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Mike Bennett walked into the Pure Gauntlet Match with no prior experience in pure rules bouts.
He walked out of the YouTube exclusive match with three impressive victories and immediately put himself in the conversation for a shot at the Pure Championship, currently held by Jonathan Gresham.
Bennett was the fourth competitor in the seven-man gauntlet. After scoring submission wins over World Famous CB and Joe Keys, Bennett pinned the returning PJ Black in an exciting, back-and-forth contest to secure the victory.
After the match, Bennett told Gresham — who was sitting in on commentary — that he respects him but is coming for his Pure Title. Gresham was less courteous, telling Bennett that he didn’t belong in the Pure division.
“He’s got to earn my respect, and this match didn’t do it,” said Gresham, whose next title defense is against Fred Yehi on Ring of Honor Wrestling the weekend of July 3.
Bennett used the London Dungeon armbar submission made famous by former ROH World and Pure champion Nigel McGuinness to defeat CB and Keys. He pinned Black after hitting a piledriver.
Bennett was in the gauntlet for more than 20 minutes, including 10:05 against Black.
It was Black’s first match in ROH since last fall. “The Darewolf” had been recovering from a compound fracture in his left ankle that required 13 screws and two metal plates.
The other competitors in the gauntlet match were Will Ferrara, Ryan Mooney, and Primal Fear’s Adrian Soriano.
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