Alex Coughlin Challenges Katsuyori Shibata To ROH Pure Title Match

"NJPW Strong" star Alex Coughlin was on the April 13 edition of "ROH On HonorClub," where he teamed with the current Ring of Honor Pure Champion Katsuyori Shibata and defeated The WorkHorsemen (J.D. Drake and Anthony Henry). After the match, Coughlin challenged Shibata to a future match for the Pure Title. Coughlin took to Twitter to comment on Thursday night's episode.

"I want the ROH Pure Title," Coughlin wrote. "I want to fight Shibata for it. I'm next in line. Student vs Teacher. It's time to train."

In 2018, Coughlin was one of the first to join New Japan Pro-Wrestling's revived Los Angeles Dojo, where he was trained by Shibata. Last year, Coughlin was part of the AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door Buy-In pre-show and he reached the NJPW World Tag League semifinals alongside Gabriel Kidd, another student of Shibata at the NJPW LA Dojo.

Back in March of this year, at Josh Barnett's Bloodsport 9 event, Coughlin faced former AEW World Champion and Blackpool Combat Club member Jon Moxley. Coughlin was also part of the Impact x NJPW Multiverse United event. His next match is against ROH star Tracy Williams at the NJPW Collision in Philidapehia event. The match is going to be an ROH Pure Rules match. NJPW Collision will be taking place at the 2300 Arena on April 16.

Shibata has been the ROH Pure Champion since March 31, when he defeated Wheeler Yuta at the ROH Supercard of Honor pay-per-view. Shibata's only title defense since then has been against Christopher Daniels.