Ring of Honor aired the finals of the Pure Title tournament over the weekend and crowned its new champion following the match between Jonathan Gresham and Tracy “Hot Sauce” Williams.
Gresham’s path to the final featured victories against Wheeler Yuta, Matt Sydal, and Josh Woods while Williams was victorious over Rust Taylor, Fred Yehi, and Jay Lethal. The latter was a submission victory by Williams using the crossface against the Gresham’s tag team partner with many assuming it would feature the ROH tag champions squaring off in the final.
Gresham attacked Williams’ injured shoulder, who overcame the injury to hit a piledriver while using the opposite arm to direct the move.
The story of the match included the stat that Gresham only required two rope breaks throughout the tournament but needed all three in this match, including one for the crossface that was significantly played up after Williams’ submission of Lethal.
After the final rope break, Gresham caught Williams with the Octopus stretch as both fell to the mat with Williams submitting in 14 minutes and 36 seconds.
Afterward, the two shook hands as Jay Lethal celebrated with his tag partner and the show concluded.
The ROH Pure Championship was introduced in 2004 with AJ Styles serving as its inaugural holder. The title was designed to place a spotlight on technical wrestlers contested within the parameters of limited rope breaks and outlawed closed-fist punches.
The title was utilized for two years and unified with the ROH championship in August 2006 when ROH champion Bryan Danielson defeated Pure champion Nigel McGuinness in Liverpool, England in a classic match.
This past weekend’s episode of ROH also featured a six-man tag with Shane Taylor Promotions (Shane Taylor, Malcolm Moses & Bishop Khan) defeating EC3 & The Briscoe Brothers. The finish occurred after Mark Briscoe missed Froggy Bow and Taylor hit him with Greetings from 216.
