The Won Siblings vs. Alicia Wells & Mikayla Pryor: Elimination Tag

Special Tag Elimination
Special Conditions: The match will begin as a standard tag team match until one combatant is pinned, made to submit, or knocked out. This participant is then eliminated. Once one opponent is eliminated, the match shifts to tornado tag rules, and combatants will continue to be eliminated via pin, submission, or knockout. The team with at least one combatant still standing wins.

For the first time, Mikayla Pryor did not stand backstage before an impending match with great enthusiasm for what was to come. Tonight, she was - despite still being absorbed by her anticipation - more than a little irritated with the situation, and her features betrayed her feelings, try as she might to brighten her countenance for the benefit of the crowd.

She could not believe that management had put her in a match as punishment for her defending herself. Only a few nights ago, three of the trainers had outright attacked her for nothing but the fact that Mikayla had giggled a little to hear that one of them had been stubborn enough to think that she could survive the scissors of Mikayla's newest friend - Alicia, she of the pair of legs that appeared as if they could crush titanium. They had meant to beat her down with a frickin' pipe of all things as repayment for such a tiny slight, and it was all Mikayla, with the extensive help of Alicia and their surprise ally, Chelsea, could do to take the trainers down without anyone getting seriously injured. And Mikayla had thought she was being nice when she had lectured and knocked out the leader of the little trainer gang instead of contacting authorities.

Apparently, that kindness had not been enough. The three had skittered off with their tails between their legs to their superiors, who had proven all too eager to believe the trainers' stories and not Mikayla's or Alicia's explanation of the situation. So here the two of them were, having never fought together, placed in a tag team match with rules that were specifically meant to put them at a disadvantage and "teach them a lesson about authority in AFW," or whatever the jerk had said. It rubbed her the wrong way. It was not that the match worried her; on the contrary, she was even more motivated to win this match for her sake and Alicia's just out of spite of the situation. Regardless, she was motivated and irritated, and she knew Alicia was too. As she brushed her hands through her hair to untangle it from her collar, she glanced over at the redheaded Englishwoman who would be fighting at her side for this match. She was not entirely confident in this situation, but she knew that she and Alicia could make a good team. And if they did, with how annoyed they both were, she almost felt sorry for their opponents.

Her music poured into the arena, and Mikayla gestured for Alicia to come along with her before she stepped out onto the stage with arms raised to waive at the crowd and provide them with a slight smile. It wasn't their fault that she and Alicia were being treated like this, so she wasn't going to completely rob them of her kindness.

Alicia was not in a good mood. Usually, the big kickboxer was pretty easy going out of the ring and, even in it, her temper tended to flare before quickly subsiding. On this particular occasion, however, not even the promise of imminent violence was improving her disposition.

It certainly wasn’t the prospect of a tag-team match that bothered her, particularly not one with Mikayla – her new and equally leggy friend – as her partner. Under most circumstances, she’d be only too pleased to team up with the blonde for a match.

No, it was why they were here at all that Alicia was angry and she doubted her temper was going to improve until she put her boot in someone’s face. Preferably the bitch of a trainer who’d started this mess by being a sore loser, had tried to beat a wrestler with a steel pipe and then run to management when she and her little friends had bit off more than they could chew.

She hadn’t seen any of them since which was likely for the best, at least from the point of view of the trainers being able to eat properly.

That said, it wasn’t those three they were up against, but an unknown tag team who were going to blah, blah, blah. Alicia had tuned out at that point.

As they got ready, she threw Mikayla a sideways glance and a reassuring nod. She certainly didn’t regret pitching in to help. She just wished… Hell, she didn’t know. There wasn’t anything she’d change.

And then the music hit and it was show time.

