Tracy Williams Saw ROH Pure Tournament As A ‘Beacon’, A Chance To Make Something Happen
Tracy Williams is ready to make a statement in Ring Of Honor by working a style of wrestling he takes pride in.
Williams recently spoke with WrestleZone Managing Editor Bill Pritchard ahead of his final round meeting with Jonathan Gresham in the ROH Pure Tournament. When ROH first started talking about bringing back the Pure Championship, Williams says things happened pretty quick but he let it be known to ROH that he wanted to compete in the tournament. For many, “Hot Sauce” first caught on with fans in EVOLVE, where he was part of the Catch Point stable. He noted that it was easier for that stable to dictate the style of wrestling in EVOLVE, but he’s been trying to find his own way with Ring Of Honor. Williams saw the Pure Tournament as a big opportunity and says people are catching on and believing in what they’ve been doing.
“This is what I want to see and this is what I think the company should be about, to be honest. Like you said, it goes back a while to Catch Point, and pretty much my whole career it’s been what I hang my hat on. It’s the flag I try to plant everywhere I go. When that group split up and we all ended up in different companies, it’s harder to make those moves when you are split up. There was this time where we were all together and we had this group mindset where we made up a good chunk of the card,” Williams explained, “so we’re going to determine what the style of this company is and what direction this company goes in. But when you’re just one guy getting signed to a company, it’s really tough, so when that opportunity presented itself and it seemed like this was a possibility, the Pure title was going to come back, that was like my beacon.”
“Now this is my chance to really latch on to this and make something happen in this company. Anybody else that felt the same way in the company did the same thing and I think that real energy and real passion to push something like that forward is why it’s going so well. Knock on wood but it’s going well now and I think it’s because we believe in it. There are people in this company and people watching it that really believe in it and that’s something real,” Williams said, “It’s not just some promotional thing to generate viewers or followers, hashtags, whatever. This is really what we believe in and we’re pushing that and living that.”
The final round matchup in the ROH Pure Tournament airs Monday night on FITE.