Black & White Catfight - Jaguar Negra vs Gato Blanco

All meaning of time seemed to go out the window as Jaguar panted, keeping his grip firm on Blanco's leg. ONE! the referee called and Jaguar redoubled his concentration. He fully expected Blanco to be kicking out before the second count, but when there was little change in his resistance and TWO! was shouted, Jaguar felt his heart skip a beat. Could he really put Blanco away here and now, so early into their match? If the possibility was there, then Jaguar was determined to take it!

He grunted and pushed his feet into the mat to slid himself that little bit extra for the cover, but his efforts were met with a newfound vigor from the pinned luchador. He felt Blanco suddenly scrunch his legs up, giving himself enough leverage to unseat his shoulder for long enough to officially break the pin.

Jaguar got to his knees while Blanco rolled onto his side, both men were breathing pretty quickly at the moment. Jaguar had worked up a fine sheen of shimmery sweat, and his face was even warmer thanks to the mask. He huffed as moved over to straddle Blanco's back to get into position, one foot planted and the other resting his knee on the mat. He slipped his right arm under Blanco's right armpit and then pulled back to get a grip behind his neck. Jaguar's free left then reached in front of Blanco and grabbed Blanco's right and pulled it back across the masked man's face. The cobra clutch was completed when jaguar locked his hand to his wrist behind Blanco's neck. Normally this move was performed on a standing opponent, but Jaguar had the benefit of applying on Blanco who was practically laying on his chest. This meant that the more Jaguar pulled back on the cobra clutch, it would not only enhance the move itself but create added pain in the older luchador's back.

"Grahhh, give in and tap, Gatito" Jaguar grunted through his taunt as he gritted his teeth with exertion. He glanced up to see Holly practically beside herself with worry, and while he wasn't 100% certain the relationship between her and Blanco, it still gave him a wicked little idea. Jaguar decided to blow her a mock kiss and a wink as he cranked on the cobra clutch to see if he could get Blanco to shout at the same time.

With the pin break, a murmer went through the crowd. The pin was a surprise, and the possibility of it ending the match would have been an absolute shock. Holly's chest heaved as she breathed a sigh of relief, hand over her heart, relief washing over her. That relief was going to be short-lived, unfortunately.

Kicking out, Blanco got up into a seated position. Again, the kid was fast, and the flow of the match was pretty quick. The aggression was definitely ticking up, a notch, and Blanco was going to have to take things up a gear, in order to keep up. Turning out to get up, however, he was cut off quickly by the Jaguar, catching his arms and twisting him into a brutal anaconda vice!

"Ghhhaah!" he moaned, as the hold cut off his air and put incredible pressure on his neck and spine. The hold itself was a brutal one, not something to try and ride out, or wait for an opening. It was vital to make an opening, or the match was going to end a lot faster than anticipated.

"Come on, mister!" Holly cried out, open hands pounding on the apron, her entire body bouncing as she tried to rouse her man to action. Blanco clenched his teeth, and focused entirely on his legs. With quick, sharp movements, the white-masked luchador swung hard and fast shots, slamming his knee into the back of Jaguar's head. Gritting his teeth and relying on veteran toughness, Blanco put his energy into pounding away with the knee strikes, trying to soften the Jaguar up until he could catch the young man in another leg scissor. A standard, but a classic, the move would hopefully twist him right off, forcing a break from the hold and moving the match in a new direction.

Cheeky as he was being, Jaguars taunts seemed to have little effect on Blanco's psyche. Perhaps he was too experienced or too level-headed to fall for such silly low-level taunts, but one thing was for sure; the moves were definitely working. Jaguar jerked his arms back when Blanco shouted in pain, intending on making this predicament that much worse for his opponent.

Perhaps sensing the danger of succumbing to this move for too long, Blanco tensed up and began a frantic, yet controlled fight to escape. Stars exploded across Jaguars vision as Blanco's knee rocketed into the back of his head, causing him to lurch forward slightly and his grip to falter briefly. The younger luchador was quick to recover, shaking his head out and reclaiming his grip right away to prevent escape. The next knee drilled into Jaguar's back, lurching him forward again and causing a rebound that made him sit up further than he previously been.