Given she was sticking with her silent intro, they’d decided – Mikayla had suggested and Alicia hadn’t cared enough to disagree – that she’d go down to the ring with the blonde. Unlike her, however, the redhead didn’t stop to wave. There was a focused malevolence in her dark eyes as she made her appearance, stalking out onto the stage alongside Mikayla dressed in her usual ring-gear of sports bra, shorts, boots and gloves and heading directly down to the ring. She didn’t pause to slap any hands, her gaze didn’t waver; she simply strode down, rolled under the ropes to pop back up before beginning to pace while she waited for her partner and then whoever she was about to rip limb from limb.

Oh, sorry – she meant her ‘opponents’.

”They look quite confident, do they not, Bridget?” Cindy smiled, watching Alicia and Mikayla make their way down to the ring on a screen in the gorilla position.

Her sister, Cindy, stood beside her, sharing the same smile. Almost down to the exact same length. ”They do, indeed. Let us change that, shall we?”

The audience’s reaction had been mixed before, but that changed the instant this music came out. There was no ambiguity with the Won Siblings, no divide among the fans - they hated everyone and everyone hated them. The audience showed that hate by showering them with jeers when they appeared at the top of the ramp. The Won Siblings showed their hate by smugly smiling as they sauntered down the ramp, moving as if they owned the ring.

For all intents and purposes, in their mind, they did. This crowd was going to be blessed with greatness tonight, as they saw the finest tag team in the AFW work take magic. If they were too indolent to realize that, it was simply one more reason why they were such inferior Japanese dogs.

Speaking of which…

”Oh me, oh my.” Cindy walked up the steel steps with Bridget right behind her. She gave their opponents a frilly wave, like they were just a couple passing by the in the park. ”These two making an interesting pair.”

”’Interesting’ is one word for it.” Bridget followed Cindy out onto the apron, cooly gazing between Alicia and Mikayla. ”I might use other words: Young. Bright. Inexperienced. Gullible. Ugly. Inelegant.”

The two sisters slipped through the midlde and top rope in perfect unison, then walked over to face their potential victims. ”Greetings,” Cindy spoke first, ever the ambassador. ”So you know, we could not care less about the reasons for pitting us against each other. In fact, when we initially heard about your escapades in the gym, we were intrigued. It sounded like good fun.”

”However,” Bridget stepped forward and locked eyes with Alicia, taking in all of the kickboxer’s body firm body and imagining the ways it might bend. ”We believe such things are better done in the ring, where all might see them and enjoy. We will be demonstrating that with one of you, tonight.”

Cindy clapped and looked between her opponents with the sweetest, most devilish smile possible. ”Indeed, I look forward to making the both of you scream. Let us get the festivities started, shall we?”

As soon as Mikayla and Alicia's time greeting the crowd was over, the Minnesotan's expression dampened, and she let the cover of their opponents' entrance hide a shake of her head. A part of her wanted to use this as an opportunity to show the people who were screwing them over that they weren't to be intimidated - Mikayla did try to be nice, but she did have a strong sense of justice. And she did not care at all for people who wanted to bully her, in particular, as the select few bad apples among the trainers, a few in administration, and the approaching pair of tag wrestlers seemed to want to do. She certainly was not enthusiastic about this match...but she was eager to overcome the "odds" that their superiors had been so convinced were not in the pair's favor.

Kind of like in her match with Karen. And the Minnesotan still wasn't sure if that Mikayla wasn't a little too eager. Alicia hadn't thought so... who knew what her new friend would do tonight, if she got an advantage. It made Mikayla both nervous and excited to think about, considering some of what the British woman now pacing a few feet away had told her about her history.

Mikayla remained silent, merely flexing her fingers at her sides, as the siblings - she had intently studied up on them - entered the ring. She knew from the first "oh me, oh my" that the rant was coming. God, this was Karen all over again. Insulting and haughty for no reason. The blonde rolled her eyes and did her best to ignore them, peering out at the crowd, but she could not help but peer back to them as one mentioned the trainer incident, and the other came uncomfortably close to Alicia. Insulting and haughty, indeed... if not a little disturbing. But Mikayla was not easily disturbed in this mood. "You sound just like Bond villains...", Mikayla grumbled, likely loud enough for the one she believed was Bridget to hear her.

