ROH Pure Title returns with a tournament that includes a daredevil who is a WWE Nexus alum

The return of the Ring of Honor Pure Title Tournament begins airing on “Ring of Honor Wrestling” on the weekend of Sept. 12, and it will span eight weeks.

The ROH Pure Title was created in 2004 with AJ Styles as its inaugural champion. Samoa Joe, Jay Lethal, Nigel McGuinness also wore the title. In August 2006, ROH World Champion Bryan Danielson beat McGuinness to unify the titles, which retired the Pure Championship.

ROH decided it’s time to resurrect the Pure title, and “The Darewolf” PJ Black, aka WWE alum Justin Gabriel of Nexus fame, is honored to be part of the stellar 16-man field.

In my audio interview with Black, he discusses Ring of Honor, the Pure Title, its tournament, BASE jumping, Japan, South Africa, rugby, WWE, Nexus, Adam Rose, Lucha Underground and more.

ROH Pure Title Tournament

With the list of 16 wrestlers officially announced on “ROH Week By Week,” there will be a bracketology special premiering on YouTubeROH on Friday, Sept. 11 at noon ET.

Here is the tournament field:

ROH competitors: PJ Black, Dalton Castle, Delirious, Jonathan Gresham, Kenny King, Jay Lethal, Tracy Williams, Josh Woods, Silas Young.

NJPW and/or free agent competitors: David Finlay, Rocky Romero, Matt Sydal.

Independent competitors: Tony Deppen, Rust Taylor, Fred Yehi, Wheeler Yuta.

Longtime friends and rivals Sydal and Delirious will face off in the first round.

The ROH 2019 Top Prospect Tournament winner Dak Draper and Brian Johnson are alternates.

Also, former Women of Honor World Champion Sumie Sakai and ROH Dojo coach Will Ferrara will serve as judges along with ROH Director of Operations Gary Juster. If a match goes the time limit, the three judges will determine a winner.

For more info and rules, check out:

ROHPureTitleTournamentInfoFormatRules

Website: https://www.rohwrestling.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ringofhonor

About PJ Black

Originally from Cape Town, South Africa, Black is friends with fellow South African and WWE alum Adam Rose. They were tag team partners, and Black was even a Rosebud.

Black, 39, reflected positively on his time with WWE, especially as part of Nexus. He remains friends with his Nexus cohorts and made more friends while in WWE.

Black grew up with pro wrestling as his father wrestled in South Africa. Drawn to rugby as a youth, Black opted for a career in pro wrestling, debuting in 1997. Surrounded by combat sports, his grandfather boxed professional and wrestled amateur.

Black honed his skills in the United Kingdom. He is not only an aerial artist but also a technical wrestler.

Speaking of Air Justin, though, Black is a daredevil, a BASE jumping, mountain climbing, motorcycle riding yogi.

Black signed with WWE in 2008, wrestling WWE developmental for Florida Championship Wrestling, based in Tampa. In 2010, he moved to the main roster, participating in the first season of the NXT competition as Justin Gabriel, before being aligned with other NXT members in the famous group Nexus.

Black spent seven years with WWE. Then he wrestled for TNA Wrestling and Lucha Underground.

Black is now a member of the Ring of Honor and NWA rosters and is also wrestling in Japan. He wants to train others, especially those young people in his homeland South Africa aspiring to become professional wrestlers.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/darewolf333

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/darewolf333

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/PJBlack450/featured

https://www.espn.com/wwe/story/_/id/26376275/roh-champion-jay-lethal-journey-msg-was-family-affair

https://www.espn.com/wwe/story/_/id/18816257/roh-bobby-fish-all-making-moments-wrestling-ring

My Pro Wrestling Talk on the Web and Social Media

http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/fighting/

Twitter: @jimmyv3

YouTube: jim varsallone (jimmyv3 channel)

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ProWrestlingSouthFlorida/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WWE-WrestleMania-28-Miami-241160769255279/

This story was originally published September 11, 2020 at 11:09 AM.

Jim Varsallone

Miami Herald

305-376-3621

Jim Varsallone writes a high school sports column twice a week, featuring top performers in all varsity sports (boys and girls) in Broward and Miami-Dade counties. He also covers pro wrestling, something he’s done since his college days in the late 1980s. Now in his fifth decade of coverage, he currently follows WWE (Raw, SmackDown and NXT), AEW, Ring of Honor, TNA Impact Wrestling, MLW, WOW, NWA, and the South Florida indies, mainly CCW. He writes MMA, too -- mostly profile stories and video interviews with American Top Team and Sanford MMA fighters in South Florida. As for pro wrestling, he writes feature stories and profile pieces, updates upcoming show schedules in South Florida, photographs the action and interviews talent (audio and video) -- sharing the content here and via social media on his Facebook, Twitter and YouTube channel: jim varsallone (jimmyv3 channel). Support my work with a digital subscription