Felina Rodriguez vs. Armando 'Army' Rodriguez: All in the Family

Felina asked him to come and Army did just that, moving in for what he hoped would be a decisive moment. And it did turn out to be one, really. Just not for him.

He knew Felina was fast with the feet, but he'd only really ever seen those lethal legs in action on television, lately.  Today, though, he got an up close, personal view. Or, at least, as much as he could see with the rapid flash of motion she pulled off. One instant she was well-within his grasp, practically touching her, and he was sure he'd manage to get her before she could escape; the next, she'd practically vanished, he was grabbing at nothing but thin air, and all he had was a sharp pain in his thigh to show for it. Quick turnaround.

It wasn't enough to knock Army down, but it was enough to knock Army back. It hit with a force with that would've made some of his best punches jealous, and he wound up stumbling away with he grasped his stomach with one hand and blocked with the other.

Felina’s knee crashed right into Army’s gut with tremendous impact, enough to make Felina slightly surprised by the fact that her cousin was still on his feet. She’d ended fights with hits weaker than that before, though to be fair, her other opponents in that past had never been as big as Army was. There was definitely more than winning a fight than size, but in cases like this no one could deny it could at least be a big factor.

But bigger or not, Army was now the one on the retreat, and Felina wasn’t going to let him go that easily. Quickly but cautiously advancing in pursuit, she sent a left jab toward his face quickly followed by a right cross aimed for his wounded stomach. Felina doubted either punch would be anything overly impressive, but that was fine. They were just the setup.

Almost immediately after firing off the right cross, Felina would then swing her right leg up high, aiming a kick right for the side of her cousin’s head! It was a bit of a reach, but fortunately he wasn’t too much taller than she was, and Felina was quite a flexible woman. And though she doubted she’d be able to knock Army out this early, if her kick even hit at all, she hoped to at least stun the big guy and rattle his brain a bit.

There was a kick coming. Army could smell it. That was the real danger here, and he had to be ready for it when it happened.

Her left jab snapped him in the face boned whip, making his head jerk for a quick second before he refocused. Keep your feet flat, don't waver, stay straight. Training took over, he could almost hear his dad yelling from ringside.

Where was the kick?

Another blow landed. Right cross. Stomach. Wouldn't have been that bad normally, but Felina wasn't just fierce and fast, but she was precise. She hit the almost exact right spot in the exact right way , making him double over.

And there was a kick coming, he knew it. It was just a matter of-

It came from the side, right out of his view, with enough force to bring him down to his knees. Not the first time that happened in a fight. Definitely the first time it happened because of a kick.

Three shots, three perfect hits. Felina couldn’t have executed that combo better, and the sight of her cousin falling to his knees put a grin right back on her face. But it wasn’t time to celebrate yet. She’d created a great opening for herself, and now she had to take advantage of it.

Quickly reacting as Army tumbled down, Felina moved behind the big guy and snaked her arms around his neck to try to apply a sleeper hold. Kickboxing had served her well thus far in the bout, but to win under pro-wrestling rules, especially against someone like Army who had been in this game longer than her, she couldn’t afford to be one-dimensional.

If she could get the sleeper locked in, she’d then sling her beautiful and powerful legs around his waist to apply a body scissor at the same time, interlocking her feet at the ankles to lock them firmly in place, before rolling over to pull him on his back and on top of her while applying a rear naked choke. He was heavy, but Felina felt pretty confident she could endure the weight long enough to choke him out, or at least wear him down in her clutches.

Army's eyes shut from the pain and he swung out in reflex when he went down, hoping he'd get lucky with a wild right cross. He expected Felina to just move in and keep battering away at her...but she was already gone. He wasted a perfectly good punch on nothing but dead air.

He found out her real position soon enough: behind him. That's where her arms came from, right before they circled around his neck and clamped down in a vice. He reached up and started to pull at them, trying to make some breathing room, but her other two limbs just had to get into the act. The next thing he knew, they were on the mat, she was underneath him, and he was having the air squeezed out of him in two different places.

Army pushed at her legs, trying to get them to part. They hurt they most, doing crazy damage to his ribs, but that also meant they were much, much harder to pry. Instead he moved his attention back to her wrists, vainly pulling at them. Not much luck, there, either. Felina had a good position with a good hold. Somewhere, her brothers were probably clapping. Amy was probably rooting, too.

Even through the growing haze, he could hear a few people in the audience making catcalls about their position. Typical. "They..." Army started to thrash from side to side. "They know we're related...right?"

Like pythons coiling around their prey, Felina’s arms and legs locked themselves around Army’s neck and midsection, and within seconds she’d rolled her cousin over to put him in a picture perfect rear naked choke. This was the first time she’d ever tried something like this in the ring before, or at least in an official match. But, it was definitely paying off now.

She felt Army’s hands pushing on her legs, but they wouldn’t budge, and only continued to constrict against his ribs. “Nice try, but you know that ain’t happening.” Felina said with a grin as the man quickly gave up on that and attempted to try the same strategy on her wrists instead. Certainly they were much weaker than her legs, but they were so tight and snug against Army’s throat that prying them off would’ve taken a crowbar.

