Clyde Gastin vs Carmen Rodriguez - The Quick and the Dead

Okay, she'd gotten him off her, broke the count. Now she just had to make her way up and get back on even ground with him, start up the final phase - dazzling him. Mixing wrestling and boxing moves, switching between them one after the other, overwhelming him and throwing him off with the sudden pace changes. A solid plan, she was sure - but she had to get up, first.

Unfortunately, that wasn't happening.

Clyde moved over and grabbed her ankles before she had the chance, and she had a very good idea what was coming - she just didn't have the energy left to stop it. She kicked, bucked, but none of that was enough to break Clyde's grip as he worked his legs in and flipped her over. Her eyes widened to saucer-size as she dugged her fingers into the mat and tried to crawl away. "Nononono-"

Too late. He locked in the Sharpshooter.

Carmen let out a shriek as the pain ran through her legs, before slamming her fists into mat, gritting at the torrent of pain. It wasn't like she wasn't used to hurting. She could take blunt trauma all day long. But having her legs stretched was a whole different kind of thing, a sharp pain that she was still getting used to taking. Too determined, too stubborn, too outright crazy to just give up, she planted her hands on the mat and tried to crawl forward, making the desperate trek towards the ropes.

Outside, she could hear Army smacking his forehead. "Shit, no!" He punched the ringside, shaking it up. "Get to the ropes, get to the ropes!"

"What the fuck does it look like I'm trying to do?" She gave him a glare, before going back to her torturous task.

"Dang, I'm hurt." Clyde thought as he flexed his arm around Carmen's legs to maintain the tight grip while pulling back as hard as he could, honestly wincing as he heard Carmen shriek but he kept the pressure on her as much as he could, the pain going to her lower back mostly.

He wasn't surprised to see her fight, he expected it in a way. "Tap Gah'dangit!" He demanded before feeling her start to pull back, crawling like a possessed, wounded animal that was determined to survive, dragging the welterweight cowboy along with her. It was beyond admirable and the roaring crowd loved Carmen for her tenacity. A fighting spirit.

The cowboy could hear her brother being livid on the outside, trying to cheer his sister on who apparently paused to address him. "Gotcha..!" A glimmer appeared in Clyde's brown eyes as he stood up slightly while holding Carmen's legs, trying to walk forward to drag her back to the center of the ring before squatting back down, sitting down against her rear before trying to lean back as much as he could to resume the torturous hold.

"Gotcha all lasso'd up, baby! ....Whew!" He hollered, panting a bit at first before giving a shout.

The moment she finished barking at Army, Clyde simply crab-walked his way forward and erased all the precious progress she'd made, taking her back to the center of the ring. "God damn it, Army! Fuck!"

The pain in her back was immense and intense, agonizing waves up and down her spine. She tried to crawl forward again, managed to get a foot, before the pain got the better of her and she slammed her fists down again, burying her head into the mat. She could feel a submission welling up inside and she hated it. She'd done it once before. She hated then and she would hate it, now. It felt like giving up, just throwing in the towel. She'd never thrown in the towel, never even dreamed of it.

But, then again, she'd never been in a fucking Texas Sharpshooter, either. Clyde called it his 'finisher' for a reason.

"Fuck it..." She raised her hand, clenched her teeth, and slapped it down on the mat. Once. Twice. Three hard slaps. "Fuck it, I give!"

Clyde wrenched back with all he had as Carmen cursed and struggled wildly until at last she was forced to submit, tapping on the mat as the Ref-girl called for the bell, prompting Clyde to drop the boxer's legs immediately, a sigh of relief coming over him as he slumped to one knee and held his ribs as his music played and the Ref-girl raised his hand in victory.

"...Dang, lady..." He said with one eye open as he clutched his side, giving her a slight smile as he saw her over his shoulder. "Ya sure know how to give a fella a good ol' time." He said as he stood up before quickly eying for Army. He had already taken a chairshot from the last brother of his opponent, he didn't want another one. But it seemed like that wasn't going to happen today, thankfully.

So carefully, Clyde staggered towards Carmen and offered his hand to her. "You alright? That was a real good match, ya know." He said with honest excitement though panting breaths.

Carmen rolled off to her back the moment Clyde let her loose, sighing as she stared up at the ceiling. She'd lost. Again. But, strangely enough, she didn't really care too much.

Clyde was a good opponent. Fair. Good spirit. Competitive. Skilled. For someone like her, who'd only been wrestling for such a short time, giving a seasoned vet and a former champion so much hell was a strong showing and quite useful. She'd learned what areas she needed to improve on with her training, further developed her strategy. It was a learning experience, and a fun one at that. None of the matches she'd had before were quite as enjoyable.

...well, the first match had been more enjoyable, but in a completely different way. None of the matches that didn't involve sex had been quite as enjoyable. Yeah.

Army eyed Clyde right back, but stayed off - he didn't like his sister losing, but he wasn't about to start a fight over it. Fair was fair, and Clyde won straight. He wasn't perfect, he had his dick moments, but there was one thing their father drilled into them from day one: Respect the ring.

"Huh?" Carmen blinked as Clyde offered his hand, like a true gentleman should. She gladly took it and pulled herself up. "Yeah, it was." She raised his hand up for the ref, presenting him as the winner while the crowd roared. "You're real tough, man." She smirked and gave him a playful punch in the jaw, just a tap. "For a little guy."

