Tag Elimination: The Valkyries Vs. Blaise Cameron, Amy Poford & Mariko Ishii

Mariko wasn’t too fond of Mako’s threat to Blaise. Not only was it because had he recently become a friend and ally she genuinely respected, but also because she seemed to presume Mariko was finished; just a punching bag for Divine to keep assaulting until she felt like stopping. She was no punching bag, nor did she have any intention of giving up this fight, no matter how bad things looked now. Unfortunately, things were still going to get worse before they got better.

“Ungh! Let go!” Mariko spat, wincing and grabbing at Divine’s wrists as the Brazilian grabbed onto her hair and led her to the ropes. The next thing she knew, the vengeful beauty was by the edge of the ring, having her neck pushed right into the ropes while Divine’s knee drove into her back. “Aghh!” she choked out, while writhing beneath her foe’s knee and trying to push against the ropes to alleviate the choke as much as she could - which unfortunately wasn’t much...

Fortunately, the ref almost immediately moved by Divine’s side, telling her to back off. If she didn’t, the obligatory warning count would quickly start, threatening to disqualify and eliminate the Valkyrie if she didn’t cooperate.

“One...!”

And, of course, the referee got in the way and tried to mess up Divine's fun, starting the count immediately - she could've sworn she did it a lot slower when Mariko was the one dishing out the pain, too, but what could she expect? Hometown bias.

"Two!"

Divine kept on.

"Three."

She grabbed the top rope and pulled down, increasing the pressure even further.

"Four! I'll count you out Divine, last warning-"

Divine backed away at the last moment and gave Mariko the room to breath, getting the referee off her back. "I'm off, I'm off!" She smirked and threw her hands up, taking a few steps back...then jumping forward with a quick stomp between the seductive siren's shoulders.

It didn’t surprise Mariko one bit that Divine took her sweet time dragging the warning count out as far as she possibly could. Though that bit of predictability unfortunately didn’t do anything to ease the painful choking she was enduring against the ropes. She continued to struggle against the rope and Divine’s leg until the Valkyrie finally let off of her at the four count.

Immediately Mariko raised her head to get her neck off the rope, and moved a hand over it while she took a few heavy breaths. But then Divine struck again, driving her boot right into the Japanese woman’s back. “Agh!” she shouted as the kick briefly shoved her down onto the rope again, before quickly pulling herself to her feet and taking a few stumbling steps into the nearest neutral corner while the crowd booed Divine for the cheap shot she'd taken.

There she turned to lean back against the padded turnbuckles, glaring at the Brazilian while trying to catch back the breath that had just been choked out of her. And even after everything Divine had just put her through, Mariko’s confidence was still unshaken.

“Come on, bitch. Is that all you got?”

"Hey!" The referee shouted Divine's way and gave her a shove. "When I tell you to let up, you let up! Don't think I won't disqualify you in a heartbeat!""

"Right, right." Mariko just chuckled, not the least bit caring about the official's little threat. It was one of the big matches at a PPV, and she knew there would be hell to pay if things didn't come down even. The referee didn't have the guts to mess this match up and leave the crowd unsatisfied, and that worked just fine for Divine. So long as she wasn't crossing any big lines, she'd be fine.

Mariko's continued resistence was starting to piss her off, though. Divine had this under control. She was dominating. She was winning. But this bitch still had on a perfect little face, like she knew something everyone else didn't. Cockiness was a fine trait for Divine herself to have, but with everyone else - especially this little girl - it royally pissed her off. "For you, baby? Naw. I've got plenty left."

She strutted over and grabbed hold of Mariko's wrist, gripping it tight with both hands, then twisted around and sent her off to the other corner with an Irish Whip. Just like last time, Divine followed immediately after, only this time she had something a bit more potent in mind to follow up with.

As soon as Mariko hit the turnbuckle, Divine would get in close, swing around full circle, and hit her with a spinning heel kick, right in her pretty, smug, condescending face. Exactly what the bitch deserved.

Mariko was just as skeptical about the ref’s willingness to call for a disqualification as Divine was. Even if the rules called for it, this girl would have to have been nothing short of moronic to not let things play out on their own if at all possible. And besides, Mariko didn’t want a to win by disqualification. She wanted to break this bitch down until she was screaming and begging for mercy.

Her wrist was soon grabbed, and Mariko was sent running across the ring, before turning and grunting as her back struck against the turnbuckles. And as she did, she watched at the Valkyrie came in toward her. Right when her foe’s leg came swinging around at her, Mariko dropped down to her hands and knees, leaving Divine’s leg with nothing to hit but the top turnbuckle!

