Ryuunosuke Tachibana vs. Armando 'Army' Rodriguez - Slobberknocker

Match Type: Standard
Victory Conditions: Pinfall, Submission, or KO


Army stood on top of the entrance ramp as his music boomed and the crowd cheered. Cheering. For him. Radical new concept, and he was still having a tough time processing it, especially when he remembered the rough start he had in Tension. He'd come a long way from getting bored looks at best and strong boos at worst, and a lot of it had to do with his matches since the year started. Solid wins against Mileena and his girlfriend, Amy. Taking on heavy hitters like Hana Fujioka and Rebecca Tomko were a good way to put his name on the map, even though he didn't win. Tonight he was looking to keep that trend going, and put another notch in the W column before the year closed out.

"Yeah..." He smirked and rubbed his palms together and looked out to the crowd, standing tall and proud with his red and black boxing gear on. His boots were tied tight and his fists were tapped, more ready for action.  "This crowd's feeling me. Lo amo." He spoke to the camera as it neared him, getting a good view from the side as he bounced on his heels. "Let's do this, Tokyo. Vamanos!"

He took off to the ring in a full sprint and slid in under the ropes, letting the momentum carry him all the way to the center of the ring. "Get up! Get loud!" He ran over to the turnbuckle and hopped up on the middle rope, looking to get a little energy back from the crowd as he pumped his fist out towards. They cheered back, even got a few screams from the ladies. Always nice.

Army jumped down as his music began to lower, and he took up his position in the far corner of the ring. He looked over to the entrance over his shoulder, trying not to look concerned. He wasn't, really...well, not too much. He was in for a straight match tonight, taking on some new guy - Ryuunosuke. Army wasn't usually down for researching his opponents, but from what he heard, it wouldn't matter, since no one seemed to know anything about the guy. All that they said was that he and some friends of his had made a little noise earlier, calling out the UKE. Army didn't know about it, didn't care. This was wrestling, shit-talking came with the territory, nothing new.

Oh, they also said that Ryuunosuke was big. Real big. As big as Army. Maybe bigger. Management wanted to see how well he took on another guy before they gave him shots at the ladies, and Army was all too willing to be a guinea pig. It had been way too long since he tangled with a guy his own size, and he was hoping a good brawl might remind him of home...

Ryuunosuke watched Army's entrance backstage from the TV mounted on his dressing/locker room wall, making mental notes about the way he moved and carried himself. He was accompanied by his teammates of course; Hikaru Matsuoka also known as the Wild Wolf behind him massaging his shoulders and trying to relax him, and Mitsuru "Izanami" Satou their leader, giving him a succinct summary of her investigation into Armando 'Army' Rodriguez. He was 22 years old, six feet tall and two-hundred two pounds hailing from Puerto Rico. Younger brother to Carmen Rodriguez, the current Tension 24/7 champion. Has a background in boxing and his strategy focuses on being the powerhouse in the ring.

Mitsuru continues on rattling off details about Army, but Ryuu starts to tune her out as he watches Army on the screen. They'd already gone over these details every day since they'd scheduled him as the first to debut from S.E.M.E., and he'd long since memorized them. They were fairly similar in terms of height and weight, but Army seemed to have more muscle mass. He'd sparred with boxers in the past, and the worst thing you could do was underestimate or misjudge their weakest point. You let your guard down for even a second and they could put you out with a single, well-placed punch.

Hikaru finished the massage and slapped Ryuu on the back heartily, bringing Ryuu's focus back to the room. It was time. Ryuu had no personal theme music selected yet, so they had defaulted to using S.E.M.E.'s music, a hard rock adaptation of the national anthem. Ryuu walked out on stage flanked by his teammates, stopping for a moment so the three of them could pose for cameras. For tonight's appearance he had chosen to go shirtless with sleek black pants with subtle teal accents at the seams and stitching. Like the others in his team, he also wore an eccentric, large furry coat, though his was simply black through and through.

Ryuu alone proceeded down to the ring, stripping off his coat and leaving it with Hikaru and Mitsuru staying behind at the top of the ramp. leaving his teammates standing at the top of the ramp as he headed for the ring. His face was stoic and serious, and perhaps a bit sour as he climbed into the ring, locking eyes with Army unfazed.

Most wrestlers had a pre-match trash talk, but that didn't interest Ryuu. Instead he held his hand out for a handshake in good faith. In a normal handshake, people held their hands up and down in a sign of equality. However, in this handshake Ryuu's palms faced downwards and the back of his hand towards the ceiling, a subtle but clear show of dominance. His lips pursed upwards into a small smile, almost unnoticeable.

