James Wright vs. Yajiri Kasamatsu

Standard Match. Win via pin, submission, or DQ.

James had done a lot of soul searching. The aerial ace had been beaten before, but he had never been beaten like that. The vile woman had not only stripped him of his shorts and his dignity, but had conquered him easily and knocked him out, stone cold. Even the cruelest women back in the indie leagues in the Midwest would never stoop that low, and the shame James felt knew no end. The usually libertine boy did not show his face for a week afterwards, as he was stung with self-pity. All of the pleasures of the world seemed recondite to him after such a terrible loss.

So James trained. His sister had apparently watched the match and gave him the tongue lashing of a lifetime, but provided a little assistance as to how to workout. The aerial ace did not follow the program letter by letter as it seemed entirely too strenuous but he did put in a little effort and consequently felt a little bit stronger. Madonna had worn him out and overpowered him, and now that he knew the consequences for such an act he vowed to never let that happen to him again.

He was in the locker room of AFW, pacing around in the emptiness. His basketball shorts that formed his wrestling costume were already on and he began to do his stretches. The woman facing him was named Yajiri Kasamutsu and he surmised that it was Japanese. When he opened his computer to find out info on this woman, he came back with a whole bunch of nothing which meant that this was her debut. The high flyer was coming in blind, and hoped that this woman was inexperienced.

But he was prepared for the worst if she wasn't. Mentally, at least. The boy jumped on top of the bench and then back down and then repeated that process ten times until his legs had warmed up. Those two legs of his were his biggest advantage, both in that they propelled him up into the air and came down hard with a panoply of kicks. One of the worker drones popped her head into the locker and bade him come to the main entrance hall.

He rocked back and forth. His calm demeanor began to crack with a bit of nervousness. He examined his fist. It was shaking a little bit. He tried to jump and shake it all out.

His theme music blared over the speakers and when James emerged he was met with a tepid, almost algid reaction. No one liked a loser, especially someone who had lost as he had, but it didn't shake James. He gave them a wave or two as he walked down the ramp and into the ring. The ace moved to his corner and rested against the turnbuckle.

Please don't be a monster, he thought.

Moments after James’ music faded out, another song began to play over the speakers, cuing the entrance of his opponent. The music was clearly unfamiliar to the audience, evidenced by the fact that there was virtually no reaction from the crowd in attendance, save for a small round of polite applause when Yajiri Kasamatsu stepped through the curtain.

Virtually no one knew who she was at this point, and for good reason. She’d only recently arrived to AFW, and didn’t have a ton of experience outside of the company either. But she was intent on making sure the people would leave the Kyoto arena tonight remembering her, even if most of her matches were likely going to be taking place in Friction.

The newcomer strode down the aisle and headed straight to the ring. No poses, shouts or attempts to pander to the crowd. She appreciated the little support she’d received, but wanted to earn their respect with her performance in the ring. And once she slid under the bottom rope to enter it, she popped up to her feet and stared across the ring at her foe while moving into her own corner.

James Wright. Another relative newcomer, from what she gathered. Yajiri didn’t know much about him, but had seen plenty of his sister’s matches. She didn’t want to assume he was anything like her when she’d only just met him, but exercising some caution still didn’t feel like a bad idea. “Nice to meet you. Lets have a good match,” she said from where she stood, nodding her head in a slight bow rather than attempting to shake his hand. Still a respectful enough gesture, but less risky. Then, she started stretching out her limbs while waiting for the bell to ring.

There was a lot of pomp and circumstance when it came to wrestling. James didn't mind it for the most part as long as he got to partake in a show. He didn't recognize the music that played over the loudspeaker but he supposed no one would. The woman who appeared from the staging area wasn't some muscled inhuman monster who was out to devastate him. But he knew appearances could be deceiving. Yajiri's form gave him a little bit of solace, but he was still very much on edge, due to the fact that he had fared so poorly during his last match. The hair on his neck wasn't standing up at any rate.

He looked at the woman then looked at the fans. They were polite but their response could best be described as tepid. Up front and personal, the woman had a stringy sort of strength to her, and maybe her style matched his own. Yajiri was quite pretty though, and her body was lithe. Part of the pomp and circumstance was pretending to be honorable. He extended his hand and offered his opponent a handshake.

He didn't care for that win-at-all-costs sort of thing, especially not this early. His handshake was firm and he took pains to look his opponent straight in the eye as he did so. "Yeah, nice to meet you. And uh, you too, I guess." James released the handshake and took a step backwards.

He crouched into his wrestling stance. All that he was waiting for now was the bell.

Yajiri had felt content with her slight bow, but it seemed her foe wished to go the extra step with their pre-match show of sportsmanship after all. Well, if nothing else, at least he wasn’t giving any indication that she’d have anything to worry about. So, cautiously and somewhat reluctantly, she stepped out to where he was and met his gaze as she shook his hand, then stepped back into her corner again.