Divine practically skipped across the ring like a giggling schoolgirl on her way home, eagerly closing the distance on Mariko as she hit the turnbuckle. The move was perfect. Every muscle moved in the exact right way, she got a perfect arc, and her grin widened as she waited for brutality and beauty to come together. ”Incom-”

Divine squawked as she missed her target, kicking so high that her leg came over the top rope and bounced off. Her balance was completely shot, and all she could do was tumble to the floor as everything went spinning, winding up with her crashing on her shoulder.

Divine could hear Mako slapping her forehead from the other side of the ring. ”What the fuck?!”

Mariko avoided what could’ve been a catastrophe, and as a result Divine was sent crashing awkwardly down onto the mat. As much as she would’ve loved to take a moment to laugh and taunt the Brazilian, she also knew a beautiful opportunity was presenting itself to her, and she’d be a fool not to take it.

With a grunt Mariko pushed herself up and forward, quickly closing what little distance was between herself and Divine before grabbing her hair and yanking her back up. The ref probably wouldn’t like that too much, but Mariko wouldn’t be holding on for long. Just enough to get the Valkyrie back to her feet as quick as possible.

Once Divine was up, Mariko would quickly wrap one arm over the shoulder the girl had just crashed down on, while the other arm moved to hook one of her legs. “Incoming.” she’d say mockingly, before attempting to hoist Divine up and overhead with a deadly Exploder Suplex right into the corner turnbuckles!

Divine was in bad position, she knew she was in a bad position, but she was at a complete loss over what to do about it. She looked up as Mariko loomed over and tried to squirm away from her before she could close in, but she wasn't nearly fast enough. She thought she’d done a good enough job working the bitch over and banked on it slowing her down, but apparently not. Mariko was fueled on pure hatred.

"Shit!" She groaned as she was hauled up, still too stunned to put up much of a fight. Divine braced for impact, but she figured whatever it was wouldn't be too bad. Mariko was strong, but she wasn’t that strong.

Another thing Divine was wrong about, and she figured out just how wrong as she was sent flying through the air, courtesy of Mariko's deceptive strength. She hit the turnbuckle with resounding impact and gravity did the rest of the damage, dropping her right on her head. Divine laid there, folded up, with her legs above her hair and her butt sticking up as she groaned and muttered a string of curses in her native tongue.

No one was likely ever going to accuse Mariko of having super strength. Suplexes and power moves in general rarely found their way into her arsenal in her matches. But the good ol’ exploder suplex was not only one of the few she’d made a point of learning to use very efficiently, but also the same move that had set Divine up for defeat in their first match together. The difference this time was the addition of the turnbuckles, ensuring that lightning not only struck twice, but did so even more emphatically the second time around.

Mariko got up and looked at Divine, folded up and in pain. More than a few whistles and cat calls came in because of the Valkyrie’s awkward and unfortunate positioning, though Mariko didn’t seem to notice or care. A little bit of embarrassment wasn’t what she was going for tonight. Divine was hurting now, but soon she was going to wish she’d never been born. At least, if Mariko had anything to say about it.

Grabbing Divine by one of her ankles, she pulled back to roll her foe onto her front, then attempted to drag her out to the middle of the ring. Then without warning, Mariko would drop the leg and leap up as high as she could, before coming down and aiming to drive a double knee drop right into the center of Divine’s back!

As Divine laid there, matchbooked with her butt sticking in the air, she was glad that Stone had talked her out of wearing a thong this evening. She was, however, pissed at the Valkyrie's resident giant for laughing at her when she said she would beat Mariko in three minutes, so it all evened out.

'Fortunately', Mariko had no interest in letting her stay there for long. "Let go!" Divine kicked about as she was dragged across the ring, dug her nails into the mat and scratched away at it, but it was no use. The ropes were ever-so far away, now, and Divine knew her rival well enough to realize what that meant: Pain was coming. Severe pain.

The moment she was let go, Divne started to rapidly and rabidly crawl forward, like a wild animal trying to escape a snare, but she didn't get too far before the pain came down on her back like a ton of bricks. She couldn't see what Mariko did from her vantage point, but it was effective, whatever it was.

Divine yelped, her arms and legs flopped upwards, and then she came down to a muddled mess on the canvas, her head face down as her voice became a gutteral, muttered mess of Brazilian and English.