Haruka Date vs. Julia Rogers

Haruka tensed as Julia moved towards her. She knew the masked woman was a flyer, thus she expected some artul and graceful flying maneuver. What Haruka didn't know was that the woman was awfully tricky. The Silent Phoenix was prepared to duck under whatever flying attack would come her way. Instead Julia diverted course at the last second and sprung off the rope, bringing her legs forward with a massive kick.

The Silent Phoenix got her guard up just in time. The blow still came in hard- Haruka staggered back a few feet and then dropped to the mat. She popped up as quickly as she went down and got her guard up again. Haruka allowed herself a bit of a smile. Her opponent's move was brilliant and would have been devastating if Haruka was half a hair slower. Already, Haruka respected her.

All that meant was that Haruka was going to give her her all. The distance between them closed quickly. Instead of going airborne as she had before, Haruka dove at the ground to do a handspring, and tried to bring both of her legs down on Julia in an impressive display of athleticism.

Julia’s tactic proved to be at least somewhat effective. She hadn’t been able to catch Haruka in the head, though considering how quick the woman was, that certainly wasn’t a shocking fact. However, still the kick did manage to take her down for a moment, making a loud smack that echoed through the arena as her leg struck Haruka’s guard.

Julia landed on her hands and knees and sprung right up, just in time to see her foe do the same. Seeing the small smile form on Haruka’s face, the American couldn’t help but smile right back, the feeling of respect completely mutual. She came into this match knowing full well the Silent Phoenix would be a tough opponent, and she sure as hell didn’t disappoint. And the crowd certainly seemed to like what they were seeing, and gave another round of cheers and applause while the two women once again momentarily faced off.

But then Haruka was once again on the move, and Julia immediately focused up while bracing herself to deal with what was about to come her way. However, the blonde was surprised when Haruka suddenly executed a handspring and swung her legs right down through the air toward her masked head. Not having time to think of any better defense, Julia threw her arms up to let them absorb the impact, which this time stung quite a bit even despite her leather wristguards. “Agh!” she grunted out as the force of the kick knocked the luchadora back into the ropes. Hoping to use that to her advantage, Julia would then bound right off the ropes after being pushed back into them. She then hurled herself through the air and attempted to slam both feet right into Haruka’s chest with a dropkick, trying her best to time the kick right as her foe stood back up so she couldn’t block or avoid it.

Haruka had followed through with the kick and landed on her feet. She wasn't quite sure what part of Julia she hit but she was happy to hit something. Right when she was upright she saw Julia coming back. Julia hit her with a flying dropkick right in her chest. There was no blocking it or getting out of the way. The kick came in with the impact of a freight train and Haruka plummeted to the mat.

The Silent Phoenix rolled around on the ground a bit. The dropkick hit her right in the clavicles and she was in a tremendous amount of pain. The smile on her face faded and became a grimace. The raucous applause of the fans was not helping matters by any amount. Haruka stopped her rolling when she was face down. For a little while, she was vulnerable and she knew it.

The luchadora’s dropkick connected with full force, and launched the Silent Phoenix back upon impact. Immediately after hitting the ground herself, Julia sprang up and threw a fist up in the air. “Lets go!” she shouted, causing the cheering crowd to get even louder as they started to rally behind her. The masked blonde was still relatively unknown to much of the AFW audience, but they certainly seemed to like Julia’s energy.

Haruka was down, but Julia knew better than to waste too much time, especially against an opponent like this one. A good opportunity press an advantage lie right ahead, and she needed to take advantage of it. So immediately after her little shout out to the crowd, the blonde took off running toward one of the set of ropes to Haruka’s side and leapt right toward them, landing feet first on the middle rope once again. From there, the high flyer would spring back and attempt to flip backward while aiming to come crashing down on her foe’s back with a lionsault!

Haruka grunted as the momentum of Julia's body came crashing into her. Lionsault. Incredibly painful, in her estimation- she had seen a few girls use that as a finisher and the pain shooting through her was a good reason why some girls couldn't get back up from a blow like that. But Haruka wasn't 'some' girl. She was a former Wrestle Angel and a good wrestler in her own regard. And although this was a big setback she wasn't out of the fight just yet.

The Silent Phoenix attempted to push Julia off her and roll away. Haruka tried to spring up but once she was all the way up she was forced to grab her aching back. Damn. She would bet good money on the fact that the lioinsault had split a few girls in half. But the Silent Phoenix was still up and still willing to fight, even if her back was now crying out for relief.

Julia’s torso splashed onto Haruka’s back with a thunderous crash as her lionsault connected. The blonde had been given an opportunity to deal some significant damage to her foe, and it was clear that chance hadn’t gone wasted. The move was no doubt a dangerous and deadly one, which many a wrestler had fallen victim to before.

The masked woman was just about to try to roll Haruka over to go for a pin. But just before she could, the Phoenix pushed Julia right off and rolled away from her, both to the blonde’s disbelief as well as that of the crowd, who gave a simultaneous reaction to the amazing display of resiliency from the Wrestle Angles veteran. Julia watched with her mouth agape as Haruka sprung back up to her feet. Even though the woman was clearly in significant pain, the display was commendable to say the very least.