"Hngahh" Jaguar grunted as another knee blasted into the back of his head, making him dizzy this time and prone enough for Blanco to captalize on. The white-masked mans legs looped up and caught Jaguar again, tearing him away from his position and breaking the hold. It looked like he briefly rag dolled as Blanco's legs forced him away, and after completion he seemed immobile as he struggled to clear his head and his vision.

The knee-strikes did exactly what Blanco expected them to, rocking again and again off of the Jaguar's skull. Not forcing him to break the hold, but effectively getting the younger luchador into position so that Blanco could catch him in the leg scissor, and pull him hard, forcing him to break that punishing anaconda vice. The white-masked man flexed his legs, closing off the air to the Jaguar. The young man still had a hell of a lot of fight left in him, after the initial stages of the match. His speed, vigour and ferocity did a lot to impress Blanco, thus far, and it was time for the veteran luchador to start seeing what he could do about that.

At ringside, Holly let out a loud cheer, both arms rising over her head, Back arching as she let out a cheer. Any pretense of impartially cheering on the match itself was out the window, as she showed her full bias. Still, many in the crowd were getting behind both men, as the catch-as-catch-can transitions got more and more impactful. Blanco himself was appreciating it, as he mapped out his next set of moves.

Rolling onto his back, Blanco kept the Jaguar's head trapped in the leg scissor. The movement lifted the Jaguar upward, bringing the stunned young man up off the mat. Blanco reached out, grasped the Jaguar's wrist, and released the leg hold. Immediately kicking his legs behind him and rolling outward onto his belly, Blanco snapped Jaguar's fiercely-masked face hard into the mat with an arm drag facebuster that rocked the Jaguar's face right against the mat. The crowd popped for the transition, but Blanco was hardly done. Keeping hold of the Jaguar's wrist, Blanco would then kick a leg up and over his downed opponent, pulling up the arm as if he was going for an armbar. Instead of locking in a submission, however, Blanco rolled Jaguar up and over, flipping them both, and slamming his shoulders into the mat. Catching his other arm with his leg, Blanco locked in a double-chickenwing cradle pin. At ringside, Holly rushed the apron, excitedly raising a finger along with the ref's count.

"ONE!" Came the call, as Blanco pressed the Jaguar against the mat.

Jaguar's hands gripped tightly on Blanco's pants as he wrenched the young luchador back and wrested control of the situation once more. The squeeze of his legs started to cut into Jaguar's neck and cause a burning in his throat as air supply became limited. To combat this he forced himself to breath in through his nose and exhale from his mouth, that way he didn't waste oxygen with hyperventilation. Up he went as Blanco raised the scissors and Jaguar's body was forced to follow.

Suddenly his head was released and Jaguar pushed off with both feet to try to get away in the moment, but the more experienced Blanco was simply setting him up. His wrist was caught and through clever knowledge of leverage and positioning, Blanco slammed him face first into the mat with enough force to shake the ring itself. Jaguar was all but collapsed on his face following this, in a groggy state of half-consciousness where the match seemed miles away.

Jaguar offered no great resistance as Blanco continued to use his wrist to control him, flipping him over and slamming his shoulders to the mat with a mild groan. His fingers curled into fists as he reflexively tried to stretch his arms, finding that one and then suddenly both were being held firmly behind his back. His neck was craned uncomfortably to his chest and his lower half in the air as Blanco secured his crucifix pin, leading both the referee and the ecstatic ringside Holly to start counting him out together.

”ONE” the ref called and Jaguar’s legs kicked on instinct. However not enough force was generated to break his shoulders away from the mat, and the count continued. Kicking out from this kind of pin was difficult, especially considering that even his arms were unable to give him much support to work with.

”TWO!” the referee shouted and fans in the arena went wild with cheer and nervous excitement. Doubtlessly those at home were likewise glued to their screens as they watched Blanco hold his opponent through the second count, wondering if there was enough life left in the young Jaguar after that nasty facebuster.