But that was all she offered, as she reached a hand out to wrap it around Alicia's bicep and give it an encouraging squeeze. They had already agreed on who would start this whole fight.

Alicia's wrath had sounded like a good way to set the tempo to Mikayla, after all.

Alicia’s mood was certainly not improved when she got a good look at their opponents for the night. Sisters, clearly, one taller than the other and heavier – more muscular – with it. That did not make her the greater threat, of course. But it gave her a moment where she didn’t need to think about the things they were saying.

If management had wanted to pick the most infuriating team they could find, they’d done a great job.

That was fine. It simply meant that she wouldn’t feel guilty in the slightest when she made both of them scream.

If she’d been in a less-verging-on-homicidal mood, Alicia might well have joked back that they wouldn’t even make good Bond villains. They were far too corny.

As it was, her head turned slightly without taking her eyes off the sister directly in front of her so that she could give Mikayla an acknowledging nod.

She was still more than happy to kick – pun intended – things off for their team.

And, given how these two had presented themselves so far, she would have absolutely no problem in taking either of them on. Particularly the one who’d been eyeing her like a piece of meat just seconds before.

Alicia had no problems with people looking at her body. She was proud of it, of the work she’d put into sculpting it, and she’d picked a profession that had her wearing sports bra and shorts more often than not.

She had a considerable problem with this pair coming into the ring and looking at her like a victim.

Alicia had never been a victim in her life and she had no intentions of starting now.

Holding the taller sister’s eyes, she backed into her team’s corner, tugging at her gloves and settling in preparation for the match.

Let’s get this thing going, her expression demanded silently. Ring the bell already.

The Won Siblings took a moment.to look between themselves with amused smiles as their opponents settled into their roles. The redhead would take point, it seemed. The one who’d said nothing so far, and had the most serious look on her face. Neither of them looked happy to be here, but this one - Alicia, if they remembered correctly - seemed to have a particular distaste for it.

Bridget turned to Cindy and spoke in their native language, Mandarin. It was highly doubtful that either of these swine would understand a word of it, which gave them a slight edge to enjoy. A secret way to converse without tipping off their foes.

[“The red-haired one wants to go first, it looks like.”] Bridget’s eyes wandered down again, focusing on Alicia’s legs again, then back to her sister. [“Perhaps I should start.”]

Cindy nodded and stepped back between the ropes, taking up the proper position. [“Agreed. Her eagerness could be used against her.”] She pointed a sly finger towards Alicia. [“Let me know if you have any problems. I can distract the referee with ease and give you an opening.”]

Bridget nodded right as the bell rang, then sauntered her way towards the center of the ring. She raised her hands into an eased fighting stance - one leg out, the other back, hands up and at the ready. No sudden moves, nothing too aggressive just yet.

Set the lure and let the fish come to you…

Mikayla could tell by Alicia's silence that, were it possible for the redhead to be more irritated by this whole situation, that she truly was having seen the Won Siblings and heard their prattle. Of course, Mikayla felt the same way, but it was evident from her short time knowing her partner that Alicia was a more...intense person than she was, in general. Surely whatever butt-kicking she wanted to do in response to management's decision and the haughtiness of these sisters, Alicia wanted to dish it out twofold. Patting the British woman on the arm, Mikayla briefly considered saying something that might get Alicia to resist scissoring one of the sisters in half at the midsection.

Then again, did she really want to tell her that? No...no she did not. This was too crappy of a situation for even Mikayla to want to show a little mercy. Healthy competition was a little thrown out the window as it was.

The blonde simply retreated back to the corner and through the ropes with another sigh. It was going to make her antsy not to start the match, but she would keep herself occupied with thinking and planning...and probably watching the spare sister on the other side of the mats really closely. As she leaned against the top rope from the side of the turnbuckle, she gave her friend one brief word for encouragement, thinking back to her match with Karen - "Think about how great it will be when they can't talk by the end."

