Nikolette Tessla Vs. Taylor Parker: #1 Contender Match

Nikolette huffed as Taylor went down. That felt pretty good, but she had to keep going. She yanked Taylor up by the hair and shoved her into the ring.

She quickly slipped back in and crawled onto Taylor, hooking a leg for a pin attempt. Maybe she'd done enough to win, but she doubted it. At least Taylor would have to keep working to kick out.

"ONE!"

Taylor hissed in pain when Nikolette went back to her red-streaked pigtails, but she cooperated enough to roll back into the ring. She remained on her back while Nikolette got in, awaiting her approach, but she relaxed into the pin attempt and let Nik pull her leg up into her chest.

"Two!"

The count came and went before Taylor had even moved a muscle. Just before the ref's hand came down for a final time, Taylor kicked, her whole body firing to knock Nikolette back and turn onto her side. She rolled away to the side once, and then back over her shoulder, ending in a low crouch with one hand on the mat.

She surveyed her game opponent with blue eyes that were uncharacteristically icy. Her mouth was shut tight, and she showed no signs of of her relentless, blitzing style. For now, she only watched and waited.

Nikolette grunted as she was forced off of Taylor and flipped around to her own crouching position, quickly launching back at Taylor. She outstretched her arms as she closed the gap, looking for a squatting collar-elbow tie up.

Taylor only moved at the last moment. Just before Nikolette could reach her, she sprung forward from her crouch and threw a leaping knee strike up at Nikolette's jaw, a brief, violent flash of the Taylor everyone knew.

"GUUUUH!"

Nikolette flopped backwards, covering her face as the knee struck. She cursed herself as she rolled to her side to start getting back up. That hurt like a bitch.

Taylor backed up a step before slamming a vicious soccer kick into her floored opponent's belly.

The blonde punk's body language was cold and methodical, different from how she had started the match. She was now calm, but no longer relaxed. She bent to roughly grab Nikolette by the hair, it was about spite now, and dragged her rapidly into a run before flinging her headfirst at the steel ring post.

"Guuuuuuuuuh!"

Nikolette's eyes bulged as the kick landed. It felt like Taylor was kicking her stomach out of her body. "Nnnnngh!" Nikolette growled as she was tugged along, barely able to keep up until she was heaved at the steel post.

She barely got her hands up, but the collision was still jarring and painful as she laid huffing against the middle rope.

Taylor sized up the situation while she drew a breath. Nik was draped over the middle, the ropes, the corner, the apron...

Then she sprung into action and ran up the ropes perpendicular to Nikolette, middle rope, top rope, and jumped. She cleared the top rope above Nikolette and came down just on the other side, over the ring apron, dropping her knee on the back of Nik's head on the way.

Nikolette felt Taylor's  reverberations as she hopped the ropes. She quickly ejected herself from the corner and glaried at the punk. Nikolette then grabbed the ropes and heaved her body forward to drive her shoulder into Taylor and knock her off the apron.

Taylor hit the apron with a ring rattling crash. She might have broken Nikolette's skull had it been under her, but the brunette had the sense to get out of the way, which wasn't surprising. Taylor put a hand down to steady herself before she jumped back to her feet and reached down over the top rope to grab for Nik's hair.

"Oufff!"

She took a shoulder to the midsection that folded her in half and dropped her back down to a crouch. She grabbed onto the middle rope to keep from falling off.