This year, we lost a piece of Ring of Honor. The ROH Pure Championship, alternately called the Pure Wrestling Championship, is no more. It was lost in a unification match with the ROH World Champion and the last ROH Pure Champion. To some, this is not earth-shattering news. The title is only important to the followers of the particular promotion. Consider instead the loss of the WWE Intercontinental Championship or the TNA X-Division Championship or (in its day) the WCW United States Championship and you may have an idea of what the Pure title was to Ring of Honor. Why is it gone? What happened? Who held it in its final days? Why was the title controversial to begin with? Many questions. Fortunately, as perhaps one of the most enthusiastic supporters of the now former title, I think I can relay many of the answers. If you’re a Ring of Honor fan, most of this you will already know. If you’re not, this will be a little foreign. I’ll try to explain clearly.
It all started in late 2003. Ring of Honor was changing. Originally, the promotion was based on the idea of “professional wrestling as a sport” and technical wrestling. There was an intentional lack of heavy storylines and over-the-top personalities. It was the hook to grab fans who wanted to try something different. About a year or so after ROH’s debut in Februrary of 2002, the promotion was having more and more brawl matches and “Fight Without Honor” no disqualification matches. Storylines became a stronger part of the show. So did goofy gimmicks.
Seemingly as a response to purist outcry that Ring of Honor was moving away from pure wrestling, ROH sent out word at the end of 2003 that they would be introducing the Pure Wrestling Championship. The championship would be contested under certain rules that would encourage submission wrestling and discourage brawling.
This aspect of the title changed over time, but the rules stayed more or less the same:
1) Each wrestler has three rope breaks. Each can break up a pinfall or submission. When a wrestler is out of rope breaks, he can no longer break up a pinfall or submission by grabbing the ropes.
What This Meant: After a rope break, the referee would signal to the announcer at ringside. The announcer would declare “Doug Williams (or whoever) has used his first rope break.” to allow the fans to keep track. Once the wrestler was out of breaks, the announcement was “That is Williams’ third and final rope break. The ropes are now in play.” That meant the opposing wrestler could lock in a submission close to the ropes with no fear of it being broken up. He could even tangle up a wrestler in the ropes for leverage and that would be perfectly legal. This encouraged submission wrestling.
2) No closed fist punches to the face allowed. If a wrestler punches his opponent in the face, he would be warned the first time. If done twice, he would be penalized a rope break. If done while the wrestler has no rope breaks left, he would be disqualified.
What This Meant: Wrestlers were discouraged from a lot of brawling. In actuality, there was still plenty of striking (chops, slaps, etc.) in the matches. The “no punch” rule was often used by heels. The heel would punch his babyface opponent behind the referee’s back. Retaliating, the babyface would punch back, but this time, the referee would see it and penalize the face.
3) There is a strict twenty count of the floor. After a wrestler is outside for twenty seconds, the referee will be forced to disqualify him.
What This Meant: ROH’s regular match rules state that there are no count-outs. This is because count-out victories were weak and unfufilling to fans who wanted clear winners and losers. The twenty count in Pure title matches was instituted so that wrestlers would not be brawling in the crowd much during these title defenses.
The Pure Championship could even be won on disqualification. So, the thought was that these would have to be “clean” matches. That did not always happen, but that was the story of it anyway. Ring of Honor announced that the first Pure Champion would be decided on the Second Anniversary Show in February of 2004. A tournament with the finals being contested under Pure title rules would determine the first champion. To prepare fans for this and to work out the kinks in the new rules, ROH had a couple rope break matches in January ’04. They were relatively good matches, but at the time, the fans were still unsure of this new ruleset.
On February 14th, the tournament alleviated most of those fears. CM Punk, “Hurricane” John Walters, “The Anarchist” Doug Williams, Chris Sabin, Matt Stryker, Josh Daniels, Jimmy Rave and AJ Styles all competed for the title. In the main event, Styles defeated Punk to become the first ever ROH Pure Champion. The fans went crazy for it. During his post-match celebratiion, Samoa Joe (at the time, ROH World Champion) came out and said that the Pure Championship would never be as prestigious as the World title and that Styles could never beat him. This was supposed to set up a Pure vs. World title feud between the two to help establish the new championship as credible. It would’ve also featured a great Samoa Joe vs. AJ Styles encounter. Unfortunately, that never happened.
