Julia Rogers vs. Valley Doll - Light Up the Sky

Valley was notoriously flexible - both as a wrestler and, before that, a cheerleader, it was pretty much a required skills. Days spent on the mats and nights spent in the squared circle ensured that she could bend it with the best of them. Any direction you please, anyway you want.

That being said, there were people who believed that this flexibility made her all but immune to submission holds. These people were very much wrong, especially when the holds in question were deftly applied and effective. Like the one Julia was currently using.

Valley shook her head as Julia lifted her up into the brutal bow and arrow hold, keeping her up and pushing her taut waste to the sky as the rest of her body went in the opposite direction. There wasn’t much to be done, really - she was too far to the ropes to reach them, and even if she was closer, it wasn’t like she could do anything to pull herself over. She was stuck.

”Good...choice.” Valley squeezed her approval out through her gritted teeth, then went back to writhing.

“Heh. Don’t go complimentin’ me just yet.” Julia replied as she stretched Valley Doll’s back over her shins and knees. She had never considered herself much of a submission specialist, but she knew this was a great way to drain the Slamazon while also inflicting some serious pain on her torso. Julia’s last experience with the bow and arrow hold had been when Domino, now her boyfriend, had caught her in it in the opening minute or two of her debut match in AFW. He’d managed to hold Julia in this position for so long he nearly broke her back!

Of course, Julia had no intention of inflicting any permanent or severe injuries on Valley. But she did naturally want to get everything out of this hold that she could. The luchadora likely wouldn’t be able to hold her foe up like this all night, but every second in this hold should only prove to help Julia in the long run.

“Feel like tappin’ yet?” Julia asked. She was pretty sure she knew how Valley would answer, but it didn’t hurt to make sure.

If it wasn’t for the agonizing pain and the way her innards were currently being compressed, Valley might have laughed at Julia’s little suggestion. Now wasn’t the best time for it.

Valley bit her lips, holding back a few groans and moans that would otherwise be forthcoming. Julia had sunk in the classic hold well, and even if she didn’t get a submission with it, the damage the move would do could change the complexity of the match. Valley couldn’t afford it, either way. She had to get out. Soon. Very, very soon.

Luckily, she had an idea. A bit of a risky, tricky idea with only one real shot to make it work, but it would have to do.

Valley answered Julia, but not with a comeback - instead, she let the scream come out. If anything, she put a little more power into the yell than it naturally had, making it seem like the hold was really working her over. Julia might not buy it all the way, but Valley just needed a hint of authenticity.

"I...I..." The Slamazon extended her hand, shook it, looked like she was teasing a tap, maybe…

Then she reached up with her other hand and tried to tug the hold away from her chin with a swift pull, twisting her head away at the same time. It was a bit of a longshot, but if it worked, Valley would immediately roll over and flop on Julia’s chest, looking to score a surprise pinfall.

To suspect Valley Doll of all people to submit so soon was borderline ludicrous, considering just how flexible, tough and resilient she was. But then again, everyone had a breaking point. And if Julia kept her in the hold for too long, who knows? For a moment it actually seemed the cowgirl might’ve actually brought the Slamazon to that point! The scream may not’ve been entirely natural, though that detail had barely even gone noticed by Julia. Valley opened her mouth to speak and moved her hand out, and the luchadora watched in high anticipation along with the crowd! And then...

“Ugh!” Julia suddenly grunted when Valley instead came toppling down right onto her torso! With such a short fall the impact was far from painful, but Julia certainly hadn’t expected to find herself in a pinning predicament here.

“One! Two!” the ref counted before Julia grunted and shoved Valley off of her to stop the count right then and there. “Probably shoulda seen that comin’...” Julia muttered while quickly rolling onto her hands and knees to push herself back up again.

Up and over Valley went, plopping down on top of Julia like she’d just rolled over in bed. Hardly a hard-hitting, dynamic wrestling move, but that was the thing about wrestling - you never knew what would work and what wouldn’t in the right circumstance. She’d won matches off of crazier things.

”Two!

Her small, infintessimal hopes were dashed when Julia promptly kicked out. ”Yup, should’ve.” Not much of a retort, but it was all Valley had the time for as she rolled away, flopping about on her tortured back.