Already the referee’s hand was racing towards the mat for the third and final count, but a combination of surging pride and desperation rose up within Jaguar that enabled him one last attempt at breaking this pin. Jaguar used the one last resource available to him, his legs, and kicked off one last time. ”Gahhhh!” he cried out in pain as his flexibility was tested when his feet touched the mat above his head. This attempt consequently helped Blanco somewhat by increasing the painful angle on his back and neck, but it also made use of juuuuust enough inflexibility of the spine to force enough of his shoulder off the mat so that the referee was forced to cancel the count just as his hand struck ”THREE!”

The referee shook his head and immediately swiped his hands counter-cross his chest to signal the pin was broken, and that Jaguar was still legally in the match. Jaguar panted with his eyes shut as he reveled in his small cheating of ‘death’, his face was still raw with aches and his head pounded like a jackhammer. All those different strikes to the head were compounding their effects on him, he’d still need a few moments to lie there in rest before he was able to pick himself up again.

Blanco rolled back, as the Jaguar broke out of the pinfall. Quite a bit of tension had built up in the crowd over that one, with the younger man just barely keeping himself alive in the match. As he got up to his feet, Blanco kept a keen eye on his opponent; he admired Jaguar Negra's grit and heart, but he wondered just how far the young man was willing to take things, to keep the match going.

At ringside, Holly's hands were balled into fists. She was pouting in disappointment, having been all too eager to count three with the referee. The Brit seemed to be alone in that, however, as many in the crowd leaned forward in their seats. It seemed the two luchadores had drawn a good deal of interest, now, with many wondering what they might have in store, next.

Blanco didn't plan on keeping them waiting. It looked like the Jaguar was going to need some recovery time after the facebuster, which meant that the veteran had a moment ready to set something up. Breaking into a light jog, Blanco took a jumping step over the Jaguar's prone figure, jogged a bit more, and then took a jump up to the top rope, balancing himself there on the rope with practiced grace.

High-flying maneuvers were the bread and butter of much of lucha libre, and Gato Blanco's arsenal of maneuvers was no different. Besides that, he owed it to the crowd, if he was giving a proper exhibition of lucha libre. Not to mention, beneath the mask, there may have been an inkling of wanting to show off for his young valet.

Blanco balanced on the ropes for just a second, before launching himself off of them. The move he was attempting was a big one, but one he'd practived for years. And with the eyes of the entire crowd on them, now, the veteran felt he needed to pull out something big, if he was going to really show them the incredible potential of lucha libre. Blanco pulled his arms in tight, and pulled his legs close together as he lept back. Twisting into the jump, his body spun horizontally as he flipped vertically, a dizzying blur of motion as he moved in a wide arc through the air, coming crashind down toward the Jaguar in a springboard corkscrew senton aimed squarely at the prone man's midsection.

Jaguar flopped onto his chest as Blanco detached and rolled away. The exposed part of his cheek rested on the warmed mat as he continued to pant and recover his stamina. The huge pounding and aching pain in his face had died somewhat to a smoldering burn now, which was definitely a plus for him. The young luchador felt the mat shake while Blanco stepped over him, and guessed that the weakening reverberations were him jogging away for yet another set-up.

This was not good, not good at all for the feline luchador. His body still screamed in protest whenever he tried to push up, while Blanco freely had reign over the ring. How many more big moves could he endure before he reached his physical limits? Surely not many if he continued to take them in rapid succession like Blanco continued to engineer. But what could he do? How could Jaguar outsmart someone who seemed to adapt and overcome him at every turn?

Sheer freaking willpower, that's how! Jaguar forced himself to roll over onto his back, blinking as the bright lights now shone right in his face. He could barely make out the sight of the white-masked luchador ascending the turnbuckle with practiced ease. Jaguar was in real trouble now if he didn't figure a way out of this. He ran out of time as he tried to sort through his options during a headache, Blanco was already in the initial stages of take-off.

