Vida Fenix vs. Stone (w/Mako) - The Fine Art of Fair Play

The crowd started to rise up as Vida went on a kicking spree, drilling into Stone with blow after blow, the rapid succession driving her back. Not giving her much time to catch her breath, no time to mount an offense, barely enough time to bring her arms down to block. Even if this was a battle between two relative unknowns, the David vs. Goliath scheme always had an appeal, and the smaller fighter was the crowd favorite by default. Everyone loves an underdog.

Except Mako. "Stone, what the fuck?" She slapped her leather glove into the apron, yelling at Stone like a losing horse at the races. "Stop messing around and drop this bitch, already!"

She didn't need that kind of fanfare, but Mako's screeching did help her focus a bit, if for no other reason than to shut her up. She dropped her guard, taking a kick in the side for the opening. It hurt, sure, but she soldiered through and surged at Vida, coming at her with a clothesline as she charged. "Incoming!"

Vida couldn't help but get into the roar of the crowd, their support mounting with every kick she managed to deliver to Stone. "One! Two," their voices rose, counting with every blow the young latina managed to deliver. "Three! Four!" Vida got into a bit of a rote, where the kicks weren't taking as much effort, just carrying on their own momentum to be delivered with more and more force. This was going to be it, she told herself: Vida's chance to show the world what she was made of, that she was going to keep pushing forward until she made a place for herself! There was nothing the aspiring luchadora wanted more than to carve a place for herself in professional wrestling, and with every kick, she felt herself chipping away at that exact goal. But she knew she couldn't keep it up, forever. As soon as Vida could see Stone falter, under the blows, she began to focus on shifting her weight, for the next attack. Dropping her center of gravity, Vida prepared herself to launch into a hurricanrana, an attack to take her powerful opponent off of her feet, and cement her advantage, in this contest.

Unfortunately, Vida was so focused on the strategy for what was to come, that she lost sight of the here and now. She paid no mind to Mako, the chants of the crowd filling her ears. And as such, Vida was completely unprepared for Stone to turn around and deliver a clothesline, straight to her face. Completely unprepared, unable to brace for the blow, Stone's well-muscled arm bent Vida's head backwards and sent the slender luchadora tumbling head-over-heels. Literally. Her legs flew up into the air as her body rotated 360 degrees, before the young woman crashed down hard, against the mat.

Nursing the sting of it, Vida struggled to recapture her breath. She kicked herself for the mistake, for getting so into her offense in a match where she knew she couldn't take chances. But she'd paid the price for it. Now, Vida just hoped she could recover, before Stone really made her pay.

Stone expected to do some damage on that blow, but what she got was beyond critical. It didn't just hit. It didn't just bring Vida down. The clothesline struck so hard that the girl did a complete rotation, and for a moment Stone was worried she might have given the poor thing whiplash. She always did have a little trouble underestimating her own strength.

Vida was still alive and it would probably take quite a bit more to put her down for any real stretch of time, but it didn't look like she was getting up at the moment. Wide open for a variety of attacks.

Most women her size would have gone for one of the heavier attacks, but Stone, despite her nickname, liked to think she was a bit lighter on her feet than most. This was as good a time as any to start showing that off. Instead of hurling Vida around, Stone backed off, bounced off the ropes to gain a little steam, and jumped as she kicked her legs out, coming down on her foe's chest with a leg drop - a bit awkward, but the sort of move that put her weight to good use.

A pained “yeep!” escaped the aspiring luchadora's throat, as the collided with the mat. Vida kicked herself for her lack of good footwork. She'd just eaten the whole of Stone's clothesline hook, line and sinker, and been sent tumbling in the least dignified manner, possible.

Things were hazy, as Vida tried to shake it out. “G-get your head … into it, girl ...” she muttered to herself, hoping that the ring would stop spinning, soon. Before she could manage to get that to happen, unfortunately, Vida's vision was blocked by the sight of Stone's leg, coming down on her from above. Without much recourse, the latina couldn't do anything but feel the crush of that powerful leg against her soft chest, driving even more of the wind from her sails with a pained whimper.

This was bad. Really bad. Vida immediately put all of her strength into a roll, off of her shoulders, towards the edge of the ring. Fumbling around with her upturned arm, Vida reached for the ropes, hoping that she could get a moment to rest, and collect herself. Stone was powerful, no doubt about that, and it was already obvious that Vida was going to need a strategy, moving forward.

If they'd been fighting in the streets, where Stone did her work as a Valkyrie, Vida would have stayed on the floor for a good, long time. Stone had been in countless streetfights against all shapes and sizes, but the ground rules always stayed the same. When someone's down, you do everything in your power to keep them down. No mercy asked, none given.

But this was wrestling, and wrestling had rules, even unspoken ones - like not just stomping your opponent into a smear on the floor, no matter how satisfying and effective that might be. She gave the dark-skinned cutie some time to recuperate, watching with a sharp eye and folded arms as she caught her breath and pulled up. It wasn't just about winning, here - wrestling always had a little bit of theater to it, and she wanted the crowd to get what they paid for. Hell, truth be told, Stone wanted to stretch this out a bit, herself, see what Vida could do when she had a chance to get going.

After a fair moment passed, Stone moved forward and reached for Vida's arm, trying to grab her and Irish whip her into the corner.

