Julia Rogers vs. Valley Doll - Light Up the Sky

The possibility of Julia countering her move did occur to Valley. The possibility of getting sent flying out of the ring, however, did not occur to Valley, as was strongly evidenced by the way she reacted to the move.

The Slamazon went careening out of the ring, desperate grasping for the ropes and missing by a precious foot. it was a lucky break that she hadn’t opted to do this on a side of the ring with metal steps, because if she had, Valley would’ve certainly crashed into them.

Instead, she landed on her feet - not pleasant - and crashed on her back from there - also not pleasant. While it was a far cry from the worst case, she was left stumbling and stunned, groggily making her way back to her feet.

Alll the while, there was this little voice in the back of her head, warning her of impending doom.

Valley wasn’t the only one who sensed something big was up. Every fan in attendance who’d watched Julia’s match with Alaina at Avalanche recognized the positioning immediately, and murmurs started to spread through the crowd. It was as if thousands of people unanimously started asking each other, “Is she going to do what I think she’s going to do?”

As a matter of fact, yes she was. One peek over her shoulder was enough to tell the cowgirl what she needed to do next. Still a tad winded, she nonetheless hurried to the corner directly across from her and turned so she was staring down a straight path to the corner Valley was directly behind.

“Get up...” Julia muttered as she waited for juuuust the right moment. Once she could see the Slamazon starting to groggily stumble back up, the cowgirl took off in a dead sprint. And right when she was directly in front of the corner, Julia vaulted completely over it and flipped forward through the air, aiming to crash down onto Valley Doll outside the ring!

The voice in the back of Valley’s head was getting louder and louder. Faint at first, but as she began to rise up on the outside of the ring, shaking her head and groaning all the way, it was reaching critical mass. Her head was pounding…

Or maybe, just maybe, it was the roar of the crowd, almost - but not quite - loud enough to mask the sound of rapidly closing footsteps.

Valley looked up as the cries reached a crescendo, just in time to see Julia flying through the air with the greatest of ease. She looked soon enough to appreciate the way she pulled off the move, the big hangtime she’d gotten, the way she seemed to flawlessly flow through the air. Not soon enough to dodge it.

Julia crashed into the Slamazon and brought her down hard, leaving Valley spread out on the floor and feeling like she’d gotten hit with a cannonball, right in the chest.

Still. Valley could see the replay up on the big screen, as her scrunched up eyes roamed around. Slick move.

The crowd went wild as Julia crashed down onto the Slamazon and dropped her to the floor at ringside! The masked blonde immediately rolled off of Valley and pulled herself up to her feet while roaring out in a rush of adrenaline. “Hell yeah! That’s how we do it!” she shouted out, then took a few walking steps by the barricade and high fived a few fans in the front row as she passed them by.

But as much fun as that moment had been for Julia, she knew her work still wasn’t complete. She still had a bit of catching up to do. For the briefest of moments she considered wearing Valley down out here a bit more. Maybe throw her into the guardrail or something. But when their positions had been reversed several moments ago, Valley had taken the fight right back into the ring almost immediately.

Julia had to respect that. And to return the courtesy, she moved back over to Valley’s prone form and reached down to pull her up by a wrist, before attempting to drag the rival flier over to the side of the ring and roll her back in under the bottom rope.

So that was what it felt like to have someone leap out of a ring and crash into you at high speeds.

Even with all the pain, Valley couldn’t help but smirk as that thought ran through her head. It was a little weird, but off the top of her head, she couldn’t remember the last time someone did something like that to her. She was sure someone had at some point, she’d been in too many matches to avoid it completely, but damned if she couldn’t remember the exact instance. It had been a while.

The AFW really could be a great place, sometimes.

She had little time to ponder, though, as Julia went right back to business after she was done basking in the glory. Valley groaned as she was forced back into the ring, but didn’t offer much protest, instead choosing to save her energy for grabbing the ropes before she could roll too far.

She started pulling herself up. Not the easiest process, but leaning on the ropes made it easier, and at least it gave her some protection from whatever might come her way next.

