Black & White Catfight - Jaguar Negra vs Gato Blanco

Holly's comments bounced in one ear and out the other as Jaguar circled his prey. Didn't matter if she was technically right, he was playing the long game here. So far Jaguar had gauged that Blanco was legitimately more experienced in the way that he moved, the way that he reacted to Jaguar's movements and handled his holds. He also needed to remember that he was matched against a luchador, someone who would know all Jaguar's bag of lucha tricks and would be able to pick up on his tells. If he wanted to win, he needed to kick it up to 125%!

Cue his swift "pounce" as he kicked at Blanco's thigh. Sure enough, the other luchador pivoted to escape but the tip of Jaguar's foot still caught ground. Blanco wasn't slowed the least bit however, he turned his pivot into a full on spin. Jaguar's instincts brought his guard up as he bent his knees, that kind of spin meant a counter!

Blanco's spin kick aimed high at Jaguar's head and his guard was ready to intercept. His forearm deflected Blanco's upper shin and absorbed part of the force, but from a standing position the momentum was too great to stop point blank. Blanco's kick carried through with reduced but not insignificant force into the side of Jaguar's head.

PWHAM! The kick knocked Jaguar's head to the side and he swore he could feel his brain rattling around inside his skull. With the momentum transferred he stumbled a few steps to the side before falling to one knee. He clutched the side of his head with one hand and shut his eyes tight; all his senses were all jumbled. With his head dizzy, vision part wobbly, and the ringing in his ears all ganging up on him, his ability to focus on pushing down the pain was moot.

Until he cleared his head, he wasn't going anywhere.

Blanco's boot found its mark with a palpable hit, drawing a low, approving rumble through the audience. Blanco was impressed that the young man had thrown up his guard in time to catch some of the strike, even if he didn't block it all. The kid had the speed, and knew what he was doing. There was no way that Blanco was going to be taking it easy, tonight, a thought that got him grinning beneath his mask. Even if the Jaguar hadn't quite built up as much of a legacy behind his mask quite yet, Blanco got the feeling the kid was good enough that doing so wouldn't take long. And if Blanco wasn't careful, it could very well be built off of breaking Gato Blanco, right in this very ring!

Backing up quickly as Jaguar reeled from the blow, Blanco decided this was a chance to start upping the pace. Charging in, Blanco came toward Jaguar and dropped suddenly, as he was coming past him. Hooking the young man over the back of his head with his arm, Blanco dropped enough to start sliding. Following through with the slide, Blanco would try to slam the Jaguar's head into the mat with a sliding DDT, a move that would hopefully stun the Jaguar for a moment, and show the fans some of the most fast-paced and adaptive maneuvers in the lucha lexicon.

At ringside, Holly was ecstatic at seeing the move come out. Throwing her arms up, jumping up and down, she turned to the crowd and started motioning for them to get excited. Some of them did, clapping louder as Blanco picked up the pace. With any luck, Holly hoped, she'd help get the two men in the ring a proper, lucha-style crowd to feed off of, before too much longer!

There was little in the vein of preparation that Jaguar could do to defend himself at the moment. He knew that any regular wrestler would be capitalizing on this soon, so the best he could do was steel himself. Blanco came into view soon enough, sliding past Jaguar as he grappled the back of his head and delivering him immediately face-first into the mat.

BOOM! The crowd's energy boosted with Blanco's clean execution and Holly's enthusiastic rallying cries, resulting in a notable increase in the arena's noise level. They were responding well to the unfamiliar yet exciting style of wrestling the luchadors were exhibiting, yet as a whole seemed still unconvinced of it's value.

Meanwhile Jaguar would groan in pain as he picked his face up from the mat. He shook his head side to side to clear the cobwebs from his mind, and raised a hand to realign his mask just right. Rather than put on the macho routine and force himself to his feet before he was ready, he'd make pitiful false attempts to raise himself until the stunning effects had passed. If he had Blanco pegged right, the older luchador was likely to pull Jaguar to his feet and try setting up another move to energize the audience, not stomp or attack with a ground move. In that case, he'd bide his time and wait for an opening.

Blanco smiled, the crowd coming alive exaclty the way he'd hoped for the fast-paced move. Holly's ringside cheerleading was certainly helping with that, too- a welcome change from the atmosphere of her usual matches, certainly. And, to be sure, everyone else in the arena seemed to be turning around appreciating it, too.

Blanco returned his attention to Jaguar, still laid out in the middle of the mat. He watched the young man readjust his mask, struggle to lift his hands, but remain laid out on the mat. In another, more bitter situation, Blanco would have laid on the punishment with a diving attack here. This being an exhibition, however, he had other plans.