Ding ding!

The bell rang, and it was time to get to work. Yajiri crouched down a bit and stepped out of her corner, shuffling to circle around James. After a moment she put her arms up and inched in, before lunging forward and attempting to initiate a lockup with her foe.

James was happy to see that Yajiri accepted his handshake with no funny business. Madonna surely would have done something mean, and his sister sure as shit would have. It was nice to see that the world was not totally populated by psychopaths. A slight smirk curled the corner of his lip and he bounced backwards to his corner. The bell told him it was officially go time and James was bouncing from one foot to the next.

A feeling of quiet came over him. All of his previous concerns melted away and the ace was here and now. Her heart began to beat a little bit faster. This was something he knew more than anything else, and James was honestly a little bit eager to go. He eyed his opponent. She was being a little bit cautious and James wasn't sure he could blame her. A lazy circle formed in the middle of the ring as James scried for some sort of opening.

He didn't find one. Instead, his opponent moved forward and sought a lock up. James moved forward as he was happy to accept. His strength was something that was doubted after his last match, and he wanted an opportunity to prove that there was something to his body. He planted his feet and tried to push his opponent back.

Yajiri was a few inches shorter than her foe, who also seemed to have at least a good twenty or thirty pounds over her. She wasn’t necessarily a weak woman, but she had no illusions about being able to directly overpower James. Sure enough, when he started pushing, Yajiri found her feet taking involuntary steps backward even as she strained against him.

But she had no intention of staying in this lockup long enough to get driven up against the ropes or the corner. Instead, she abruptly dropped to a knee and tried to slide around James and stand up behind him, where she’d immediately wrap her arms around him in a simple waistlock.

Hardly anything that would be likely to force a submission. But it would be harder for James to utilize his strength advantage from this position. And hopefully in his attempt to get out of her clutches, he’d leave himself open for something she could take advantage of. Though for the moment she just had to be patient and wait.

James found that he was gaining a little ground. It was no surprise. The ace was physically larger than his opponent by a solid measure. Still, though, he felt some strength within his opponent and a whole heck of a lot of smarts. Some other women would make this a contest of pride and tried to fight back against a clearly superior force, but for a rookie, Yajiri was doing pretty well.

When his opponent slid in behind him, James initially had no counter. Inwardly he was chiding himself for letting his foe get around him. Usually he was pretty fast on the uptake and would have moved his body so as not to be encircled. But, here he was. Yajiri's arms were around his waist. In any other circumstances, this would have been nice. The company of women who were not larger than him was always pleasant.

But as it was, James had to fight. With no warning, he twisted sharply to his left, sending a probing elbow backwards. He intended for the blow to connect with her head. The problem was, she was behind him and he was coming in blind. His sense of feel was usually pretty accurate, though...

Yajiri may not have been the quickest girl on AFW’s payroll, but for the short distance she needed to travel, she was more than quick enough to be effective. Sure enough, she got her arms around James’ waist and clung onto him, with her front pressing against his back.

Naturally Yajiri didn’t expect him to just stand there and let her throw him around. And when James threw his elbow, the rookie tried shifting her head out of the way, but still wound up grunting and wincing as the strike hit her head, albeit with lighter force than it might’ve had she not moved.

She started stumbling back but still kept a hold of James. With her balance offset, Yajiri tried to turn that negative into a positive by falling back and attempting to drag her foe right down to the mat with her. She had no idea how skilled a mat based grappler James was, but was more than willing to test him on it now if she could.

The elbow connected. It wasn't as hard as James wanted it to be, but it landed and that is what actually mattered. James had effectively rolled over and waited for Madonna to come to him last match and he suffered dire consequences. He couldn't control how Yajiri went about this match, but he could control how he reacted to it. Although the blow was vitiated, he still showed his opponent that he could lash out when he felt he needed to.

And then things went to hell. The ace was off balance when Yajiri tried to pull him down. He took one step, two steps, and then faltered and crashed to the ground. It was inelegant both on his part and Yajiri's but he could not doubt the efficacy of it. As he went down he waved his arms to try and remain upright but all he ended up doing was looking terribly silly.

Almost as silly as he looked on the ground flailing. James tried to roll away from Yajiri after a second of uncoordinated flopping.

A rear waist lock from this position wasn’t inescapable, but there were certain methods that were much more effective than others. Unfortunately for James, borderline frantically rolling about wasn’t one of those ways. And as he squirmed, she easily stayed right with him and kept her arms locked securely in place.

Hoping to make use of his own escape efforts, she’d ride through the motion of his squirming while leaning into him, trying to roll him onto his front with her straddled over his back. From there she’d plant her feet on the mat and attempt to drag his arms over her thighs, before reaching her hands around his chin to put him in a camel clutch!

Whether she managed to lock in the hold or not, Yajiri didn’t expect she’d be able to force a submission from James so soon in the match. But if anything, it’d be a good step in the right direction.