Natasha Han vs. Valley Doll - It's a Long Way to the Top

Valley expected Natasha to fall backwards, make it some sort of back drop and crash into the mat. That was the best she could guess from the way her hearty Russian foe was wobbling, and she steeled herself in preparation.

What actually happened, though, was that Natasha fell forward, though 'fell' seemed like too weak a word for it from Valley's perspective. 'Plummeted' and 'careened' might've worked better, because the ground came up in an amazing hurry. The way she dropped down, there was only a sparse second to protect herself by raising her arms up to cover her face. And really, with that much force in the move, it didn't make much of a difference. Valley absorbed some of the impact, but not enough to matter.

She made a weak grunt as she hit the canvas and the power immediately went out of her legs, releasing Natasha from her fleshy prison. Valley groaned, slid off her neck, rolled over to her back and stared up at the ceiling lights. For now, she couldn't do much more than blink and wonder just what the heck happened, with her teeth clamping down hard to deal with the pain.

Natasha's little falling stunt was sloppy. It was awkward. It was honestly kind of embarrassing.

But most importantly of all? It had worked. She was free.

The moment that Valley's legs unhooked themselves from her neck, the bare skin of the blonde's thighs sliding away from Natasha, the Russian rolled over into the opposite direction of her Slamazon foe, rolling onto her own back to stare up towards her lights. She lied there, feeling weak, worn down, almost helpless after what Valley had just put her through. It reminded her far too much of being trapped in Radmilla's tight, inescapable bearhug. She hated it. She hated the feeling of being trapped and helpless, and she had sworn it wasn't going to happen to her again.

For the moment however, she had to focus on recovering from the figure four. She was exhausted though. It had taken everything she had to pull off that foolish escape. She needed to rest, and to recover, but she had no time. She knew that any moment now, Valley would be up, and ready to go again.

So, Natasha went for her plan B. She wasn't ready to fight again, so she decided to run...or rather, to temporarily retreat and regroup.

She let out a weak groan, and forced herself to roll to the side again, further away from Valley, until she reached the edge of the ring. She stopped right at the edge of the apron, lying there still, unmoving. Plenty of space between her and Valley, plenty of time to try and catch her breath.

Oh. Oh, wow, did that suck to an amazing and unprecedented degree.

Valley was dimly aware of the crowd whooping and hollering around her, but she was far, far too out of it to care at the moment. Her head was reeling from the massive influx of pain coming from her back, and her legs ached, sore from the exertion. The wasted exertion. Seriously, where was Natasha getting all this energy from?

Valley had a moment to contemplate while the ceiling lights burned into her eyes, and it didn't make sense. She was fairly sure she hadn't done anything to tick Natasha off, but you wouldn't have thought that from watching the match. This didn't feel like an exhibition - Valley had gone against bittter rivals who wouldn't put up this much of a fight.

It was weird, but she'd deal with it. Natasha wanted to win, so Valley would just have to want it more. If that was even possible. The first step was going to be getting back to her feet, so...

She rolled to the ropes and reached up, getting a tight grip on the middle and pulling up hard. First to her knees. Then her right foot. Then her left foot, Wobbly and shakey all the way, but she was doing it, and she glanced Natasha's way as she rose to monitor the Russian's progress.

Valley didn't know just how desperate Natasha was to win this watch. She didn't understand how hard the Russian was pushing herself, just how much this match meant to her on a personal level.

She also probably didn't realize just how drained Natasha really was after that exchange. The Russian knew she was going to have to dig deep to keep going through this match, but it didn't bother her. She knew how to push herself harder, and she knew she could keep going until Valley was beat and she was standing tall as the winner.

As the Slamazon began to stand, Natasha began to stir as well. The Wrestle Angel took a deep breath, slowly forcing herself to sit up. Her chest was heaving, and her body was quivering, but she was moving, and that was good. She raised up into her sitting position, remaining still for a moment, before turning her head to the side, staring across the ring towards Valley.

Shit!

Natasha felt a small bit of panic as she saw her opponent already pulling on the ropes, already getting up to her feet. She knew she didn't have long to get up herself before the blonde would be back on the attack.

She reached over, gripping the ropes tightly, and started to pull herself up as well. Slowly at first, she started to rise up, forcing her body to move and get back up, wanting to get back on her feet before Valley started heading her way again.

Valley's head was throbbing. Her body was in full revolt. Her nose filled with a metallic scent - blood, a little bust from the crash, it would probably be leaking out of her nostrils, soon. So she had that to look forward to.

But she shut down the whining with a bellowing mental shout, ignoring the pain's pleas for now. She wasn't done, not yet, and as long as she could put two feet on the floor, she could keep on fighting.

Of course, keeping her feet on the floor required her to be conscious, and a few more slams like that from Natasha would make that very, very difficult. So when she rose up and saw Natasha trying to do the same, she knew what had to be done. She'd seen far too many matches get flipped on their heads by inaction to make same mistake, herself, and with all the determination that the Russian was bringing to the table, she'd steal the match if she wasn't put down.

She was winded, she was slow. Valley was, too, but at least she had the advantage of a body filled with air in all the proper places. It would have to do.