Not long after the Pure title was won, news broke that ROH’s part-owner, Rob Feinstein, was the target of a sting that alleged he was a pedophile. Feinstein was removed from the company, but the lasting effects were felt for a long time afterwards. Upon hearing of this, TNA declared that nobody under their contracts would be allowed to work for Ring of Honor. The TNA talent (except for CM Punk, who basically told TNA to shove it) was suddenly gone from ROH. Because Styles held the Pure title at the time of this new edict, the title was in jeopardy. For months, it would not be defended. It can probably be assumed that ROH waited so long because they thought this would all blow over quickly and that Styles could return soon. It took him much longer than ROH hoped, so he was stripped of the belt. On July 17th that year, at the show titled ROH Reborn: Completion, there was a miniature tournament to determine the new Pure champ. A returning Doug Williams defeated Alex Shelley and became the second man to hold the belt.
This was only a temporary measure. Everyone knew that Doug Williams would be a transitional champion. He had commitments in England. However, because of his great appeal with the fans and his international status, he could be seen as the man to give the belt credibility after sufferring such a public blow. Williams lost the title to John Walters a month later in what was (and may still be) Walters’ best match of his career.
Walters wasn’t incredibly over with the fans. In fact, he was bland. The live fans started to get tired of the Pure title rules. Walters couldn’t really bring the consistent strong matches like Williams or Styles could. During the pre-match rule explanations by ROH Senior Referee Todd Sinclair, fans booed the rules and cried “What?!” after each one. That annoying Steve Austin catch phrase was still relatively popular then. Walters always seemed like the kind of wrestler that the booker loved but the fans didn’t. ROH must have realized this and turned him heel as a member of Prince Nana’s Embassy. Upon joining, he changed his “no nonsense, plain tights” technical wrestler look to that of a Middle Eastern-esque Aladdin lookalike. You could tell he was on his way out of the company.
A few months after this heel turn, Jay Lethal won the title from him on March 5th 2005. I don’t believe Walters has been booked with ROH since. This was a big moment in Ring of Honor. Lethal was a very sympathetic babyface at the time. He was always tagged with the “young up-and-comer label” until winning the title. He had made it to something great, and the fans loved it. Lethal had a short reign and dropped the belt to Samoa Joe a couple months later. With two popular babyfaces with the title in a row, it finally seemed like the belt was here to stay. Joe’s promos were often about making the Pure title prestigious in the same way that he made the World title important.
On August 27th, Samoa Joe lost the Pure Championship to Nigel McGuinness, the man who would become the greatest Pure Champion in the title’s short history. McGuinness held the belt for 350 days. He lost it as he approached the full year mark. His gimmick was that he always called himself a pure wrestler but would often cheat in his matches by distracting the referee during closed fists or hitting his opponent with his trademark flat iron. He became a heat magnet by saying before his matches “I’m the best there is, the best there was, and…” but trailing off at the end as the fans showered him with boos. Another heel tactic was telling the fans to shut up during Todd Sinclair’s explanation of the rules. McGuinness would remark in his British accent “Give Mr. Sinclair and my Pure Championship the respect they deserve.” Of course, this only made the fans yell louder as Sinclair went over the rules. McGuinness’ series of matches with Bryan Danielson won a lot of critical and fan acclaim. McGuinness became the most improved wrestler of 2005 and one of ROH’s all-around best in 2006.
During his aforementioned feud with ROH World Champion Bryan Danielson, McGuinness claimed he would win the World title as well and unify the belts. After a couple matches between the two, this did not happen, but on the third, it was decided this would be the ROH Pure Championship’s final night. Danielson defeated McGuinness to unify the belts. Whether or not Danielson can actually be considered the final Pure Champion is debatable, but in my mind, McGuinness was the final true champion. Weeks later, after the unification, McGuinness lost his final attempt at Danielson’s World title. After the match, Danielson presented McGuinness with the Pure title saying that it truly belonged to him. With that, the Ring of Honor Pure Championship was retired.
Why did this happen? The Observer claims Ring of Honor booker Gabe Sapolsky always considered the Pure Championship as a short-term title, and that after two and a half years, it had run its course. From this, we gather that the Pure Championship was never supposed to last very long. It existed from February 14th, 2004 to August 12th, 2006.
Back when the Pure title was first announced, Sapolsky said in an interview that he prefers no “midcard” titles and all the roster going after one championship. Pure isn’t exactly midcard, though. Much in the same way as the TNA X-Division Championship, it’s considered less than the World title but in a league all its own. Nevertheless, Sapolsky felt it was time to move on.
I disagree, as I imagine many other fans do. The Pure title defenses added a clever element to the matches. While many indy wrestlers just go out there and stiff each other to the cry of “This is awesome!”, Pure title matches forced a kind of strategy and psychology. It felt like a very physical chess match, which is something wrestling sometimes lacks. Does ROH have plenty of wrestlers who can work psychology into their matches? Sure. Some. However, I can’t help but think ROH has lost a piece of itself and what made it unique with the retirement of the Pure Championship.
With an overdose of wrestling being offered these days, all more or less the same, it’s sad when something different, something strange but challenging, fades away.