Clyde had been having a tough time in AFW. In short, the company had been making him miserable for years because of all sorts of drama. It seemed like every time he went to work, bad shit just went down. All The Time. Matches weren't fun anymore. People in AFW were often out to hurt him or humiliate him.

Fighting Carmen however was different, it made him happy. The thrill of a good, competitive fight without a single grudge was something he missed and she gave it back to him.

He was smiling down at her while he offered his hand, but visibly winced as he tried to pull her up. His side burned hard but he sucked it up as the ref-girl raised his arm, the ever charismatic veteran getting a nice round of applause, the same crowd who had been won over by Carmen's display, handling herself very well against the cowboy.

He grinned wide but bashfully as she called him tough. The best thing she could tell him. He chuckled through her comment and playful jab that turned his head, his cheeks a little red. "Well, Shucks." He muttered.

"You all kinds of tough yer'self, Missy. You're real good. I ain't even remember the last time I been lit up this dang bad! You got hands made of bricks, girl! Haha!" He joked while giving her a budding pat on her shoulder. Clyde knew Carmen was a better striker than him, if he hadn't gotten better in the wrestling department, he would have been thrashed out by her very quickly and even as a veteran now she gave him trouble. He would just have to get better from here on out.

And he was being a good sport, too. If there was one thing Carmen hated worse than a sore loser, it was a sore winner.

Carmen actually felt a little bad for Clyde - he seemed like such a nice guy, but from what she'd been watching, the AFW had a bad habit of sending shit his way. He was clearly a hard worker, good and dependable, a real wrestler. Guys like that were in short supply. She knew it was only a matter of time before trouble started finding her, too, but she was just happy it hadn't happened today with him. A new friend was something they both could use.

"Fists like bricks, back like balsa." She reached back and gave her spine a light massage, working the knuckles over it. It was still tender, but she had done well to tap out when she did - a day in the bed with some ice packs and it would be good to go, no problem. Maybe even a cold bath. "Knew I wouldn't last too long once you got me down, was trying to keep things on two feet. Think I'm getting a good standing game, but that submission stuff? Still weird for me to grasp, like the exact opposite of everything I was trained for."

She bit her lip and reached into her pocket. Clyde was a busy guy, but... "I'm kind of looking for people to train with, get better - maybe we could spar, sometime?"

"Balsa?" Clyde titled his head, he honestly wasn't familiar with whatever that was. Balsa.

Clyde pulled up his tights and scratched behid his ear while listening to Carmen before smiling, they were a lot alike. "Lady, its wierd fer me too. I like fightin' on my feet, cant do all that ground wrasslin stuff too well at all. But I know watcha mean." He really did, though he was no professional boxer, Clyde was scrapper back home and didn't really put a Boston crab on someone's leg until he started wrestling.

Then... Came an offer that surprised Clyde, but he nodded eagerly. "Sure." He said pleasantly with a friendly smile, Carmen seemed cool enough to befriend.

"It's a type of wood." Army made his way into the ring, giving Clyde a size-up. He very rarely got the chance to play the part of a concerned big brother, so he had this way of jumping on it whenever the opportunity showed up. "A really weak kind that breaks, nice and easy." His eyes narrowed and there was a slight hint of menace behind it

Carmen put an end to that with an eye roll and a little punch in his stomach. "Oh, knock it off. Clyde would kick your ass."

"Pffft." Army grumbled a bit, but backed off as Carmen stood in his way.

"Don't mind him. Brain damage, comes with the sport." She gave her own skull a little knock, before reaching into her pocket and handing him a business card. "I give out boxing lessons at this gym near the arena, few blocks away. Stop by any time in the weekend, you'll find me there. I'm the only Hispanic for about fifty miles, you can't miss me."

"Oh!" Great to know... Person who wasn't Carmen. Her brother right? Clyde turned to him as he heard the guy speaking, noting the tone he had when he stated that it was weak and broke nice and easy. Clyde got the message pretty easily as the taller man's eye's narrowed at him. Clyde in return furrowed his brow at Army and give him an unamused look. Seemed a bit funny that he was a bad guy for beating his sister fair and square and being nice about it. But Clyde more or less knew his position, Clyde was weary about men around his sister.

But Carmen broke it up with a statement that made Clyde smirk confidently, he didn't say a word, didn't need to instigate a fight, but wasn't going to back down to this 6 foot linebacker if he got in his face.... Cocky and eager as Clyde was though. He was too beat up to fight with anyone else and he forgot that.

"...Heh...Yeah. It's cool though, but its prolly the first time I've been mistaken for wood." Clyde remarked with a cocky smirk before Carmen gave him her card, nodding at her instructions.

"Uh..." He looked over his tights, he didn't have pockets. This promoted him to pull at the hem of his tights drop the card in them, no doubt logged, clearing his throat immediately as he did that like it was no big deal.

"Will do! And uh.. Don't forgot you owe me that beer though!" Clyde joked as he flashed the taller woman a wide grin, though he honestly wondered if that was a good idea... He had been on good behavior for a while and hadn't had a beer and gotten drunk in a long time. Could he have 1 drink and cut it off before he started calling for 2 more?