Lee Moriarty Retains PURE Title Over Returning Nigel McGuinness

By Brady Alexander Last updated Dec 20, 2024

Nigel is back in Ring Of Honor.

ROH PURE Championship

Lee Moriarty issued an open challenge to anyone for his ROH PURE Championship. Well, his challenger was answered by ROH Legend and former ROH PURE Champ, Nigel McGuinness. Nigel kicked off the match with a microphone and said if they’re going to do it under old ROH PURE Title rules. Shane Taylor spoke on the mic for Lee and ran down Nigel and the crowd. Nigel then called Shane a pussy, which followed by the crowd chanting it at Shane. Lee finally shut everything down and accepted Nigel’s challenge.

The old school ROH PURE rules mean, no judges needed at ringside, you can win by Pinfall, submission of count-out. Each man gets 3 rope breaks only. Close fists are illegal in this match, if used they’ll be penalized a rope break. Lee is ready to go, and they started off with a handshake.

Lee Moriarty used his first rope break early on, as both men traded holds. As the PURE style usually goes, this was a very grapple-heavy mat based match. Even with Nigel cheating, making the referee think Lee used a closed fist, which took away his second rope break. Because of this, Shane Taylor demanded a second referee to watch from ringside.

As the match went on, Lee really showed off his technical prowess and made Nigel use his rope breaks as well. Nigel then rolled to the outside and drew Lee to the floor, where he made Moriarty run into Shane Taylor to eliminate him from the ringside area.

The young Moriarty proved that he belonged in the ring with the veteran McGuinness, as both men put on a phenomenal match. Nigel ended up using all of his rope breaks within the first ten minutes of the match. Then, Moriarty used all of his rope breaks, which saved him massively after a Tower Of London. In the end, Moriarty locked in his BorderCity Stretch at the 17 minute mark and made Nigel tap.