Ring of Honor Scramble Cage Melee, 8/28/04
Doug Williams vs John Walters

Walters beat Nigel McGuiness at Testing the Limit to earn this title shot, which he had been guaranteeing he'd have because this show is in his hometown of Boston. Samoa Joe comes out before the match and takes the mic. He tells Williams that just because he's defended the Pure Title in England doesn't make it a World Title. He wishes Williams good luck and tells Walters not to choke in front of his home town crowd like he does everywhere else. Ouch.

They lockup and Walters works the arm. Williams reverses and keeps Walters on the mat in awesome fashion. He puts on a cross arm choke and surfboards Walters. He has to stop when two his shoulders are pinned. Walters reverses to a cross arm surfboard of his own but he too almost gets pinned and releases. Williams works the ankle but Walters reverses into a Mutalock. Walters starts pulling the nose and has to break. He hits the chinlock but Williams powers out. Williams puts Walters down and puts on a surfboard stretch but Walters escapes and puts on the head scissors. Williams reverses to a pin attempt for two. Walters starts working the arm again. They do another Indy respect moment. Dammit, I thought that fad was over! Walters hits a dropkick and stuns the leg in the corner. He goes after the leg and puts on an inverted stepover toehold. Williams turns it over and stretches Walters' back. Walters fights out so as to not waste a rope break. They trade European uppercuts and forearms and Walters gets a sharpshooter. Williams uses his first rope break to break the hold. Walters gets a weird 69 leg submission. He puts on a Native American deathlock and the inverted stepover toehold again. He turns himself over this time and puts Williams right by the ropes. Williams takes the bait and uses his second rope break. Walters starts simultaneously stretching the arm and leg and Williams uses his third rope break and bails. Walters follows and they trade chops. Back in at six and Walters now works the leg with the added leverage of the ropes, which he can now do because Williams doesn't have any rope breaks left. Williams fights out and gets a rollup for two. He hits a neckbreaker on his knee but he can't capitalize. He puts on a front facelock and baits Walters into using his first rope break. Now on the apron he hits a blockbuster on Walters. He hits an Ace crusher and puts on a crossface close to the ropes, baiting Walters into using his second rope break. Williams hits the chinlock and then puts on a Steiner recliner and Walters uses his third rope break. Williams starts using submission moves in the ropes as well. A rollup gets two for Williams. He hits a dragon suplex for a really close two. Heh, I'm surprised the crowd isn't more into this. He hits a vertical suplex and goes for the Bomb Scare but gets dropkicked on the top rope and supercanranaed. Williams reverses a reversal of a reversal for a rollup for two. Walters come back with a lung blower to the chest and one to the back for two. Williams hits the Chaos Theory but can only bridge with one leg and Walters kicks out. Awesome. Williams goes for a piledriver but Walters punches the knee and catapults him into the ropes. Williams tries to skin the cat back in but Walters takes the opportunity to put on a sort of inverted half crab in the ropes for the submission victory.

There was a really cool story in here with Walters being totally in control and then choking and allowing Williams to hit a big move on the neck. Williams then used that to make Walters use all of his rope breaks. Walters then came back from his mistake, using what worked for him earlier in the match by working the knee, to win the title in front of his hometown crowd. That coupled with the fact that these guys worked a damn fine match earns this slow starter ****. Total show stealer. Williams respectfully passes on the title and heads home to England.

Credit: 411mania.com