Chaotic Wrestling Cold Fury 3, 1/10/04
Shoots and Ladders Match - "Latin Fury" Luis Ortiz vs John Walters

Main Event time! As one half of the NEI Chairmen of the Board, may I make a motion to finalize the votes for the "2004 Match of the Year"? I am fully confident that nothing else this year will be able to touch the masterpiece that was created between "Hurricane" John Walters and "Latin Fury" Luis Ortiz. When these two guys come out from the curtain, you get a natural star appeal with both men, a certain intangible often missing at the Independent level.

The match itself was an innovative concept called "Shoots and Ladders", an I quit match involving the use and abuse of ladders. From the opening bell, these two went at it fast and furious, punching each other feverishly and then going to the mat for quick reversals and submission attempts. To even attempt to capture this match in words or to try and devise a concise list of amazing spots would be fuitile on the part of myself or any writer. This match was a full 30 minute assault between these two heated 2003 Feud of the Year rivals. Numerous chair shots, Walters hard hitting dive through the second rope to the outside, and Ortiz's somersault from the top rope to the outside floor. These are just some of the amazing "Holy Shit" moments that were numerous in this match. The match looked more like a brutal assault between the two men than an actual Wrestling encounter as they both beat the hell out of one another. The ladders were used more as weapons then as vehicles for dangerous high spot moves, and by the end of the match, the ladders were as broken and beaten as the two combatants. It was, in fact, a single devastating drop from the top of the ladder through a table that left Ortiz stunned and prone for the resurgent Walters. Walters pinned his opponent in-between the sides of the ladder and then began driving a piece of broken table into his throat. Ortiz quickly tapped to the sound of the screaming crowd.

A simply amazing match, the likes of which I have never seen in person.

Credit: The New England Independent