Alicia was aware of Mikayla’s presence at the ropes, her lips curling up into her usual vicious smirk at the blonde’s comment about how awesome it would be when the two sisters opposite couldn’t talk. Oh yes, that was a scenario she was more than happy to contemplate for an instant before shoving it to the back of her mind.

Across the ring, their opponents were also talking but in what Alicia was guessing was a dialect of Chinese. She might not be fluent in Japanese but she’d picked enough up around the AFW and Toyko in general to have an idea of the cadences of the language. That wasn’t it.

She didn’t know what they were saying but if that wasn’t a planning session she wasn’t from London.

Great. Part of Alicia was aware of just why they’d been put in this match – putting the two of them up against an established team who almost certainly knew each other’s moves inside out. By contrast, she and Mikayla hadn’t had much chance to even train together and she’d never been in a tag match with anyone.

They were at a massive disadvantage. Alicia just didn’t care right now.

She didn’t bother with her usual handshake before the bell rang. Instead, she simply stalked out of their corner as soon as it did, closing the distance with a practiced shuffle that kept her feet low to the ground.

As it happened, she was up against the taller sister. Fine.

But, rather than open with a testing blow or two, Alicia chose to go right in. As she closed, she suddenly accelerated, shoving off the floor and looking to clobber the other wrestler with a last-second running knee.

She really wasn’t in the mood for messing about tonight.

It seemed like the Won Sister’s had baited their lure well, because, as soon as the bell rang, their prey came strutting right, without a hint of worry or heed. Bold woman. Strong woman.

Bridget moved in to meet her, walking over with a proud gait and a subtle smile. Unlike their opponents, the Won Sister’s confidence was well-earned. While they had never held the tag-team titles in Wrestle Angels, that was merely because they refused to engage in the political games that upper management so liked to play.

They were a dominant force in the old brand. A force to be fear. Tonight, they would demonstrate just why that was.

After Bridget finished eating a knee to her stomach, at least.

The blow came out like a flash, sinking into Bridget’s stomach and folding her in half on impact. From the sidelines, Cindy was glad that she’d opted to let her taller, hardier sister lead the charge. She would not have fared so well if the positions were switched.

But Bridget, hurting as she was, would have to take a good few more knees like that before she went down all the way. Not that she intended on giving Alicia the chance to launch them.

With a snarl and a muttered curse, Bridget rose back up and returned fire, lashing out with a two palm strikes from both hands - one, aimed at Alicia’s generous chest, the other heading towards her undeservedly smug face.

Though she wasn’t a muay thai trained striker like, say, Abattoir, Alicia’s knee strikes didn’t leave much to be desired. They weren’t the bread and butter of her offence in the same way as a nak muay’s but they were still solid, powerful shots backed by that extraordinary leg strength and – in this case – more than a little momentum.

And all that restrained aggression. Alicia was pretty good at channelling her rage into her attacks as the Won Sister on the receiving end had just found out.

In short, it wasn’t a surprise to the redhead that she’d doubled the other wrestler over. Admittedly, she’d have liked to just flatten her but that was fine, there was no reason she couldn’t just do that.

So Alicia was in the process of resetting her stance preparatory to clinching with the reeling woman and pounding her belly to putty when the Won Sister fired back. A stinging pain blossomed across the redhead’s partly-bared breasts as a palm strike cracked into them, while the British woman’s head snapped to the side as a second caught her across the cheek.

She’d just slapped her. Slapped. Not punched, not struck, slapped.

And, as Alicia’s head came back around, it was with even more fury burning in those dark eyes.

As far as she was concerned, slapping was as potent a sign of disrespect as spitting in her face.

That didn’t mean she was stooping to her opponent’s level. Instead, as Alicia turned back towards the Won Sister, her fist came up and around in an attempt to bury it in the other wrestler’s solar plexus. Immediately afterwards, her other hand went to cup the back of Bridget’s – she thought – neck in an attempt to bring her chin down to meet Alicia’s fast-ascending knee.