As soon as she’d rolled Valley back into the ring, Julia hopped back up on the apron and pointed skyward. The simple pose drew a fresh, brief wave of cheers from the crowd, but it also signaled to them that the luchadora was not done flying.

“Coooome on...” the blonde muttered under her breath as she watched Valley going to pull herself up. Julia grabbed onto the top rope and crouched just a bit, then waited like a tiger in tall grass preparing to pounce.

Julia would wait until Valley was back to her feet, hopefully facing away, though she wasn’t going to be too picky about it right now. Regardless, once the Slamazon was up the cowgirl would leap up onto the top rope and use it to catapult herself through the air toward Valley! And while in midair, she’d twist her body and swing her right leg right at her rival’s head in an attempt to blast her with her signature Pistol Whip!

Julia was good. Very good. Valley knew that already, it was never in doubt, but as she was rolled back into the ring, she couldn't help but feel like the point was being hammered home. She was holding her own against the younger high-flyer, but she needed to do a little more than that to win. She had to make some serious gains.

Valley rolled into the ring and started to stand up, realizing that Julia wasn't around to lift her. That meant she was somewhere else, and with an opponent that could turn herself into a human cannonball at a moment’s notice, losing track of her was a definite bad thing.

Valley looked around, frantic. She had to focus, had to find her, had to-

”Oh.”

Valley locked on Julia, but by the time she did, it was a little too late - her boot was about a few inches away from her face. She took the Pistol Whip right on the nose, and the impact sent her body into a spiral, doing a full rotation before she crashed down hard on her back.

She blinked as stars danced across her vision, trying her best to regain some semblance of sense after a massive hit like that.

Julia may not’ve found the back of Valley’s head as she’d intended, but she still managed to hit one hell of a bullseye. The Pistol Whip didn’t just hit. It did so with about as intense of an impact as Julia had ever been able to get with it, and sent the Slamazon flipping backward!

Once again the crowd burst into cheers at the high flying display, and while Julia would’ve loved nothing more than to take in the moment, the time to celebrate hadn’t come yet. But it just might be drawing near.

The cowgirl’s body had dropped onto the mat after her boot had struck Valley, but she immediately pushed herself up and practically dove at the floored blonde to hook a leg and lay across her chest, hoping that might’ve been enough to take Valley out! And as she did so, the ref dropped down and slapped the mat to start a count.

“One...!”

Being a good, clean Catholic woman, Valley tried to keep her swearing down to a minimum, but she couldn't resist a little curse as she laid on the mat with her aching skull.

”Damn it…”

Pistol Whip. Should've seen it coming. She'd been scouting Julia’s moves, getting a good feel for her style, and she knew that move would be showing up sooner or later. She thought she’d be ready for it, had a counter in mind, but she was too dazed to act on it and the price was paid.

”2…!”

She’d have to slap herself later. There was still a match going on.

Valley threw her hands up just as the referee started to come down for the final count, getting her shoulders off the mat and beating it by less than half a second. ”Still got some fight in me, cowgirl.” She chuckled and turned over, rubbing her abused face.

Despite how tough Valley was, Julia was feeling fairly confident she might have the match won. She’d hit the same move with less force on people and managed to put them away with it in the past. Granted, that had been before she’d come to the big leagues here in AFW. But still, it didn’t seem crazy to think a kick like that might keep Valley down.

But...

“Ugh!” Julia grunted in a moment of mild frustration when Valley suddenly jolted her shoulders up, just barely managing to beat the count. Though when she heard Valley’s words, the cowgirl couldn’t help but grin just a bit.

“Yeah? Well lets find out how much.” she replied, then moved to throw a leg over Valley’s body and sit on her lower back. If she could get in position, Julia wanted to grab the Slamazon’s arms and pull them over her thighs, then cup her hands around the girl’s chin to apply a camel clutch! After all the flying she’d just done, locking the hold in could be a great way to let herself catch some breath while continuing to wear Valley down, or possibly even make her submit. She’d focused quite a bit on her foe’s midsection in this match, and a camel clutch would certainly add on significantly to those efforts.