With mere seconds to touchdown, Jaguar gave it everything he had and thrust his knees up to protect his abdomen from the senton. Blanco's weight would land harshly down upon them, making Jaguar groan as his legs buckled down. However, as much as that landing hurt for him, Blanco's would be on a different level. The nature of high-flying moves could be a double-edged sword, and in this instance Jaguar had used Blanco's own speed and force to do exactly that.

Jaguar pushed the man off of himself and rolled away onto his chest, pushing up to his elbows to see how effective he had been.

The voices of the crowd rose high, as Blanco sailed through the air. None higher than Holly's, though, cheering as she watched the veteran luchador work. Almost all of those voices went silent, however, as the Jaguar threw up his knees, and caught Blanco across the chest. "OH!" Holly cried out, rushing the ring in a panic. She was barely able to get her ample but over the edge of it, a hand on the bottom rope, before the referee was reminding her of her place. From her position, all the British girl could do was watch in worry, as Blanco writhed in pain on the mat.

For his part, Gato Blanco was just grateful that the positioning of the corkscrew senton had him wrapping his arms over his chest. While far from a painless landing, it was at least some protection. The luchador kicked his boots against the mat, groaning in pain as he tried to recover some strength. He kept his arms over his ribs, massaging his aching core, breathing slowly to get air back into his lungs.

Between this and his earlier catch off of the moonsault, the Jaguar was apparently full of unexpected counters. Blanco chided himself for going high, as he rolled over and tried to force himself up to a knee. The young man's speed was quite remarkable, clearly dangerous- something to look out for. Still holding his ribs, Blanco tried to prop his head against the bottom rope, to keep himself from being caught flat on the mat. Still, until his chest didn't hurt like he was breathing fire, Blanco was going to have to wait and see what his opponent was bringing out, next.

Jaguar looked up to find Blanco, and yup, the other man was definitely still reeling from that last-ditch attempt to save himself. He had propped himself up against the ropes somewhat, but he was gasping at air and clutching his chest like Jaguar had caved it in. Good, Jaguar thought, stay down and let me get my head back on right.

Jaguar grunted loudly as he powered back to his feet. The steady roar of the crowd and a resurgence of adrenaline were fueling a second wind of sorts, and he found himself growing excited again as the pounding in his head faded to more of a dull ache. Blanco had good, maybe even better stamina than he did, so timing was everything now!

Jaguar took a few steps back to prepare and wait, and when Blanco moved to stand, he kicked his heels in and took off. Jaguar raced across the ring and launched his boots into the air for a dropkick, hoping that his timing was just right to send Blanco crashing between the ropes and into the unforgiving apron outside.

At ringside, Holly was back down to clapping on the apron, trying to rouse Blanco. The luchador was recovering on the ropes, across the ring from her. He'd taken a rather heavy shot to the chest, and was still trying to force himself to recover. And one quick glance at Jaguar was all she needed to know that the young man was back on the offense, right off. Skirting the outside of the ring, Holly began rushing over to Blanco's side.

Blanco, meanwhile, was still trying to get back to his feet as Jaguar launched into his run. Pushing himself up, Blanco kept his arms over his torso, letting them absorb most of the impact from the dropkick. Hardly ideal protection, but far better than taking the blow full-on to the ribs or abdomen. As the Jaguar's feet planted into Blanco, he rolled with the blow, putting up no resistance against the impact. Letting the force of it carry through, Blanco was pushed out through the ropes, sent tumbling out to the ring apron. His shoulder touched down first, hitting fairly hard, but giving the white-masked veteran a chance to roll with the impact.

At ringside, Holly reached Blanco's end of the ring. Not bothering to keeping her distance as Blanco's boots touched down on the floor, Holly tried to get a good look at Blanco's face. Even beneath the mask, she could see her man was in pain. Blanco blinked a few times, rotating his shoulder. Taking a few breaths, the veteran tried to manage the pain, let it run its course as his body worked to recover from the stiff impact of the strikes the Jaguar had just put him through. Holly, meanwhile, went into full nurture mode: holding the hurting luchador close, she tried to massage his shoulder, wrapping an arm around his rib as she checked him over for lasting damage. All of which drew Blanco's attention off of the Jaguar, and whatever he might be doing back in the ring.