Wheeler Yuta defends the ROH Pure Title

Garcia's trying to get into YUTA's head, sporting the maroon boys made famous by YUTA's Blackpool Combat Club stablemates William Regal and Bryan Danielson. The opening lock-up is gritty and intense, setting the tone for the match perfectly. YUTA and Garcia get chippy immediately, trading slaps and strikes. YUTA takes a wicked bump to the outside when Garcia merely chucks him over the top rope to the floor.

Garcia immediately follows up on the bump to the floor, sending YUTA into the barricades. I appreciated Garcia rolling YUTA into the ring and desperately going for pinfall attempts, selling the fact that he's trying to win. There's more snap to YUTA's offense than usual, as he dumps Garcia on his neck with German Suplexes. Garcia distracting the referee so he could bite YUTA's ear, only to start working over the ear by grinding the point of his elbow into it is tremendous character work. He's clearly trying to ingratiate himself to Regal, but not at the cost of becoming champion.

YUTA also matches Garcia's intensity, grabbing him by the ears and punching him off the top turnbuckle. A hockey fight breaks out with both agitatedly trading slaps, and Garcia's hit with another German Suplex as he makes it to his feet at the count of nine. YUTA nails Garcia with some ungiving shots to the midsection as he has Daniel's armed locked behind his back, showing off some of that BCC training.

Rather than taking turns allowing each other to lock in holds, the submission teases came off as a struggle to survive against the opponent's tactics. Garcia locks in the Red Death Lock, but YUTA reverses into a Bulldog Choke. Garcia lets YUTA out of a Regal Stretch to hit some more knee strikes, but it proves to be a mistake as YUTA traps him in a Lion Tamer, forcing Daniel to use his first rope break.

YUTA caught Garcia off-guard when Daniel got too cute and went for the stomps used by his mentor Bryan Danielson, reversing into a Seatbelt Clutch for the win. Unlike many recent pure rules matches, this wasn't reliant on rope breaks. Instead, they used one rope break near the end of the contest, milking it for maximum impact. The match was gutsy, intense, and determined, everything you could want out of these two while leaving room for a rematch. A match to go out your way for.

Good match but I’m really lost if this is considered a great match. Some of the counters were good, like Yuta countering Garcia’s sharpshooter with the bulldog choke was great. Otherwise, the counters didn’t pop me. The whole sequence between Yuta countering the choke into the elbows and Garcia reversing it and doing the elbows himself seemed so planned and rehearsed. No real spontaneity. What else I liked was Garcia biting the ear of Yuta and hitting it. That was something with bite to it, something tangibly more interesting than counters to perfunctory grappling and slap sequences.