.
† | Indicates the current champion |
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Rank | Wrestler | No. of reigns | Combined defenses | Combined days |
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1 | Wheeler Yuta † | 3 | 10 | 428+ |
2 | Nigel McGuinness | 1 | 17 | 350 |
3 | Jonathan Gresham | 1 | 7 | 317 |
4 | Katsuyori Shibata | 1 | 5 | 239 |
5 | Josh Woods | 1 | 5 | 201 |
6 | John Walters | 1 | 6 | 189 |
7 | Samoa Joe | 1 | 6 | 112 |
8 | Daniel Garcia | 1 | 2 | 94 |
9 | A.J. Styles | 1 | 1 | 70 |
10 | Jay Lethal | 1 | 2 | 63 |
11 | Doug Williams | 1 | 3 | 42 |
12 | Bryan Danielson | 1 | 0 | <1 |
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