That back was the real problem - as much as she would’ve liked to just pop up and start kicking Julia around, she needed a moment to recuperate. Making her way to the ropes, Valley grabbed the middle one and used it for support, getting back to her feet as quick as she could, knowing that Julia would be coming her way with something big whether she was ready for it or not.

The fact that Valley wasn’t already up and dashing right at Julia again meant that the work she’d put into targeting the Slamazon’s back had not gone to waste. Seeing her foe writhe about and struggling her way over to the ropes was only further affirmation of that.

Popping up to her feet right as Valley was grabbing onto the ropes and starting to pull herself up, Julia moved forward to close the distance between them. And once her opponent was high enough up, Julia fired a quick roundhouse kick forth, aiming to blast Valley right in the head with her cowgirl boot!

As Valley made her way up, she looked out of the corner of her eyes and saw Julia coming her way. She was about to throw a kick.

Valley knew this, because Valley knew her kicks. One of the benefits of being able to throw so many of them was being able to recognize the telltale signs. The windup, the tensing muscles, the focus of Julia’s eyes. It all told Valley exactly what was about to happen, and how best to react to it.

She ducked.

It was simple as that.

The kick passed overhead, and Valley added to its momentum by giving Julia a push against her thigh, forcing her spin all the way around. Suddenly, for a brief moment, the cowgirl had her back facing the Slamazon. For a woman like Valley, that opened up a vast array of possibilities.

Valley jumped straight up and wrapped her legs around Julia’s head from behind, letting her slim thighs close around her rival’s neck. From there, she jerked back and brought her opponent’s head up and over with the rest of her body following close behind, dropping her upside down with an old favorite that she rarely got to pull out these days: the reverse frankensteiner.

A swing and a miss.

Julia’s potentially deadly kick found nothing but air and completely missed its target. But that was far from the worst of it, as the speedy cowgirl was about to find out. With some “assistance” from Valley, her leg continued to carry her body around in an involuntary spin. And the next thing she knew, her head was trapped between a pair of toned thighs. Not where she wanted to be at all, particularly because she had a good idea of where this was going, as the sudden widening of her eyes in that split second indicated.

But unlike Valley, Julia knew what was coming here, but lacked the necessary time to defend against it. So her body abruptly flipped backward as the Slamazon’s legs dragged her along for the ride, and her head suddenly came crashing onto the mat!

“Agh!” Julia cried out while the crowd roared in awe of Valley’s lightning-quick and acrobatic counterattack. Because they had already been by the ropes, it was easy for the floored luchadora to roll out to the floor where she slowly moved back to her feet and tried to recover, cradling her aching head as she did so.

Valley rolled back to her feet as the crowd cheered, then arched an eyebrow as their cheers got even louder. She was a bit confused, but then she turned around and saw what all the fuss was about: Julia was on the floor, at ringside, recovering from a hard blow and rising to her feet. In a match with two high-flyers, that was a magic moment waiting to happen.

Valley popped up and did a quick stretch, getting the aches out of her aching midsection. She stood to the side and hopped on her toes, waiting for Julia to get up just enough.

Almost.

Almost.

”Showtime.” Valley darted away from Julia and bounced off the ropes on the other side of the ring. She gained a little momentum, then did a quick cartwheel, whirling around and picking up even more speed. She came out of the tumble with her back to the ropes, and that was where all the building force paid off - Valley did a moonsault clear over the top rope, arching through the air and coming down on Julia with the legendary Sasuke Special!

In matchups like these, the ringside area was no safer a place than inside the ring. Risky but impactful dives out here were practically second nature to high flyers, which was one of the first things Julia had learned during her training in Mexico years ago. So she really should’ve seen what was coming. But the effects of the reverse frankensteiner had been too big of a distraction. And strangely enough, Julia hadn’t competed against anyone in AFW who had attempted such a tactic against her.

The noises in the crowd brought Julia’s focus back, but a moment too late. She looked up just in time to see an upside down Valley Doll come crashing right down onto her! “Ugh!” Julia cried out as her body was flattened under the descending Slamazon and smashed down onto the floor!

The impact was painful and further dazed the cowgirl. Yet somewhere in Julia’s mind, she was already looking forward to watching this match back after it was over. She unfortunately hadn’t seen the flawlessly-executed Sasuke Special. But she did hear the thunderous cheers that rained out in response. That was plenty to make Julia want to see what it was that had drawn such an explosive reaction from the crowd.