ROH Pure Championship

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 resulted in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling abruptly ending its talent-sharing agreement with ROH (pulling all of its contracted performers, including Styles, from all ROH shows). However, ROH considers the "Pure Wrestling Championship" and the "ROH Pure Championship" two distinct titles—not a single title that was merely renamed/re-branded. 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. Doug Williams would become the first recognized holder of the ROH Pure Championship after he defeated Alex Shelley in the finals of a one night mini-tournament at Reborn: Completion.

Weekend of Champions: Night Two, 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. McGuinness won the bout by countout, but since only the Pure title can change hands on a countout, he did not win the ROH World Championship. The two faced each other again on August 12, 2006 in Liverpool, England, with Danielson defeating McGuinness to unify the ROH Pure Championship with the ROH World Championship. Danielson and McGuinness competed in a rematch for the ROH World Championship later that month, wrestling to a one hour draw. After the match, Danielson announced that the ROH Pure Championship had been officially retired, and gave the belt back to McGuinness to keep.