Falls count anywhere Match: Haru Fujiwara VS. Ralph Acker

Ralph moved his arm from holding his back, up infront of face to protect it. As Haru was approaching him, Ralph tried throw some punches while backing off, but without success. Direct punches were defenitely wrong way to deal with him. Instead he chooses kicks rather than punches. Ralph kicks his leg two times, but after it he hits the turnbuckles in corner.

He could easily escape out of the ring, but as he experienced earlier it was very dangerous outside. It will be risky, but Ralph decided that he'll try to squeeze past Haru to the center of the ring. He lunches his torso to his left, hoping Haru will go in same way. After it Ralph would crouch and try to use right side to roll away from him.

"Where ya going Ralph? Thought we were friends~!"

Haru continued to back Ralph into the corner even as he switched from punching to kicking to try to throw him off. It wasn't going to work however, for as soon as Ralph's back touched the turnbuckles in the corner, Haru was ready for action again. Angling his shoulder down Haru rushes forward like a football tackle.

Ralph lurches to the left and Haru changes tactics at the last second to accommodate, spreading his arms out wide. Even if he couldn't get a good shoulder hit, he was going to ram Ralph into that corner post dammit! Ralph then crouches and swings to the right, but Haru is ready for him. Haru drops down low to make sure he grabs hold of Ralph and then springs upward to smash Ralph back into the corner with his full weight.

Not quite finished there, Haru pulls Ralph's head towards him and under his left bicep, encircling the rest of his left arm under his neck. After grabbing his left hand with his right hand, Haru starts to pull up and squeeze, putting pressure on Ralph's air supply with a guillotine chokehold.

Almost there... Ralph is inches from escaping Haru, but he manages to catch him. Ralph uses opportunity to land two punches in each of his kidney. He try to land few more punches, but he was already up and going back toward the corner with Haru weight landing on top of him. But lucky for him, he hit pads in the corner, which soften up impact a little.

After he's pinned in corner, Ralph puts arms around Haru body and just when he start preparing to try throwing him, Haru wraps arms around his neck. Ralph was already in simmilar situation in first match, so he know he must remain calm and focused, not wasting any energy.

He breathes slow and shallow and than starts using his elbows to repeatidly strikes Haru's body. Although he's not as strong as Haru, his hits can still deal damage, especially after he repeatidly strikes on same spot. And he knows that Haru would need to let him go or at least change position sooner or later.

The punishment Ralph was dishing out with those elbow shots was still a worthwhile price to pay to lock in that guillotine choke. Ralph had tried to get a grip on him too after Haru had blocked him in, but it seems he gave that up right away as soon as Haru started cutting off his air supply. Gritting his teeth, he took each and every elbow strike he could, trying to outlast Ralph and choke him out for as long as possible.

However, Ralph began to repeatedly strike the same area and it quickly became a battle of attrition. With every strike Ralph would waste a little more of his energy and a little more of his air and weaken gradually, whereas whereas for Haru, each of Ralph's elbow strikes would hurt more as the impact came down on the same area. In retribution, Haru drove his knee hard up into Ralph's gut, forcing more air out of him that way.

"Just pass out already" Haru growled, wrenching his arm tighter against Ralph's throat. The ache in his side was starting to seriously hurt now, but he wouldn't be satisfied letting his rival go just yet. Taking a few short breaths, Haru grunted and drove his knee upwards into Ralph's gut again.

Ralph continue to dish out elbow strikes, slowly wearing down Haru. And since Haru hold him in guillotine choke, forcing his head to look down he could see all his leg movements. That way, Ralph saw Haru's intention off kneeing him in the gut. He stoped with elbow strikes and moves arms over his stomach to block the knee strike.

Meanwhile, Ralph stayed focused to control his breathing and continue elbowing his body after he blocked Haru's knee atempt. He was keep elbowing him and stoped after Haru prepared to try knee his stomach second time. He pulled his arms to block it again and get back to elbowing his body after Haru put his leg back down.

'That's right, keep wasting your energy Ralph, I'll keep choking you out' Haru thought to himself as Ralph switched from throwing elbows to blocking his knee and back again. While each of his little elbow shots hurt a little bit more, Haru felt them become a little bit weaker at the same time. Haru was impressed that Ralph was resisting so long, he must have a great deal of self-discipline and training, likely from a background in martial arts like Haru.

As Haru continued to choke Ralph and Ralph continued to resist, he realized this move wasn't going anywhere fast. Haru kept hold of the guillotine choke as he dragged Ralph away from the corner. Once they were close to the center of the ring, Haru jerked Ralph's head hard one last time as he dropped off of his feet, smashing Ralph's head facefirst into the mat with a nasty bulldog.

It looked like noone didn't want to give up; well Ralph didn't have any lot of other options anyway, so he kept using his elbows on Haru body. Finally... Ralph told to himself when Haru soften his grip a little. But it wasn't that nice as at looked like on first sight, since Haru was already guiding them to the center of the ring. Ralph tried to resist, but he couldn't do much about it.

When they reached the center of the ring Ralph face banged hard down on the mat. He tried to protect his face with arms, but was to slow this. Impact was pretty strong and bulldog causes that Ralph started bleeding as well.

Ralph turned his head around and saw Haru down on the mat beside him. It's true that he was more tired and weared down already, but Haru wasn't known for being quickest wrestler out there. It will be close call, since Ralph isn't 100% ready anymore, but he still turns his body around to grab opponent arm, trying perform arm lock on it.

WHAM!

Haru drove Ralph's face into the mat with a satisfying thump of the mat. Haru threw his fist into the air in presumptive victory, revving up the crowd as well as pumping himself up. Haru rolled back on his side to try rolling Ralph into a pin, but that resourceful little bastard was latching onto his arm.

"Shit" Haru growled as Ralph started to work his arm into an arm lock. Even as tired as he was Ralph was still faster than Haru. But how long would that strength last? "Let go of me" Haru said through gritted teeth, trying to pull his arm free before Ralph fully secured his grip.

"Payback time" Ralph grins as he managed to grab Haru's arm. He firmly holds his arm and puts his legs over Haru's body. He had him under control now, but what's more important, Ralph finally got a little break, so he can take a few breaths and regenerate a little.

He leans backward to stretch Haru's arm even further, but his back start aching again when he streches it. He holds in this position a little before leaning forward again. He can compete with Haru, but that powerbomb on concrete floor is severly limiting his options. Hold is bit less painfull now, but at least he's still firmly holding him.

"Gahhh"

Haru gasps in pain as Ralph starts to work his arm over, pulling and stretching it in ways it wasn't meant to move. Gritting his teeth, he reels back his fist to nail Ralph, but he notices that the pain suddenly drops a level in intensity. That was odd. Looking at Ralph, he notices that he isn't stretched all the way out, and then it dawns on him.

Of course! Ralph's back is still raw from the concrete, and he can make use of that! It costs him a bit more pain, but Haru starts to get up; first leaning on his free elbow, then onto his chest and finally up to one knee. Haru is panting and clearly in pain judging from the look on his face, but also quite determined.

He then starts to work on getting up to both knees, changing the angle between them so that Ralph's back would start to lift off the mat if he held on tightly. Next step would be standing up, but first he took a few moments rest.