Reaching down, Blanco grasped both ankles of the Jaguar, twisting one over the other as he lifted the young man's legs up. Not thinking of what the young fighter might have in mind, Blanco twisted his legs around and upward, and aimed a knee drop right at the small of Jaguar's back. If the Jaguar had a counter-move in mind, Blanco would have stumbled right into it. Otherwise, the luchador would be wearing the young man down with an unorthodox submission move, one of the sort that exemplified the unique approaches of lucha libre.

Jaguar bided his time as he continued to play the wounded warrior card, paying extra attention to his sense of hearing and touch to gauge Blanco's approach and how much time he had left. He still wasn't sure exactly what he was going to do yet, it would all come down to where and how Blanco came at him.

His concerns were addressed when the older luchador grasped at his ankles, crossing one over the other likely for another leverage-based move like a boston crab. To answer this, Jaguar reacted by rolling himself the opposite direction to untwist his legs and getting himself onto his back. From this position, he would perform another kip-up like action, but with a twist! Blanco's grip had lined Jaguar's legs up with his waist, so the kip-up would serve to thrust his legs on either side of Blanco's torso and allow him to clamp down like a bodyscissor grapple.

"Hragghh!" Jaguar grunted with exertion as he used his lower body strength to sit fully up and elevate himself above Blanco's head. From there he'd quickly move his right bicep behind Blanco's neck and loop his forearm around the side and under the man's neck. His left arm would then grab his own wrist and together they'd pull Blanco's head down to complete a mounted front facelock.

Unorthodox was hardly an apt word to describe Jaguar's cross between using a bodyscissors as a mount to secure a front facelock. He knew he was leaving himself wide open for an easy powerbomb, so to confront that weakness he would jerk Blanco's head and lean back as much as he could. Blanco would be forced to contend with the sudden forward deadweight, and if he didn't compensate in time, the move would possibly transition into quite the innovative lead in to a DDT.

Focused on trying to lock in the submission hold, Blanco was taken off-guard by the Jaguar lunging at him, catching him with speed and ferocity. There was a moment of struggle, as the Jaguar got himself into position, but with his dedication, the young man's hold was somewhat inevitable. Blanco was impressed, even as he face was compressed uncomfortably into Jaguar's body. The young luchador was certainly not taking things too easy, or relying on conventional moves!

Blanco was able to support the young man's weight without much problem, but the front facelock had him trapped. Moving back, Blanco would have tried to rush Jaguar into a corner post, but the black-masked luchador wasn't going to give him the chance. In a flash, Blanco was slammed into the mat with- ironically enough- a sharp DDT! "EEK!" Holly squealed, hands clasped over her chest. The crowd popped for the unexpected counter, the sudden shift in the match.

Hitting the mat, Blanco rolled out of Jaguar Negra's grip, and flopped flat on his back, onto the mat. Head aching, the veteran luchador was still able to appreciate Jaguar's cleverness, with the counter. Legs and arms spread eagle, he let his head lull from side to side for a moment while he tried to recover. At ringside, he could see Holly leaning over the apron, watching intensely. Blanco would use her reaction as a guage; when she flinched, would be when the Jaguar was getting ready to pounce again. And when he did so, Blanco would be ready, hoping to get his legs up in time to catch the Jaguar in a staple of classic lucha libre, the mat headscissor takedown, which would hopefully send him tumbling away, a bit.

BOOM! Jaguar's weight combined with his quick yanking of Blanco's head was enough to topple the older luchador off balance and straight onto his face. Jaguar threw his fist in the air in triumph as the crowd roared for his achievement, feeling quite smug that he got Blanco right back with the same move. His instincts told him now was not the right time to showboat and gloat, he had more work to do on Blanco!

Jaguar rose up and sat on his haunches while he assessed Blanco's true condition. With the ferocity of his mask he looked very much like a predatory about to toy with its prey in comparison to Blanco laying spread out on his back. Jaguar slapped his thighs as he got up and strolled over to Blanco, bending over and stretching out his arm to grab the back of the man's mask. Just as Jaguar had been ready for Blanco, Blanco was ready for him and threw his legs up! Jaguar caught Blanco's legs around his head, but at that point the headscissors had been established and the move set into action.

Blanco's headscissors controlled Jaguar's body and flipped him to the mat near Blanco, though Jaguar took advantage of the momentum to roll and lessen the takedown's effectiveness. A tinge of slight embarrassment ran down his spine as he realized he had fallen for one of the classics, though his recovery and the knowledge that the audience likely wouldn't know the difference comforted his ego somewhat.

After finishing his roll, Jaguar immediately popped back up to a crouch and then up to his feet with arms outstretched and ready. He took a quick mental note that his back was now turned to Holly and made sure not to step too closely to that corner, juuuuuust in case. Back home, he'd gotten burned one too many times for that kind of mistake.

