Early in his title reign, Williams claimed that the "Canadian Destroyer" could not be countered. According to Williams, Bully Ray told him to focus the entire match in his finishing move. However, after Williams successfully retained the title in a match with A.J. Styles at Victory Road on November 7, 2004, Chris Sabin began claiming that he was capable of countering the move. He went on to counter the Canadian Destroyer into his own finishing move, the "Cradle Shock", on three occasions in the month following Victory Road. However, Sabin was unable to defeat Williams for the X Division Championship at Turning Point on December 5, 2004. Williams's reign would last for five months and five days, (which would become the longest X Division title reign until Christopher Daniels won the title in 2005), before ending on January 16, 2005 at Final Resolution, where he was defeated by A.J. Styles in an Ultimate X match that also featured Sabin.