ROH Pure Championship

The Pure Championship was a title contested for in the North American independent professional wrestling promotion Ring of Honor.

Matches for the Pure Championship are conducted under three simple Pure Rules:
 * Each wrestler has three rope breaks to stop submission holds and pinfalls during the match. After a wrestler exhausts his rope breaks, submission and pin attempts under the ropes by the opponent are considered legal.
 * There are no closed-fist punches to the face allowed in a Pure match, only open-handed slaps or chops to the face are allowed. Punches to other parts of the body (save for low-blows) are permitted. The first use of a closed fist will get a warning, and the second will cause the wrestler to be penalized a rope break. If he is already out of rope breaks, he will be disqualified.
 * A wrestler is subject to a twenty count by the referee if the wrestler goes to the floor.

While not a rule itself, it is worth noting that unlike other championships, the Pure championship can change hands on a disqualification or count out.

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 controversy that saw 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 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).

Title history
Note: Ring of Honor considers the Pure Wrestling Championship and the ROH Pure Championship as two separate titles. As such, there is no mention of either the Pure Wrestling Championship or AJ Styles winning the ROH Pure Championship on ROH’s official title history page.