Felina heard the catcalls too, but paid little mind to it. Right now she had Army nice and trapped in her clutches, and that’s all that mattered. Although, Army’s comment did elicit a chuckle out of her, reminding her of what Carmen had said back at the airport about things people here expect in certain situations.

“Heh. I’m sure most of them have figured it out. But that’s the least of your worries right now.” she replied, patting Army’s head a couple times with her hand while keeping the choke tightly locked in. “So, ready to tap yet, Army? Or would you rather take a little nap instead?” Felina asked, giving a big squeeze with both her arms and legs as she spoke to try to emphasize how trapped he was, maybe even force an early submission. Really, she was willing to bet he’d sooner let himself get choked out than tap out to her, but that was just fine to Felina. Despite his thrashing around on top of her, which was certainly uncomfortable for the latina beauty, she genuinely felt confident she just might have the rear naked choke locked in well enough to put Army away in an early upset.

Yeah, Army was going to submit to his little cousin on her first match in front of millions of people and spend the rest of his life living down endless taunts from Felina, Carmen, and Amy. That was going to happen.

Granted, it wasn't like getting knocked the fuck out would be all that much of an improvement, so he was running out of options. He had to escape, but it was getting harder and harder by the second. He was stronger, harder, tougher, but all of that didn't count for much when Felina had him locked in an iron grip. There was just no prying her off. Not in time. Not nearly fast enough.

Then again, though, maybe he didn't have to escape at all. Felina was still green at wrestling, and there was a chance she didn't realize how close to losing she really was. It wasn't the way he wanted to win, but...

Army planted his feet flat on the floor, then pushed up to the tips of his toes and bridged with his back, making the best arch he could. He wasn't the most flexible Rodriguez around, but he figured he'd be able to lean back enough to force Felina's shoulders onto the mat, and the referee agreed.

She dropped down beside them and started the count. "1...!"

Felina couldn’t help but chuckle as she continued to hold Army in the unforgiving rear naked choke. Her strong, sexy legs were crushing his toned torso, while her arms choked all the air right out of his neck. And try as he might to get her to let go, it simply wasn’t happening, and that amused Felina much more than it probably should’ve.

But what she failed to realize at that point was just how close her shoulders were to the mat. And though she had trained for pro-wrestling for over a year before making this transition, the feeling of an actual match was still very new to her. Every competitive fight she’d been in previously had ended via knockout or judges’ decision. Never had pins been a factor for her before, so naturally hearing the ref suddenly slap the mat to start a count caused Felina’s eyes to shoot wide open in surprise.

“Shit!” she shouted out, while the ref brought his hand down a second time.

“TWO...!”

Felina had a choice to make now: keep the choke locked in and hope to either submit or knock out Army before the three count could be made, or break the pin at the expense of losing her lethal hold. As nice as it would’ve been to try to go with the former, her chances of making him tap or nap in under a second were quite slim. So reluctantly, she uncoiled her arms and legs from his body and shoved his side with her foot to push him off just before the pin could be completed.

Army would've preferred getting the brute force victory over Felina, beating her with his own pure strength and nothing else. If anything, it would've been a nice, clean win, with no one doubt who was the superior Rodriguez cousin in all of this. At the same time, he wouldn't have had a big problem outsmarting her, either. A lot of people still thought he was just dumb muscle, even though he'd added plenty of wrestling moves to his arsenal in the past year and really worked on his mat skills. Good chance to prove the haters wrong.

For a second, just a brief, flitter of a moment, he thought he had Felina pinned, but all those years kickboxing had brought out some good reflexes in the girl; he caught her by surprise, but not enough to make it last for three seconds.

Army rolled to his feet and smiled as he rose from the crouch, holding his index finger and his thumb only a couple of inches apart. "Almost."

He sprung up fast - as fast as someone his size could ever reasonably go - and charged straight at her, trying to slam into her with a shoulder block and put her down before she could recoup.

Felina had to admit, Army was craftier than she’d thought. That, or it was just her inexperience with wrestling that had come into play. Probably a bit of both. Whatever the case, Felina was lucky to have escaped the pin attempt in time, a fact which Army didn’t hesitate to point out to her.

She saw her cousin’s gesture as she started picking herself up, and rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah. But ‘almost’ ain’t gonna cut it.” she said. The words were meant for Army, but even as she said them Felina felt like they were a reminder for her too. Sure, she’d caught him in a tight chokehold. But it wouldn’t matter if she couldn’t put him away in the end.

But a different problem then made itself clear as Army came charging right back at her just as she’d gotten back to her feet! Having expected him to take more time trying to recover after being in her choke hold for so long, Felina was completely caught off guard. Unable to react in time, his shoulder came plowing right into her torso and dropped her straight down to the mat. “Ugh!” she grunted out as she fell.