Oh, yeah. Army was against a big one.

He was a little worried at first, when the guy came out with two other people - some hot chick and a guy who looked straight out of a manga - but the worries went away when it was clear that Ryu wasn't coming down with them. He was a bit curious who they were and why the crowd already seemed weary of them, but as long as they weren't at ringside, it didn't much matter. Army was getting his brawl.

He sized the guy up, head to toe, as he stepped into the ring and they faced off. Similar body types, though Army thought he had a slight size advantage. If he did, it was close enough that it probably wouldn't make too much of a difference overall. Army was smiling wide and looking cocky, the exact opposite of Ryu's way-too-serious face, more than eager to get this thing started.

He paused, though, when Ryu extended his hand for a crooked handshake. Army canted his head to the side, not sure what to make of it. After a moment he shrugged and just dropped his own hand on top of it, hitting him with a weird sort of fist bump and knocking their knuckles together. "There you go."

His smile returned as he bounced back and the referee - one of the few male refs on the AFW payroll - came in between them. Army glanced between Ryu and the ramp, where his friends were looking on. "Who're your buddies?"

Rather than a handshake, Ryuu got something like a fistbump from his opponent. He let out a bemused 'hmphh', the handshake was moreso for his opponent's sake anyway. Ryuu's hands returned to his waist as he stepped back for the referee. Army asked him about his friends, and Ryuu glanced sideways at them. He nodded to them and they nodded back, before turning to head backstage out of view. "Teammates" Ryuu answered gruffly as he turned back to face Army. His face had dropped the small smile and gone back to the serious look, suggesting he wasn't likely to give much more of an explanation for the time being.

Ryuu cracked his knuckles and took a deep, calming breath once the referee had confirmed his readiness. Army's features were quite handsome and his demeanor was cocky for a boxer, but Ryuu took interest in his face and particularly his nose. Boxers that Ryuu had met usually had had their noses broken enough to make them crooked, but Army's seemed fine. Either he was pretty good at his sport, or he'd had reconstructive surgery, and Ryuu was going to bet on the former to be safe.

After confirming Army's readiness, the referee nodded and threw up his hand to sound for the bell. It clanged loudly three times and the crowd erupted into cheers of excitement. Ryuu settled into a grappler's stance, head low and arms outstretched as he circled clockwise. He knew he wasn't going to be able to outdo Army punch for punch, his military training was more focused on self-defense than a boxer's powerful arsenal.

In the vast majority of the taped matches Ryuu had seen, Army's opponents had been women smaller than him. Before Ryuu launched an assault of his own, he wanted to see how Army would take on a man his own size.

The bell rang and the referee wisely got the hell out of the way, giving the two bruisers some space to move. From the looks of things, Ryuu was the sort of guy who played things safe and slow. Classic grappling stance, curious eyes, slow pace as he moved around the ring. Army could tell, this was far from the first time he'd been in a ring. MMA, he guessed. Looked like a guy who'd been at this for a good, long while, and he had the age advantage over Army, too.

Army thought about that for all of two seconds, then decided it didn't matter. He wanted to play it slow? Too bad. That wasn't the Puerto Rican Bomber's style.

After the moment passed, he charged forward at full speed and plowed straight into Ryuu, looking to force him into a collar and elbow lock up right from the start. Carmen would be warning him if she were here, telling him to take it slow and feel this guy out before he committed to anything, but she wasn't here - this was all him, today, and he was in the mood for some ruthless aggression. "Get back!"

To say that Army started off rough would be an understatement. The big Puerto Rican plows into Ryuu and locks up, making Ryuu's heels skid backwards a few steps before he can stop him. Ryuu lock's eyes as well as bulging arms as he brings his backwards movement to a stop, his legs straining as he finds good footholds to push back. Army was just as strong as he looked, perhaps a bit more so, but what had piqued his interest the most was that he had adapted to Ryuu's stance for grappling rather than sticking with boxing.

Well if Army wanted a test of strength, Ryuu was going to oblige. He grit his teeth as he started pushing back with full strength, the two of them like bulls with interlocked horns going at it. Ryuu was already shifting through pre-made strategies in his head, ruling out ones that favored a smaller or weaker opponent. He also bet that Army could take quite the beating and still keep swinging, which meant he either had to beat the guy senseless, or systematically target a weak point. Army shouts at him though, and Ryuu piques a singly brow up, wondering if it's directed at him or meant to amp the crowd up.