And as Julia stood up herself she pointed one finger to the Silent Phoenix, nodding while holding her free hand out toward the crowd and motioning toward the ring to encourage the fans to direct their applause and cheers to Haruka. And with in seconds, a chorus of “HA-RU-KA! HA-RU-KA!” echoed all throughout the arena. Julia wasn’t planning on giving her all day to recover, but she was a firm believer in the idea that respect ought to be shown and given when it was due. And after taking the brief moment to acknowledge her opponent’s incredible fighting spirit, it was right back to business.

Crouching a bit with her hands in front of her as she took a wrestler’s stance, Julia began to cautiously advance toward Haruka, trying her best to be weary of those lightning-quick strikes that could lash out at her at any moment. And the moment the Silent Phoenix was within her range, the masked woman would shoot a leg out to try to send a quick kick at Haruka’s leg. Not nearly as flashy as her offense to this point, and it was certainly dangerous entering her foes’s striking range like this. It was risky, but it gave Julia a chance to slow things down just for a bit and attempt to further wear Haruka down.

Haruka looked around for a second as the crowd started chanting her name. It took a considerable amount of respect to try and get the crowd cheering for your opponent, and lo and behold, Julia did just that. Haruka smiled despite the pain arching through her back. It was nice to contend with a woman that was so easy to respect and struggle with. But it wasn't all roses, Julia was advancing slowly yet steadily. Haruka locked eyes with her.

And then a low kick came in like a lightning strike. Haruka didn't anticipate it and her leg went wobbly for a second. She was still in a high pressure situation and didn't want to succumb to the blow, and she somehow managed to remain standing. On her bandy legs, Haruka sprang into action. Sweat was beginning to form on her brow and the intensity of the moment was visceral.

Although she was still upright she was somewhat bowed. Haruka utilized this position to her advantage, bending down and pulling up a massive uppercut aimed at Julia's jaw. This was more a muay thai move than it was a wrestling strike, and Haruka was more than happy to return to her roots.

Julia’s focused gaze met Haruka’s as she drew closer and closer to her foe. Her boot then struck against the woman’s leg with a sharp smack that echoed through the arena. The leg shook in reaction to the impact, yet the Phoenix’s legs showed their strength as she remained standing. Nothing less to be expected someone like Haruka.

Her opponent then bent down, giving Julia only a split second to try to guess what was coming. A leg sweep? A jab at her stomach? There was quite a few options for Haruka to choose from, and though Julia was quick, a close up striking battle was something much more suited for the Silent Phoenix than the luchadora. And now that was an advantage that was about to play out very well in her foe’s favor.

Her time to react quickly came to an end, and Julia decided to shift her arms down toward her stomach in anticipation of a punch coming for her midsection. Wrong choice. And the next thing she knew, a fist had slammed itself directly into Julia’s jaw with an uppercut, practically launching her straight up into the air. She didn’t fly quite that high, but she was launched back by the shot, before falling right onto her back in the center of the ring. Her face contorted with pain as she brought a hand up to her jaw, and the now somewhat disoriented woman began trying to pull herself back up to her feet, not wanting to stay down for too long.

Crunch. That was the sound of Haruka's fist colliding with Julia's jaw. The sweet chin music sent Julia to the mat. In moments like this the Silent Phoenix always surprised herself with her strength. Her eyes narrowed on her opponent as she was sent flying. It felt good to have a blow do so much. And more than galvanizing Haruka, it sent the crowd into another tizzy. The crowd was fairly divided- they loved seeing the former Angel do her work, but they fawned over the masked luchadora as well. The devastating punch sent a few fans to Haruka's camp. Haruka would do everything she could to make sure the stayed there.

Haruka went to the ropes, her oldest ally. She did the pump up motion, hoping the crowd would express everything that she could not. Her face was etched into a permanent frown but the arena responded positively. They cheered ebulliently and Haruka leaped onto the top rope. The move would require a good amount of coordination and grace under pressure. These were two things Haruka had in abundance and she jumped off not even a split second after she got on.

The Silent Phoenix flew through the air, performing a tight flip before coming down on Julia with a powerful senton. Cameras flashed and people gasped as Haruka glided down towards the earth, and Julia.

The audience went crazy as the intense uppercut from Haruka crashed right into Julia’s jaw and sent her flying! Mixed chants began to ring out in the arena, some encouraging Julia to pick herself up while others praised Haruka for her explosive strike. Though honestly, considering she was up against a well known a Wrestle Angles veteran, Julia counted the fact that any fans at all were on her side as an accomplishment in and of itself. Still, whenever she got around to watching the tape of this match, the blonde would almost certainly regret having engaged in a striking battle with the Silent Phoenix. But that was a matter for much later. For now, there was the much more pressing issue of getting back into this match.

After taking a moment to recover and get a hold of herself, the luchadora had started to climb back up toward a vertical base. But unfortunately, the Phoenix had no intention of letting her get there, and by this point had already ascended to the top rope. The crowd had picked up their cheering again, cluing her in that Haruka most likely had something up her sleeve that Julia couldn’t see yet. But what? The American wouldn’t have to wait long at all to find out. And suddenly, the Silent Phoenix descended back-first on top of the luchadora, crashing down like a cannonball right over her torso.

“Ugh!” Julia gasped out in pain as the diving senton flattened her body right out in the center of the ring, while driving the wind right out of her sails. Many wrestlers over the years have been taken out in matches by such a move, making it a perfect answer to the lionsault Julia had delivered not long ago while also throwing a nice wrench into her plan to take back her momentum.