Vida was grateful for the chance to pull herself back, to the ropes. The young luchadora got the impression that there weren't many in AFW who would honor the rules, like that. As easy as it would have been for Stone to press her advantage, to start grinding the latina warrior under her boot as she used the ropes to pull herself back upright, Vida's opponent relented. Vida couldn't help but smile, at that. Not matter how this match turned out, it seemed that it would be an honorable affair, at the very least.

Vida's chest heaved, a bit, as she fought to get breath back into her lungs. Leaning her body against the ropes, trying to massage out the pain in her neck and chest, at Stone's blows, Vida tried to steady her heart rate. Any respite she could get was sure to be brief, she knew; might as well make the best of it, while she could.

And, certainly enough, Stone was right back on her. The latina warrior's arm was clutched tightly and immediately, in Stone's grip, as Stone whipped her towards the corner post. Vida knew her options, here. Instead of trying to reverse the move, however, Vida instead went with the flow. Running towards the ring post, Vida turned her body so that she was facing Stone, at the moment she impacted with the turnbuckle. The padded corner hit Vida's back with some impact, right between the vertebrae, despite Vida's efforts to rest her arms on the ropes and minimize that. Still, the latina did her best to master her pain and be ready.

Bracing herself with her arms on the top ropes, Vida readied for Stone to come at her. If she did so, Vida would be readied to lift her legs in a last-second kick, both legsready to try and kick the wind out of Stone. Otherwise, though, Vida would continue to struggle for breath, hoping to get her wind back.

Throwing Vida around was all too easy with Stone's strength, and the little luchadore practically flew into the ropes. To her credit, she managed to stay on two legs, albeit shaky ones, not slumping down to her butt like many wrestlers in Friction would have. She was a small, cute thing, but Vida was no Kawaii. She could handle the rough stuff. In theory.

But she certainly had limits. It was up to Stone to find them, and she would start on that task by running towards the cornered Latina with a full charge.

The sight of someone her size running towards them would have sent many men running, and while it wasn't like Vida had anywhere to run to, she probably wouldn't have gone, anyway. Stone's intention was to spear her straight into the turnbuckle, but a well-timed boot in the face had a funny way of stopping such endeavors.

She ran straight into Vida's boot and stumbled away, grasping her jaw as a low moan came out. She almost fell back but managed to stay on two feet, even if she really felt tempted to just fall down and call it a day. It would pass, the only question was how long it would take.

Vida couldn't help but let out a little grunt, as she felt Stone's impact against her upturned boots. The more muscular woman had a pretty obvious weight advantage, with a lot of strength to back it up. It dawned on Vida how much pain her speed and cool head had just spared her comparatively fragile body. This was definitely something she was going to have to keep in mind, throughout this match.

Still, no time to pat herself on the back. Stone was reeling, and Vida had to take advantage of that while she could. With her arms still on the ropes, Vida hoisted herself up the turnbuckle. Planting her boots on the second rope, Vida bounced on them once, quickly, getting her center of gravity in motion. Then, the luchadora-aspirant launched herself into the air.

With as much height as she could get from her leap, Vida kicked her legs upwards, to wrap her toned thighs around Stone's neck. Hard and fast strikes served Stone well, but up here, Vida told herself, they were playing her game. Following through with her momentum, Vida swung hard around Stone's neck, spinning around her and trying to twist the stronger woman's center of balance off as the latina dropped. Thighs tight around Stone's neck, Vida herself a blur as she spun through the air, she tried to pull Stone down to the mat with a solid second-rope hurricanrana.

The kick itself would've been bad enough, but it was exponentially worsened by the fact that she'd dedicated herself so heavily to the tackle. It felt like running head first into a wall, and Stone considered it to be a small miracle that she wasn't spitting up teeth.

She spat out some blood with an annoyed grunt, knowing full well what was about to come her way. Vida was a luchadore with a stunned opponent, so she was going to to fly, hit her with some kind of aerial maneuver. Stone looked up fast, ready to stop her before that happened, only to find out she wasn't in the corner anymore.

"Fuck."

By the time she saw Vida's legs coming around her head, it was far too late to do anything about it. She got spun around and flipped, her world turning upside down, and she came down hard on her back with a resounding crash. The audience went wild. After all, it wasn't every day that you saw a bulldog tossing around a Great Dane.

"Really?" Stone heard Mako's jeering as she writhed about on the floor. "You're letting that pipsqueak tear you apart! Get your head in the game!"

As she swung down the length of her body, trying to pull Stone to the mat with her, Vida was suddenly feeling like spinning around like a little lucha monkey hadn't been the best idea, in her condition. Still feeling the pain in her neck and shoulders from Stone's earlier blows, it was only exacerbated by the momentum it required to pull the bigger woman down.

Rolling onto all fours, once the hurricanrana was completed, Vida tried rolling her shoulders back, to massage out some of that pain. She was proud of herself, for having managed to take down the larger Stone, and she knew that she didn't have any time to rest on her laurels. However, the luchadora had certain needs, and right now those “needs” included trying to massage out the pain in her neck.

Vida could hear the snarky woman that stood in Stone's corner, as she berated the fighter. It puzzled Vida, as she struggled up to one knee. Why would a woman of Stone's obvious abilities need such a snarky sidekick, “cheering” her on? In the end, Vida decided it didn't matter. Pushing off of her knee, Vida sprinted like a track runner, towards the ropes. Stone would have had just as much time to recover as Vida had, but the luchadora hoped that her opponent was in slightly worse shape, following the hurricanrana. Either way, Vida put all of body weight into bounding off of the ropes, returning to try and deliver a running senton strike to her downed opponent.