"Heh...heh....not bad....for an old cat" Jaguar taunted as he focused on slowing his breathing. He knew that Blanco was barely in his 30's, but on occasion that kind of taunt worked on guys of that age range. Blanco would be recovering any second now, and when he did finally get to his feet, Jaguar would "pounce" on him yet again!

This time Jaguar would throw himself back into the ropes and slingshot himself at higher speed towards his white-masked opponent. He'd slug an arm out and tighten his biceps to make his clothesline attempt hard as possible!

Blanco shook the cobwebs out of his head, after sending Jaguar down to the mat. He knew the kid would be right back up after that one, the headscissor being a more transitional move, but it did its job in keeping him from getting caught up in something more painful. Taking in a deep breath, Blanco kipped back up to his feet. Holly clapped enthusiastically at that, having been left in wide-eyed fear of the fiercely-masked Jaguar's stalking of her man. Between her explosion of enthusiasm, and the steady back-and-forth happening in the ring, the crowd was getting behind things, too. At least for the moment.

Blanco wasn't surprised to see the Jaguar back on his feet, staring him down. He grinned, even through Jaguar's taunting, simply glad that he was getting to give a demonstration of lucha libre with an able opponent. So, when Jaguar got straight into a running clothesline, Blanco knew he couldn't spare a moment.

Ducking low, Blanco rolled under the clothesline with a somersault, a move that covered a lot of ground and brought him closer to the ring ropes. Coming out of the roll, Blanco used the momentum he'd built to spring up, jumping so that his feet would land on the bottom rope, and his hands grabbing the top rope for stability.

Looking behind him, the luchador tried to keep an eye on Jaguar's movements, waiting to see if or when the fierce rookie would stop his run. If Jaguar stopped after missing the clothesline, he would still be in range for Blanco's next move: springboarding off of the ropes, Blanco flipped through the air with his arms and legs spread in perfect balance to come crashing into the younger man with a moonsault, an impressive high-speed takedown. If Jaguar wasn't in position, however, Blanco would come off the dive onto his feet, turning on his heels to face Jaguar like he had in countless matches before, prepared to keep the movement going and ready to keep dodging whatever the man in the fierce black mask might throw at him, next.

Jaguar's arm sailed passed the ducking Blanco and hit nothing but air thanks to the quick-thinking somersault. He took the failed attempt in stride, quite literally, pivoting on his far foot and swinging himself around. The abrupt stopped shaved off a good deal of his speed, but true to his name Jaguar had no trouble re-starting his sprint.

While this was happening, Blanco had popped up from his somersault and was balanced on the ropes. He used their elasticity to vault himself and caught impressive air as he twisted his body just right for a moonsplash. Jaguar's response was definitely risky, but he felt it a better choice than trying to fight 180lbs of falling mass.

Jaguar jerked himself sideways and threw his arms out, trying to match the angle at which Blanco would hit him. He aimed to briefly catch the older luchador, one arm round the shoulder and one between the legs, and use Blanco's pre-existing speed and momentum to complete the man's rotation and slam him hard onto his back.

He'd be damned if he let Blanco break away this time, Jaguar felt cocky enough to loop his arm behind Blanco's left knee and roll his back over the man's chest to attempt a pin!

The referee dropped down to the mat beside the fierce competitors, their hand rapidly heading to slap the mat for the ONE! count.

"HHHGN!" Blanco grunted, as his body landed hard across Jaguar's shoulders. Apparently, the young luchador was considerably stronger than he looked- where Blanco had expected to either land across him, or onto the mat, he was instead met with a catch that put him in a fireman's carry position, splayed out helplessly across the Jaguar's shoulders!

The crowd gasped at the dramatic catch, every voice in the arena rising, sounding quite impressed. Every voice, that is, except Holly's. "Oooh!" She gasped, approaching the ring apron again, a single hand clasped over her chest in shock. "No! NonoNO!"

Before Blanco could do anything about the positioning, however, Jaguar slammed him into the mat and drove the wind right out of him. "Gahh!" the luchador grunted, as he hit the ground. In a flash, the Jaguar had the leg hooked, and had him pinned down against the mat. At ringside, Holly was white-knuckling the bottom rope, chewing her lip, desperately praying that Blanco would kick out of the ring-trembling slam he'd just endured.

"TWO!"

Gritting his teeth, Blanco rolled his weight up onto his shoulders, lifting his legs into the air. And while that might have been counter-intuitive, on the surface, it was extra leverage that Blanco was then able to use to rock his shoulder up, out of the pin. Rolling over to his side, Blanco would breathe heavily for a minute, gathering his strength, leaving Jaguar Negra in control.