Full list of entrants for ROH Pure title tournament

[Big Red Machine]

https://www.f4wonline.com/ring-honor/fu ... ent-318961

By Joseph Currier | @josephcurrier | Aug 31, 2020 10:54 am

The full lineup of entrants for Ring of Honor's Pure Championship tournament has now been revealed.

The final three participants for the tournament were announced on today's episode of ROH Week By Week. They are: Fred Yehi, Delirious, and Silas Young.

Yehi, who formerly wrestled for EVOLVE, is making his ROH debut in the tournament. He was supposed to debut for ROH in the tournament when it was originally scheduled to begin in April. The tournament was delayed when ROH paused running events in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jay Lethal, Jonathan Gresham, Matt Sydal, David Finlay, Tracy Williams, Josh Woods, Wheeler Yuta, Rocky Romero, PJ Black, Tony Deppen, Kenny King, Dalton Castle, Rust Taylor, Yehi, Delirious, and Young are the full list of entrants for the tournament. ROH has noted that ""there will be alternate competitors in each of the tournament’s two blocks in case any of the participants are unable to compete."

The full bracket for the tournament will be revealed on ROH Week By Week next Monday. It was announced today that Sydal vs. Delirious will be one of the first round matches.

The tournament will begin airing on ROH television the weekend of September 12 and will play out over eight weeks of TV. ROH returned to TV production this month with the Pure title tournament as the focus of the tapings. The tapings were done with only essential personnel in attendance.

The following rules have been announced for the tournament and Pure matches:

Every match begins and ends with the Code of Honor handshake.
Each wrestler has three rope breaks to stop submission holds and pinfalls. After a wrestler exhausts his rope breaks, submission and pin attempts on or under the ropes by his opponent are legal.
Closed-fist punches to the face are not permitted; only open-handed slaps or chops to the face are allowed. Punches to other parts of the body are permitted, excluding low blows. The first use of a closed fist will get a warning; the second will be a disqualification.
As in standard ROH matches, there will be a 20-count when a wrestler is on the floor.
Outside interference will result in automatic termination from the roster for the wrestler that interferes.
There will be two blocks, single-elimination format.
Round 1 matches have a 15-minute time limit.
Block semifinals have a 20-minute time limit.
Block finals have a 30-minute time limit.
The tournament final has a one-hour time limit.
There will be three judges for each match, and time-limit draws will go to a judges’ decision.

The Pure title was originally introduced in 2004 but was unified with the ROH World Championship in 2006

[Big Red Machine]

The judges thing worries me, but hopefully it won't be a factor.

The lineup is strong. I hope they use this belt to make Yehi.
Also, how has Sydal returning not been news?

[cero2k]

The judges thing worries me, but hopefully it won't be a factor.

The lineup is strong. I hope they use this belt to make Yehi.
Also, how has Sydal returning not been news?

Do we know who the judges are? Maybe they'll use them to start a program with someone who will lose in a way to keep them active in the promotion afterwards.

I'm excited for Yehi, Yuta, and Deppen, they all should had been in ROH a long time ago, especially Yehi

[Big Red Machine]

The judges thing worries me, but hopefully it won't be a factor.

The lineup is strong. I hope they use this belt to make Yehi.
Also, how has Sydal returning not been news?

Do we know who the judges are? Maybe they'll use them to start a program with someone who will lose in a way to keep them active in the promotion afterwards.

Not yet. It's possible, but I'd be hard-pressed to think of someone who makes sense as a judge that could then come in and wrestle, and is someone people would actually want to see (and, of course, who would be willing to do it). The only name that comes to mind for me is John Walters (who was also originally scheduled to be on Past vs. Present, and might have even been originally scheduled for the tournament, but I don't remember). Of the other names that even come to mind, they're all either probably not someone ROH would want to bring in right now (Quack) or wouldn't be willing to come in to work (Lance Storm- and that's assuming he's even willing to travel at all). MAYBE Aries?

[cero2k]

Not yet. It's possible, but I'd be hard-pressed to think of someone who makes sense as a judge that could then come in and wrestle, and is someone people would actually want to see (and, of course, who would be willing to do it). The only name that comes to mind for me is John Walters (who was also originally scheduled to be on Past vs. Present, and might have even been originally scheduled for the tournament, but I don't remember). Of the other names that even come to mind, they're all either probably not someone ROH would want to bring in right now (Quack) or wouldn't be willing to come in to work (Lance Storm- and that's assuming he's even willing to travel at all). MAYBE Aries?

First name that came to my head was a surprise return of Chris Hero, but it be a bit underwhelming for him to return like that. You could potentially also get someone like Doug Williams and get him to put someone over. Or even just an old timer that can start the feud, but that someone else comes in to defend, I can totally see someone like Deppen losing by decision, getting all pissed off and disrespecting some legend, and that prompts another babyface to come in for the save.

We also know that Nigel was furlough but zero news on his return as far as I know

[Big Red Machine]

Not yet. It's possible, but I'd be hard-pressed to think of someone who makes sense as a judge that could then come in and wrestle, and is someone people would actually want to see (and, of course, who would be willing to do it). The only name that comes to mind for me is John Walters (who was also originally scheduled to be on Past vs. Present, and might have even been originally scheduled for the tournament, but I don't remember). Of the other names that even come to mind, they're all either probably not someone ROH would want to bring in right now (Quack) or wouldn't be willing to come in to work (Lance Storm- and that's assuming he's even willing to travel at all). MAYBE Aries?

First name that came to my head was a surprise return of Chris Hero, but it be a bit underwhelming for him to return like that. You could potentially also get someone like Doug Williams and get him to put someone over. Or even just an old timer that can start the feud, but that someone else comes in to defend, I can totally see someone like Deppen losing by decision, getting all pissed off and disrespecting some legend, and that prompts another babyface to come in for the save.

We also know that Nigel was furlough but zero news on his return as far as I know

Hero is a good idea (assuming he's not stuck in the UK and starting up with NXT UK again). I assumed Doug Williams was stuck in the UK and thus wouldn't be able to come over.