Tension in Ueno: 24/7 Championship Match- Carmen Rodriguez (c) vs Akino Sanada

Carmen was impressed. Of course she was impressed.

The match was just starting out, but Akino had a good hold going on with this rear naked choke, clinging tightly to Carmen’s back. Having those legs around her waste and those arms around her neck and that voice in her ears were all familiar feelings. Beautiful but deadly - she'd been in worse holds, but never so soon in a match.

But Carmen could get past them. And she would. In explosive form.

Carmen broke into a short run, jumped up, kicked her legs out and fell on her back - or, more precisely, she fell on her back, which fell on top of Akino’s chest, which hammered her back into the floor like a rusty nail.

Despite her words, Akino didn’t genuinely expect Carmen to either submit or pass out so soon. At least, not entirely. The sleeper had been as firmly locked in as any she’d ever applied before. But Carmen had proven herself to be quite a resourceful champion during her reign.

Still, Akino felt somewhat surprised when the champ suddenly started to run forward. And the next thing the maid knew the room was starting to spin, and she suddenly crashed down hard onto her back, sandwiched between the mat and Carmen’s weight!

“Gah!!” she gasped out at the crushing impact, which drove the wind right out of her sails and forced her to uncoil her limbs from around Carmen’s neck and waist.

Part of Carmen’s success - in her mind - was because she fell into a niche that few, if any, AFW women did. She was taller and heavier than the average wrestler by a fair margin, but unlike some of the bigger women around - the Akashis, the Tomkos, the Migiris - she was built for speed. She was fast enough to keep up with the speedsters, but strong enough to hurt the brutes.

That being said, she still had some considerable weight to throw around. As Akino was no doubt expereincing.

The fall wasn’t pleasant for Carmen, but judging by the way the audience collectively recoiled, it was far worse for her lover. She started to get up, looking to take advantage, when she realized she could do that without even standing. The odds of getting a pinfall this earlier were slim but Akino was already in the position and quite stunned. There was no harm in trying.

Carmen rolled over, laid perendicular on Akino’s chest, hooked the mighty maid’s leg and leaned on her, pressing her shoulders down for a pin.

The referee was taken aback by such an early cover, but she dropped on time. ”1…!”

Fortunately for Akino, Carmen wasn’t the heaviest wrestler on the roster. Still, the Puerto Rican was half a foot taller and roughly 50 pounds heavier than her. Being slammed down the way she had been would’ve hurt regardless, but the bonus effect of the simple weight difference between the two combatants added significantly.

Akino managed to get out a breath or two before the champ laid over her and hooked a leg. Once again, the maid found herself in a position that, under different circumstances, would’ve been rather enjoyable. But she didn’t dwell on that. The ref was counting, and Akino wasn’t about to let her first opportunity at championship gold to come to an end so quickly.

“Two!” the ref called out with the second count, though Akino almost immediately grunted while kicking her free leg out to jolt a shoulder up.

Carmen immediately sat up as Akino broke the two count, looking over her shoulder at her flattened opponent. There was still a small part of her that wanted to do what they would do if this was one of their ‘sessions’ - stop things, ask her lover if she was all right and ready to continue. Safety was always a must.

She told that part of her to shut up. This was competition. Akino wouldn’t stand for holding back, and she certainly wouldn’t be doing any of that on her end.

Carmen took a couple of seconds to rub her neck, getting the air flow going again, before she reached over and grabbed herself a handful of Akino’s shimmering blue hair. ”Up we go.”

She pulled the cyclops under her shoulder, wrapped her neck in a front facelock, and began to stand, urging Akino to rise along with her.

Fortunately for the floored maid, Carmen didn’t immediately move right back on the attack. She had the sleeper hold from moments earlier to thank for that, and took advantage of the extra time to recover as much air as she could.

And as she did so one of Akino’s hands moved over her ribcage. The injury she’d sustained months ago to that area had finally healed, no thanks to the stubborn girl’s insistence to compete through it for an extended period. For a brief moment her mind worried over the possibility of that injury coming back to haunt her again now, but was relieved when she noticed she wasn’t feeling any excessive pain in her torso. It still hurt, obviously. But her breathing was fine and nothing felt out of place.

Her focus was soon brought back to the match once again, this time as Carmen grabbed onto her and started guiding her back up. The bluenette grimaced and grunted, but offered no immediate resistance. Only once the boxer’s strong arm was coiled around her head did she begin to squirm and push against her. The chances that she’d free herself so easily were slim, but Akino wanted Carmen to have to work for it if she intended to keep the maid under control.

Getting Akino back on her feet wasn’t exactly the easiest thing. Of course not.

Carmen was the bigger woman between them by a fair margin, so riding down Akino’s struggles wasn’t all that hard, but still - she couldn’t help but wonder how this would be going if they were a little closer in size, and she didn’t have the natural advantages working for her.

Not that such thoughts would stop her from exploiting said advantages to the fullest. Oh, no.

Carmen reached down with her spare hand and grabbed a hold of Akino’s skirt, using it as a convenient grasping point. She lifted Akino up, looking like she was going for a simple suplex, got her halfway through the move...then pushed out and threw the one-eyed maid forward, letting her stomach come down on the top rope, folding her in half right down the middle.

Akino wasn’t exactly when her squirming and pushing failed to free her head from the tight grip of the elite boxer’s strong arm. But that didn’t make the situation any less frustrating for the stubborn maid. Nor did it stop her from continuing in her futile efforts to escape.

But then the one-eyed girl felt her skirt being pulled, and suddenly she was being lifted up. “Shit!” she grunted through grit teeth and tensed up, bracing for what felt like an inevitable impact from a suplex. However, Akino instead fell the exact opposite direction and landed stomach-first right over the top rope!

“Ughh!” she gasped out as her body folded itself over the rope, where she remained briefly dazed and winded.

The audience winced and groaned as Akino - sexy, lithe, beautiful Akino - was brought down hard on the ropes. She was a strong woman for her size, for any size, but that was going to hurt regardless of who you were. Carmen was going to make it worse, too.

Valley took a couple of seconds to let Akino sag, wanting her to fully experience the pain, before she went back to work. Grabbing hold of her dress by the shoulder, she lifted Akino’s torso up. Not high enough for her to slide off the rope. Just high enough to present a good target.

Without a single warning, Carmen let go of her hold and almost-instantly followed up in the most brutal fashion, throwing an uppercut right in the middle of her chest.

Though Carmen had landed a few shots on Akino in their first encounter, the maid had done a pretty good job then of avoiding the boxer’s lethal fists. It was primarily for that reason she’d also been able to make Carmen submit twice that night and come out relatively unscathed.

But this time, the big uppercut came, and there was nothing Akino could do in defense. Carmen’s fist blasted right into her sternum, drawing a pained gasp from the one-eyed maid. “Guh!!” And the impact sent her the rest of the way over the top rope, dumping her out onto the floor at ringside!

The bright side was that in a match like this, there were no countouts, so Akino could stay out here as long as she needed to. But Carmen was an experienced and dedicated champion. Chances were Akino wasn’t exactly going to have all night to recover from that shot, nor did she expect she’d be out there alone for very long.