[2004-07-24-ROH-Death Before Dishonor II] Austin Aries vs Doug Williams

[ShittyLittleBoots]

This is for Doug Williams' Pure Championship, under the Pure Division rules.

Early on Aries outsmarts the champ & the ref by hitting Williams with closed fists behind the refs back, to which Williams answers back with some punches of his own under the refs eyes, which results in him losing one of his three rope breaks. I thought that was such an extremely fun, great new twist worked into the Pure rules. It brought some rarely-seen intensity in Doug's work later on too, as when he gained the control back after the little brawl on the outside, he was fully set on making Aries use all of his rope breaks by viciously stretching him in those submissions. That all lead to the great finish where he locked in the armbar for the win on the ropes, as Aries had indeed used all of those rope breaks. This was so much fun! Beautiful, strategic wrestling. Pretty much exactly what I love about the Pure Division. ***1/2