Either way, as the first member of S.E.M.E. to debut in Tension, it's up to Ryuu to make a strong first impression. With a grunt of effort, he tries to get lower and up under Army's center of gravity. He throws his weight and shoves up, trying to knock Army off balance and possibly down if he's lucky enough.

The crowd roared and Army roared along with them, as he started to push Ryuu back and back and back gaining some good ground at the start of the match. No doubt, the guy was a little taken off guard, not expecting a rush from the start, but a lot of it came down to Army's power, too. He only got so far before things were brought to a grind halt, but the damge was done - Ryuu's back was a lot closer to the ropes than Army's.

"Yeah..." Army snorted and grunted and cursed under his breath as he kept on pushing, clasing muscle against muscle. Just a little more to the side, a little more effort from the legs, and he was sure he could knock this guy flat on his ass, and-

And then, just like magic, Army was on his back.

He sat up an instant after he hit, looking up at Ryuu with confusion on his face. What was that? Did he trip? Didn't feel like he'd lost his footing. The guy just surged, and...BAM. Army was down. "...the fuck?"

He sneered and rolled back, popping up to his feet in a smooth, quick motion and ignoring a few snickers in the crowd. Without another second wasted, he went right back on the offense and plowed straight into Ryuu, looking to try the collar and elbow once again. This time, he wouldn't be going down.

Ryuu succeeded in upsetting Army and causing the big man to take a tumble. It wasn't nearly enough to keep him down for long, but it had made an impression. Everyone here knew who Army was, how strong and indomitable he could be, and Ryuu had knocked him flat on his ass in less than 30 seconds.

Ryuu rested his hands lightly on his hips like it was no big deal, even smirking the tiniest bit as he kept his eyes locked on Army. His smug look and the look of pure confusion on Arm's face only further cemented their impressions of Ryuu, and hopefully what the rest of S.E.M.E. would be like.

Ryuu springs back into a ready stance when he sees Army pop right back up, with even more fire in him than before. He comes charging at Ryuu again, looking like he's gonna lock up again. But rather than play into Army's intentions, Ryuu has plans of his own. He catches Army's wrist and tugs, using Army's momentum against him as he pulls him down into a tight side headlock. This of course also means that Army's shoulder plows into his abs, again skidding him back a bit, but it's worth the transition potential.

Ryuu knows that he's been forced closer and closer to the ropes, limiting the amount of space he had to work with comparative to Army. He's not sure what the Puerto Rican has planned, but Ryuu doesn't intend to let him get that far. As he squeezes on the meaty head and neck, Ryuu tries working Army to the side, enough to reverse their positions if he can.

Was that...smugness on Ryuu's face? It was. The fucker was giving him a smug look, like he'd just won the fight after a lucky little push. For a guy who hadn't even said two words since they met, he was doing a remarkable job of pissing Army right off.

Fine. Okay. Army saw how it was. When Ryuu was on his back, looking up at the lights and trying to figure out what train had hit him, that smug look would be long gone.

That might not be happening soon, though. Army found himself getting pulled right into a headlock, cinched nice and tight - this guy didn't seem all that interested in testing strength anymore, moving right onto the wrestling holds. Army's suspicions about him were looking to be dead on - he held the hold like a real champ, kept Army controlled throughout, limited his movements. The next thing he knew, Army's back was in a corner, and the hold was locked in tighter than ever.

Army still had two free hands, though, and he intend to use them as best as he could. The position was a little awkward, but he lifted up and tried to ram both his fists into Ryuu's side in rapid succession, seeing if a couple of hooks would convince him to let go.

Ryuu grunts as he struggles to keep Army locked in, slowly re-positioning so that he had Army against the ropes instead. As predicted, Army decided to start swinging when his back was to the wall, nailing Ryuu into the sides. Most fighters threw shitty punches in a position like this, but Army still found a decent angle to make his efforts worth it.

Each strike Army landed stung, but they were endurable for the moment if only because of the angle. Ryuu doubted he could take very many properly thrown punches from his opponent, so it was better not to give him that opportunity. It also confirmed his theory that Army would turn back to his boxing training when pressured, rather than trying to grapple. A big guy like him could try grabbing the backs of Ryuu's knees, maybe even turn the tables and unseat him if he was lucky. But before those kinds of ideas dawned on him, Ryuu wanted to give him something else to think about.

Licking the inside of his bottom lip, Ryuu tugged on the side headlock one last time to show Army who was boss. He flexed his arms as he tugged and spun his body, tossing Army down to his back on the mat with a hip toss. Ryuu followed through with the takedown, trying to throw a leg across Army and take a mount. If successful, he was going for a ground and pound.