Sports Media

ROH Pure Match Explained

Mark Izzo / Professional Wrestling / December 5, 2022

ROH Pure Match Explained

ROH has one of the best stipulations in wrestling with a Pure Championship Match.

The Pure Championship was created in 2004 and was first held by AJ Styles. Since then, there have been some pretty notable names to hold the title. Samoa Joe, Nigel McGuinness, Jay Lethal, Bryan Danielson and Jonathan Gresham have all held the championship. Although the ROH Pure Championship started in 2004, that doesn’t mean it has been active for all of these years.

When Danielson won both the ROH World Championship and the ROH Pure Championship in 2006, he unified the titles. The Pure Championship was brought back in 2020 after fans voiced how much they missed the title.

Since the title was brought back in 2020, it has only been held by four people, Jonathan Gresham, Josh Woods, Wheeler Yuta, and Daniel Garcia. Garcia is the current ROH Pure Champion and he will be defending the title at ROH Final Battle against Yuta. But with a match that’s this unique and doesn’t happen often, what is an ROH Pure Championship Match?

The Rules

Just like every Ring of Honor match, the match starts with both wrestlers adhering to the code of honor with a handshake. Each wrestler gets three rope breaks to stop a submission or pinfall attempt on them. But once they use all three of their rope breaks, they won’t be able to stop a pinfall or submission by grabbing them.

Another major difference is that in an ROH Pure Championship match, you cannot strike your opponent in the head with a closed fist. Closed fist strikes to any other part of the body, besides a low blow, are legal, though.

If a wrestler does use a closed fist strike to the head they will be given a warning. If they do it a second time they will be disqualified.

Just like a standard Ring of Honor match, wrestlers get a twenty count outside the ring instead of the typical ten counts. If there is outside interference, the wrestler will be terminated from Ring of Honor. The ROH Pure Championship can also change hands via disqualification or count out.