View source for ROH Pure Championship

==History==
The title was originally named the '''ROH Pure Wrestling Championship''' and [[A.J. Styles]] defeated [[CM Punk]] in the finals of an 8-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]].

The '''ROH Pure Championship''' was created after Styles was forced to vacate the Pure Wrestling Title in the wake of the [[Rob Feinstein#Legal Problems|Rob Feinstein controversy]] that saw [[Total Nonstop Action Wrestling|TNA]] pulled their contracted wrestlers, which included Styles, from all ROH shows. However, ROH in fact considers the "Pure Wrestling Championship" and the "ROH Pure Championship" to be two distinct titles. There is no mention of Styles on ROH's website as having held the "ROH 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.

''Weekend of Champions: Night 2'', on April 29, [[2006]], saw the first ever title vs. title match in Ring of Honor as [[ROH World Championship|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. Pure champion Nigel McGuinness won the bout by countout, but as only the Pure title can change hands on a countout both champions retained. The two men faced each other again on August 12, [[2006]], the Pure Title was unified with the [[ROH World Championship]] when ROH World Champion [[Bryan Danielson]] defeated [[Nigel McGuinness]] in Liverpool, England, making him and Samoa Joe the only two men to have held the pure title and another ROH championship, that the world title (were A.J. Styles recognized as a champion, he could be counted as well for having held the [[ROH Tag Team Championship]]).