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

Up and over Akino went tumbling to the floor outside with a nasty spill, putting her out at ringside. Many wrestlers would’ve seen this as an opportunity to do something crazy - a suicide dive, some kind of moonsault, something to really get the crowd behind them.

Carmen was a bit more pragmatic in her approach to wrestling, though. Plus, frankly, she’d never understood why anyone would jump out of a ring unless it was on fire.

No, insteand, she simply grabbed the middle rope, dropped on her butt, and slid her way out of the ring, landing a couple of feet away from where Akino crashed. She had a good control of this match so far, no reason to rush, no reason to hurry.

She reached down and grabbed Akino by the back of her dress and ‘helping’ her back up with a hard yank. ”As much as I love this outfit, it makes you rather easy to grab, querida.”

After her less than graceful fall out to the floor, Akino groaned while rolling over onto her hands and knees. A hand moved up over her sternum, which was still feeling the impact of Carmen’s punch. Her lungs tried to keep a steady flow of air going, though that was a little harder at this point.

Before the maid could make much progress there, she was suddenly pulled back up by her dress. And right after Carmen finished her comment, Akino responded by hurling her right elbow up and back, hoping to smash it into the champ’s beautiful face. It felt like such a shame to target something she liked looking at oh so much. But regretfully, it was necessary. And she knew Carmen would’ve done the same if given the chance.

While Carmen knew Akino was tough, she didn’t understand quite how tough she could be. They’d fought before, but it was hardly the most aggresive encounter she’d ever had. She knew the one-eyed submission machine was good enough to take on men, but then again, so was Carmen. So were most Tension women.

She certainly didn’t think Akino was tough enough to recover so quickly from Carmen’s opening assualt, but when she would up eating the business end of an elbow, she learned just how wrong that notion was.

Carmen didn’t make a noise, but her face told the whole story. Her eyes scrunched up, face shriveled, lips curled, as she stumbled away from Akino and wound up leaning against the barricade for support. Not the hardest blow she’d ever taken to the face, but one of the most surprising.

“You want to grab me? Go right ahead.” Akino said right after throwing her elbow into Carmen’s face. She’d certainly understood the notion behind the boxer’s comment about her dress a moment ago. There were good reasons why most wrestlers didn’t wear similar attires to hers in their matches. But clearly, that didn’t worry her int he slightest.

Clutching at her chest and taking a big breath while turning to face Carmen, she saw the champ was right up against the barricade. Perfect positioning. Immediately Akino took off into a run toward the boxer, then leapt and threw her boots at Carmen’s chest for a missile-like dropkick. “CARMENNN!!!” she shouted out as she attempted to blast the champ right over the barricade and into the front row!

There was a very obvious innuendo that could’ve been made about Akino’s comment, but Carmen didn’t feel the need to highlight it as she shook out the cobwebs. She was a little more curious about the audience, who’d suddenly decided it was a good idea to back away from her.

She found out the reason why when she turned around and saw a human missile heading straight towards her. Maid outfit or not, Akino could move quite quickly.

Carmen tried to get her hand up in defense, but she was a little too slow on the draw. Akino’s dropkick connected, and the 24/7 Champion went tumbling over the barrier, landing in a heap of chairs on the other side. Not exactly the most graceful moment of her storied AFW career.

Akino’s body dropped onto the ground with a less than comfortable thud after her dropkick, but the discomfort she felt was likely less than what Carmen was feeling at the moment. The maid picked herself up and looked over the barricade, quickly spotting her foe sprawled over a bunch of chairs, many of which had been pushed well away from their original position.

“Ref! Get over here!” Akino called out before climbing over the barricade. With the fans in the area now a safe distance away, there wasn’t anything obstructing her path to Carmen. A couple steps brought her right beside the boxer, where she then reached out to grab her wrist, drag her off the chairs and drop her onto the hard floor. If she could get her down Akino would then plant a shin over Carmen’s chest, right below the collarbone, while reaching out to hold her far arm down for a pin attempt.

In a match like this, the possibility of spilling out into the stands was practically a guarantee, and Tension security was ready for it. Men and women in black shirts began to shepherd the crowd, pulling them back to a safe distance and essentially making a new ring out of human bodies on the floor.

Carmen couldn’t appreciate the view, though. She was a little too busy getting pinned.

The referee caught up with the two of them and dropped down for the count, but she wouldn’t get very far with it.

”1…!”

Before she could get her hand raised for another count, Carmen jerked up enough to lift as should off the ground. Not much, but she wanted to conserve energy as much as she could in this match, save every drop she could.

Also, she enjoyed the view, and wasn’t ready to let it go just yet.

Akino wasn’t too surprised when Carmen kicked out just after a quick count of one. The match was still quite early, and both women likely had more than plenty of gas left in the tank. Akino wouldn’t have minded going for another pin, just to enjoy the feeling of having Carmen beneath her again. Looking down at the Puerto Rican like this felt reminiscent of their first encounter together.

But there’s be plenty of time to do that. For now, there was more work to be done. Akino reached down to grab a handful of Carmen’s hair, then used the grip to start trying to guide her foe back up to her hands and knees.

“Come on. Lets take a little walk.” Akino said, then attempted to walk out toward the aisle with Carmen in tow, like a dog on a leash. But she had no intention of taking this back to the ring. Instead, she intended to lead the defending champ further up the ramp, wanting to take this fight backstage.

For some reason, it never occured to Carmen that Akino could even do a dropkick, let alone pull off one with impressive power and speed. It wasn’t like Akino was out-of-shape or that such a move was beyond her, it just didn’t seem like her style.

Then again, Carmen was a boxer who’d learned wrestling moves. Living proof that there was no harm in mixing your style up.

She had a brief moment to contemplate this as she laid on the floor, dazed, but Akino wasn’t letting that moment linger for long. Carmen hissed as her hair was grasped and she was lead along by the smaller woman, getting a few chuckles from the audience that she did not enjoy. Still, this was a close to a reprieve as she would get, and Carmen used the opportunity to conserve her energy. She obediantly followed along after Akino for the time being, waiting to see what she was going for as they made their way to the back...

The crowd watched in curiosity as Akino dragged Carmen along, though the photographers and cameramen made sure to follow the action every step of the way. Akino brushed aside the curtain and entered the backstage area, still leading the champ by her hair. A quick left turn and straight down the hall, and some equipment crates came into view.

Akino targeted the closest one and moved right toward it. A few nearby stagehands quickly and wisely got out of the way. Then as the one-eyed maiden approached it she attempted to slam Carmen’s head right up against the large box, which stood nearly as tall as she did.