List of ROH Pure Champions
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.
Overall, there have been 15 championship reigns between 13 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 than one reign with the title, with three reigns. Lee Moriarty has the longest reign at 641+ days with 10 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.
Lee Moriarty is the current champion in his first reign. He defeated Wheeler Yuta at Death Before Dishonor on July 26, 2024, in Arlington, Texas.
Names
| Name | Years |
|---|---|
| ROH Pure Wrestling Championship | 2004 |
| ROH Pure Championship | 2004 – 2006; 2020 – present |
| No. | Overall reign number |
|---|---|
| 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. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Event | Location | Reign | Days | Defenses | |||||
| Ring of Honor (ROH) | ||||||||||
| 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. | [1][2][3][4][5] | |
| — | Vacated | April 24, 2004 | — | — | — | — | — | Vacated when Styles was pulled from all ROH shows by Total Nonstop Action Wrestling following the Rob Feinstein controversy. | [2][3] | |
| 2 | Doug Williams | July 17, 2004 | Reborn: Completion | Elizabeth, NJ | 1 | 42 | 3 | Defeated Alex Shelley in a tournament final. | [6][7] | |
| 3 | John Walters | August 28, 2004 | Scramble Cage Melee | Elizabeth, NJ | 1 | 189 | 6 | [8] | ||
| 4 | Jay Lethal | March 5, 2005 | Trios Tournament 2005 | Philadelphia, PA | 1 | 63 | 2 | [9][10] | ||
| 5 | Samoa Joe | May 7, 2005 | Manhattan Mayhem I | New York, NY | 1 | 112 | 6 | [11] | ||
| 6 | Nigel McGuinness | August 27, 2005 | Dragon Gate Invasion | Buffalo, NY | 1 | 350 | 17 | [12] | ||
| 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. | [13] | |
| — | Unified | August 12, 2006 | Unified | Liverpool, England | — | — | — | Title was deactivated sometime after it unified with the ROH World Championship. | [14][15] | |
| 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. | [16] | |
| 9 | Josh Woods | September 12, 2021 | Death Before Dishonor XVIII | Philadelphia, PA | 1 | 201 | 5 | During this reign, Tony Khan purchased Ring of Honor. | [17] | |
| 10 | Wheeler Yuta | April 1, 2022 | Supercard of Honor XV | Garland, TX | 1 | 159 | 3 | [18] | ||
| 11 | Daniel Garcia | September 7, 2022 | Dynamite | Buffalo, NY | 1 | 94 | 2 | This was an All Elite Wrestling event. | [19] | |
| 12 | Wheeler Yuta | December 10, 2022 | Final Battle | Arlington, TX | 2 | 111 | 4 | [20] | ||
| 13 | Katsuyori Shibata | March 31, 2023 | Supercard of Honor | Los Angeles, CA | 1 | 239 | 5 | [21] | ||
| 14 | Wheeler Yuta | November 25, 2023 | Rampage | Pittsburgh, PA | 3 | 244 | 3 | This was an All Elite Wrestling event. | [22] | |
| 15 | Lee Moriarty | July 26, 2024 | Death Before Dishonor | Arlington, TX | 1 | 641+ | 15 | [23] | ||
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