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

Valley squeezed the ropes so tight that she wouldn't have been surprised if she lift her finger's imprint on them. Just one, weak hand grabbing onto them and furiously yanking them with all the waning energy she could muster. She pulled and pulled, and still, nothing. She half-expected the bell to ring for Natasha's DQ. This couldn't be under four seconds. No way. It felt like an eternity and a half. "Ropes! Ropes!"

When she finally let go of the hold, Valley's leg and head flopped back down to the canvas in a lifeless heap, breathing heavy and slow. Her gasps were ragged, her throat torn up from all the screaming, her chest punishing her for every inhale and exhale. Rapidly approaching dehydration. The last thing she could have possibly wanted was to be yelled at right now, in Russia of all things, but there was Natasha, howling away like mad.

She sounded insanely ticked off. Valley could relate.

"Gonna run that through a translater after this..." Valley muttered. She glared at Natasha as best she could from the corner of her eye, and started to push up off the floor. Hard going. The hardest. She nearly fell back down a couple of times,  even with both hands holding the ropes. But she willed it, even as her legs threatened to give way at any given second. It was desperate, but maybe if she dug down deep enough, she could squeeze out one last move. A special one.

"Okay, Han." Valley finally made it all the way up and sighed at the Russian who'd been beating her senseless for the past ten or so minutes. There was a weary, weak, world-worn smile on her face. "What else?"

Natasha didn't mind that it was taking Valley a while to get back up to her feet. Every extra moment that it took the Slamazon to get up was another moment for the Russian to rest, for Natasha to prepare herself for what was still to come.

She waited, patiently biding her time, until Valley was standing. She was willing to give the Slamazon a small moment to recover, but not too much of one. The instant she was standing again, Natasha considered her to be fair game.

Thus, the moment, the exact moment that she rose back up and turned to face her, she burst towards the blonde, letting out one final explosion of energy to propel herself towards the tenacious Slamazon. No witty answer to her question, no more words between them. The Russian lunged straight towards Valley, outstretching her arm one final time, putting all of her strength into one final lariat, Natasha determined to knock her out or knock off her head. Either way, this match would finally belong to her.

Valley had fought all kinds of opponents with all kinds of motivations behind their actions, and she'd seen all kinds of faces in her day. But she'd never, never seen anyone come her way with the sort of intensity Natasha was bringing. This wasn't a wrestler heading towards her, this was a Russian freight train heading her way at 200 MPH, speeding along with reckless abandon. Valley had no idea what Natasha was going for, but she did know that it would be the last move of the match unless she did something now. Right now.

She bounced off the ropes, getting as much force as she could scrape together, and bolted towards Natasha as she neared. Valley gambled on it being a high move and ducked at the right time, narrowly missing a lariat that would've been enough to drop her for a thirty-count.

Now or never. No guts, no glory.

She jumped at the right moment as she passed under Natasha and dove forward with a cartwheel - a very special cartwheel. Timing was everything. Valley had to grab her waist at the right time. Had to pull her back at the right time. Had to get her head between Natasha's legs at the right time. Had to complete the roll at the right time and slam her down hard with all the momentum and strength she could muster. If everything worked just right, she'd execute her finisher, the Valley Bomb, and end with Natasha in a sitout pin. The referee would have to be on point, and immediately drop down for the count.

"1...!"[/b]

Natasha didn't even know what had happened. She was rushing towards Valley, ready to knock the woman's head off of her shoulders, ready to put the blonde down for good this time.

The next thing she knew, her entire world was flipped upside down...literally...as the Slamazon caught her with the Valley Bomb. The Russian wasn't even sure how it happened. All she knew now, all she could think about, was the sudden sharp pain rushing through her as she was slammed down into the canvas, Valley bringing an end to the match with one sudden, final reversal.

There wasn't even a point in the referee counting. It was obvious to everyone that was watching that Natasha was done. She had nothing left, and couldn't even find the energy to wiggle her fingers up at Valley.

"2...!"

Valley could feel that the life was out of Natasha, and she probably could've have gotten way more than a three-count out of her if that had been necessary. Didn't matter. She held onto her legs and poured as much strength into the pin as humanly possible, not taking even the tiniest chance. If Natasha kicked out, there was no getting up, no comeback to make, no anything as far as she was concerned. Valley. Was. Done.

"3...!"

The crowd erupted. Valley had gotten some big responses before, but nothing quite like this. It was like the biggest pop she'd ever gotten with the Slamazons, only multiplied a hundredfold. Fans were clapping, cheering, stomping, and she only wished she could've had the energy to see them all.

But she didn't. Valley couldn't stand, not right this second. All she could do was flop away and lay on her back, staring up at the ceiling. Breathe in. "Oh God, oh God..." Breathe out.

After a moment, she managed to muster enough energy to look to her side and see Natasha. This amazing wrestler, this living piece of iron, this outstanding athlete who had been taking her apart for the last dozen or so minutes. She had just one, simple question for this walking rock of a woman, and she asked it with confusion in her eyes.

"Can you meet me in the back, by the locker room? We should talk."

Natasha closed her eyes as she listened to the third count, listened to the sound of the crowd leaping to their feet, roaring and cheering for Valley and her hard-fought victory. She felt embarrassed. She felt humiliated. She had gone into this match fully intending to win, fully intending to make up for her past two losses. She had thrown everything she had and then some at Valley, but it wasn't enough. It wasn't nearly enough.

Valley had emerged as the winner, and Natasha had picked up her third loss in a row.

She lied there, panting, gasping, trying to gather up her strength, and just listened to the sound of the crowd. She hated it. She hated that she wasn't the one to be getting those cheers. This was supposed to be her night, her big comeback, and just like that, it had all gone downhill.

She groaned, and with a heavy sigh, pushed herself up into a sitting position. She shook her head and started to rise, forcing herself up to her feet. She wanted to get out of here. Natasha just wanted to get away from all this and go rest, go forget about her loss.

At the sound of Valley's voice, though, she slowly turned her head towards her, staring at the blonde for a few seconds. She was too tired to answer her, the Russian not even having the strength to mutter out a reply. Instead, she simply slowly nodded to the Slamazon, then turned away again, going to shakily make her way out of the ring and begin the walk up the ramp, wanting nothing more then to get away from the cheering, roaring audience.

Valley made her way through the back, with a weak smile on her face. Part of the reason for that was because she felt weak.

She'd just gone through what was, without a doubt, one of the toughest matches of her entire career. Easily in the top five. The only AFW match that had been more grueling was the one she did with Haley, and it didn't even feel right to compare since that one had basically been three matches in a row. Natasha Han had slammed her. Tossed her. Bent her. Defied some of the best moves she had. Valley kept on throwing everything at her, she went at her in ways that would've dropped almost anyone else flat, and the woman just kept coming.

She'd won. She gotten the narrow victory. She knew she should've been celebrating now, marking her second win of the year. But the realities of the match still weighed on her - the whole thing just did not make sense.

They'd fought like they were bitter rivals at a Pay-Per-View match, not like they were just two random wrestlers from completely different promotions who hadn't even been on the same continent before. On her way out of the ring, Natasha didn't look like she'd just lost some one-off match. To see the look of complete defeat on her face, you'd have thought she'd just gotten stripped of the world title. This match had meant the absolute most to her, and Valley was at a complete loss as to why.

But she was going to find out.

She made her way through the back, only stopping to exchange the occasional high-five with stagehands as they passed her by, returning their approving smiles. She appreciated the support, but right now her mind was only focused on the task of tracking down the iron woman who'd been thrashing her just five minutes ago. She'd asked Natasha to stay and wait, and she could only hope that the woman would follow through...