It didn't exactly work wonders for her spine, but Valley stood up straight and bounded towards Natasha with all the speed she could muster, which turned out to be not all that much. She sloppily closed the distance and sloppily swung her leg up and around for a sloppy roundhouse kick, aimed right at the lovely hairs all around the Russian's head. Not her best form, but being sloppy wasn't the same thing as being weak.

Slowly but surely, Natasha was pulling herself up to her feet. Was she shaky? Yeah. Was she unsure of her footing? Of course. But was determined to get back into this match? Damn straight she was.

She gripped the ropes tightly, her knuckles turning white, as she managed to get herself back up onto both feet. She coughed a little, and pitched forward, towards the ropes, and just stood there, leaning against them. She could feel her head swirling around, the Russian still trying to shake off the light-headedness that had come from Valley's devastating head hold. Those legs. Those damn legs of the Slamazon were dangerous. Natasha made a mental note to do something about them as soon as she got a chance, not wanting to have to deal with them again, not wanting to feel them wrapping and constricting around any part of her body anymore.

She leaned against the ropes for only a few seconds, then pushed herself off of them, slowly turning towards Valley. Just in time, in fact, to see the Slamazon rushing towards her, intent on bringing the fight back towards the mighty Russian. Her movements were sloppy and awkward, but it didn't matter. Valley was right there and in just a second Natasha would be in trouble.

She braced herself, Natasha using what little time she had to mentally prepare herself for the attack. Up came Valley's leg towards her, and when it did, Natasha's instincts took over, her experience and her intense wrestling training coming straight to the forefront, her body seeming to move on it's own.

Her arms shot up in front of her, Natasha's hands extending towards Valley's leg. As the sloppy kick came her way, the Russian tried to catch Valley by her leg, not only to stop the attack but trying to get a solid hold, so that she could twist the woman's leg around in an attempt to send her back down to the mat.

If there was one thing Valley could count on in her life, it was her legs. They'd carried her through high school as a cheerleader, attracted a few boyfriends, and now, as a wrestler, she counted on them each and every time she stepped in the ring. She had other weapons, but her legs were the fastest, most reliable, and the most damaging. Soon enough, it always came back to them, and this would be one of those times. Her lethal and lithe legs were going to knock Natasha out cold.

That was the plan, anyway. In reality, it was a bit more complicated.

The roundhouse didn't connect with Natasha's head - instead, it slammed into something firmer, muscular. To make matters worse, she couldn't pull her leg back down, no matter how much strength she put into it, and she was stuck hopping on one leg. Valley's experience and training tried to come to the forefront, but getting her head slammed into the canvas left her state of mind in utter anarchy. By the time her body remembered to do an enzuigiri and escape the hold, it was too late.

Valley spun around flopped down on the mat, with her head slapping against the floor for an added spot of pain. Her leg was still trappped, and she immediately tried to crawl forward for an escape, hoping to slip free. There were dozens and dozens of things a solid veteran like Natasha could do from this position, and Valley didn't want to experience any of them.

There were dozens of things that Natasha could do from her position, but she only had one in mind. One simple thing that would give her a brief bit of rest and undoubtedly help slow down Valley.

When Valley started to crawl forward, Natasha yanked back on her leg, pulling it back towards her, to keep the blonde from getting away. She kept a tight hold on the leg, and stepped forward, positioning herself over the Slamazon's body. She bent Valley's leg back towards herself, and lifted her arm, tucking the blonde's lower limb snugly underneath it. It was obvious what she was trying to do, the Russian attempting to pull Valley's leg into a tight, single-legged Boston crab, with the hopes of wearing her down and keeping the pace of the match nice and slow.

A sharp cord of panic strung through Valley's head as she felt Natasha pulling her back, and the possibilties narrowed. When she saw that Natasha was stepping over her body, though, she realized what was about to happen, and her panic turned to pure dread. It wasn't just going to be a boston crab, but a single-leg boston crab.

The regular one would have been bad, but she could have powered out of it.  Her legs had enough strength to overpower most opponents when she could use both of them in tandem, but a single-leg boston crab made that a moot point. Natasha was targeting one of her two best weapons, now, and there was little Valley could do to stop her.

She groaned. She cried out. She dug her face into the mat as her eyes slammed shut and her teeth slammed shut even tighter. It was like there was a war going on within her body, as her leg demanded that she tap out and her brain refused to accept the terms. But she didn't know how long it could hold out...

"Damn it..." She feebly clawed against the canvas. "Not tapping, Han! I'm not-"  And there went a cramp. "God!"

There was a look of desperation in the eyes of the Russian as she leaned back, keeping Valley's leg held tight, keeping it trapped beneath her arm. Natasha was desperate to wear down Valley with the Boston crab, desperate to do some damage to her leg and her back, desperate to do anything that would keep the buxom blonde from coming so aggressively at her again. She needed, she wanted to get in control of this match, and now that she had her hands on Valley's leg, she wasn't going to let go, not for anything in the world.

"You will!" she fired back at Valley, beads of sweat rolling down the sides of her face as she struggled to keep the woman under control. Her body quivered and her muscles flexed, the Russian trying to lean further back, trying to crank the Slamazon's leg harder. "You will submit!"

She could hear a waver in her voice, but she chalked it up to her fatigue. She didn't think Valley would submit here, but there was no reason to let her know that.