[9.0] "I think this was one of the strongest shows ROH has done so far on their run. Almost all matches were good to very good, with some minor exceptions. The consistent booking throughout the show helpt making things coherent and interesting in the tournament. And the World Title match was one of the best matches in the year so far. And did a great job building for future shows, it's a shame that manuy things didn't go anywhere thanks to the Feinstein scandal, as this seemed a big show on a storyline sense. Anyway, let's talk about the show. The first four matches were the initial round of the Pure Title Tournament. Punk vs Walters was a very good way to open the show and to built Punk as this heel, making his entrance dressed as Christopher Daniels. The match was solid and had good action. Then Doug Williams makes his return to ROH defeating Chris Sabin. It was so fun to see Williams dominate over Sabin and working on the nekc to hit the Chaos Theory. Stryker vs Daniels was the weakest link of the tournament. I'd have Walters and Punk defeat this two, so their match would have been on the semis. Rave vs AJ Styles was great. I loved how at the end Rave attacked his mentor's injured part, showing more edge and personality. It's his best match on ROH so far. After that, they took a small break so the participants could rest a bit before the semis. And what's best than the Ring Crew Express We Are not Gonna Take it Tour. That was followed by a cool hardcore match between the Carnage Crew and Special K. It was violent, with weapons and fun spots, not the best, but very enjoyable and different. The match ends when Special K bring Devito's daughter to the ring and makes the Carnage Crew run to get her, leaving Loc alone to be pinned and later spike piledriven through a table. Then Julius Smokes comes to the ring and tells the crowd he doesn't know where Homicide is, with all his catch phrases. Next, the semis. First, CM Punk defeated Doug Williams on a cool encounter where he showed how he could capitalise working on a leg. Williams selling was amazing and the ending with the Chaos Theory really innovative. Then AJ Styles defeated Matt Stryker on what could be one of the best Stryker matches ever. He did a fantastic performance, that good that it was AJ the one who hurt the rating with an inconsisting selling. Loves Stryker's work over the knee. And after that antother intermission to get Punk & AJ time to rest. First, The Briscoes defeated the Backseat Boyz on a weird match. What could have been a dream match, it was only a high spots match without nothing more on it. Later, is revealed that Spanky is coming back to ROH. The world title match was great and the MOTN without a doubt. I loved the storyline and how they built for the Low Ki vs Samoa Joe moments, it felt big and an impressive win by Samoa Joe, cimenting his legendary reingn with another fantastic performance. And on the main event: Punk vs Styles to crown the first ever Pure Wrestling Champion. I didn't like some things, mostly AJ's inconsisting selling and that his leg injury didn't affect the result, but I think they did a good work "screwing" Punk off the match with the referee decisions about his rope breaks, which all looked weird. The match was fun and the ending was very good, with a second rope Styles Clash with Punk's foot on the ropes. After the match, the wrestlers come to congratulate AJ, while Punk is pissed off, which should led to interesting programming. Samo Joe comes out and tells AJ that congratulations, but that the title only exists cause nobody can beat him. I loved Joe's promo and all his attitude against other title."

[8.0] "The Pure Title tournament was the focal point of ROH's Second Anniversary Show, and while it wasn't perfect, it was very consistent. There was only one match in the entire tournament that I didn't give a 7.0, and I really appreciated how interconnected each match felt, and how they all built off each other. It felt like they were setting up a really interesting finale, and while I'd still consider the match to be pretty good, the lack of consistent selling from AJ regarding his knee injury felt like it undermined the entire tournament for me, and made the previous matches feel less consequential than they should have. The show was very well paced, though, as they had appropriate and varied 'breather' matches between tournament bouts, and the match lengths were all well considered to stop anything from feeling like it dragged as I feared it might considering this was a bit of a longer show. The ROH World Title match is an easy choice for MOTN, and the big exchange between Samos Joe and Low Ki was definitely the highlight of the show. I enjoy a good one night only tournament, and while I would have liked if they stuck the landing just a little bit more strongly, I thought this was still a very enjoyable, well structured show. As a final side note - don't be fooled by the show's runtime as I was, because over 30 minutes at the end is simply highlights from the first two years of ROH. Surely there was a better way to kill time on the second DVD than that? Weird."

[6.0] "Only two matches on this show were what I could truly consider 'good', but most other matches were at least decent. Walters vs Punk had good face-vs-heel dynamic and featured strong work from both men. Nothing special, but well worked. ***. Williams vs Sabin was a bit short but featured strong grappling and selling. Sabin sadly didn't get to do much. **3/4. Stryker vs Josh was technically well worked, but still just another dull Stryker match. **1/2. Rave vs AJ was alright. AJ's athleticism, intelligent, pure power, and aggression were fun as always. Rave looked good the few times he got the better of AJ. ***. Carnage Crew vs Special K was a lame, pointless hardcore match with shitty brawlers vs spot monkeys. **. Punk vs Williams was fine. Punk's intelligence to capitalise on Williams' mistakes and overcommitments was cool, and William's technical wizardry was entertaining. Sometimes their styles just didn't mesh super well together. I enjoyed how this worked for Punk's heel story. **3/4. AJ vs Stryker was decent. AJ completely overshadowed Stryker with his charisma and athleticism, and he worked hard to make Stryker's offence look much better than it was. Stryker wasn't bad, but still just totally forgettable. ***. Briscoes vs Backstreet Boys featured strong tag chemistry on both sides, with all 4 men getting chances to show off their impressive offence. Sadly not enough time given here. ***. Joe vs Low Ki vs Maff vs Whitmer was easily MOTN. Joe and Low Ki were awesome every time they got in the ring. Maff's powerhouse big-man attacks were decent. Whitmer sold well but didn't do much interesting offence-wise. Some good multi-man spots throughout the match too. Joe and Low Ki's interactions were obviously the best moments. ***1/2. AJ vs Punk was a good match but didn't meet the expected high standards of a tournament final. AJ did well hitting his fantastical athletic feats while dealing with his kayfabe knee injury, and Punk remained very intelligent with his split second counters and quick capitalisations. Despite this, the match was quite often lethargic. Punk's lack of athleticism also held him back from meeting AJ at his level. The Pure rules also weren't super interesting. ***1/4"