Shanari ‘The Ravager’ Drackanov vs. Libby ‘Liberty’ Vella - Making New Friends

Match Type: \Hardcore
Victory Conditions: Pinfall, Submission, or KO

***

The roaring crowd. The thunderous applause. The steady hum. The heady smell of a thousand foods mixing together. The annoying commentators at ringside, pushing whatever bullshit Lukretia was trying to pawn off from her corporate masters this month. That thick tension in the air, as the audience waited for the next match to start, craving carnal carnage.

God, Liberty loved wrestling. If she could, she’d kick her own ass for ever taking a break from it.

There she stood in the middle of the ring as her music finished playing after she’d made her entrance, soaking in the energy of the huddled masses yearning for violence. It had been a little while, too damn long, since her crazy match with Abattoir, and she was eager to give them just what they craved. But, before that happened, she had a few words to lay out, both to them and her opponent for the evening. Hence the microphone in her hand.

”Hey, yo!” She yelled into the microphone and raised her fist up high, centering their attention on her. ”It's taken some time, sorry about that, but guess what, people? Your hardcore champion is back!”

That declaration drew a mixed reaction from the crowd - Liberty had her fans, sure, and she’d never officially been beaten for the hardcore title. But she had lost matches since then. Tough matches, sure, but a loss was a loss was a loss. No way around it.

”That’s right, I’m making the claim, right here and now! Did Abattoir beat me? Yeah. We went to hell and back. We wrecked each other’s shit. She...nearly took out my eye.” Liberty blanched at the memory of Abattoir and that staple gun. Things got too hardcore for a moment in that match, even for her liking.

”And I came up losing. I own that. But I own this, too: when it was all over, when she damn near caved my skull in, when she was pinning me down, know what she called me? ‘Worthy’.”

That got some of the crowd back on her side. Some.  There were still some holdouts, but a lot of them at least respected what she stood for, what she’d earned in the past and wanted to earn again.

”So, here’s the deal!” Liberty made her way to the turnbuckle and hopped up on, standing on the middle pad and pointing to the entrance curtain. ”One step back is just one step. When I want something, I don’t stop. I keep moving forward, and I’ll wreck anyone who gets in my way. Anyone. So, Shanari,” The audience got together in their cheers now, as Liberty spoke a relatively old and recognized name in the AFW lore. ”Sorry, but tonight, you’re helping me prove that. Come on out!”

With that said, Liberty tossed the microphone away, jumped off the turnbuckle and bounced her way to the center of the ring, suitably hyped and eager to begin the festivities.

It was rather uncommon for Shanari to actually be called out for something, mainly because she refused to step into the ring with opponents she had deemed unworthy. To her, this was yet another fluke, though Esdese insisted that she should at least show her dominance at least once, and a Hardcore match would be perfect for that! Shanari was leaning against the wall, quietly watching the television that showed Liberty giving the crowd a speech and soon even calling out the eldest Drackanov, who would sigh out of pure frustration as she would bring a hand up to rub the top of her head.

" This is already irritating me.. " Shanari spoke out the her tag team partner, who had just finished discussing something with one of the staff members. Esdese was planning everything for the annoyed Russian, soon stepping in front of her so they could have a little talk while the staff members set up Shanari's intro. " Regardless, You're going to need to show your strength and skill at some point. See this is a perfect opportunity to let the crowd now that despite the low amount of matches you accept, that you are hardened by the years of your fighting career. " Esdese seemed more interested in the match than Shanari was, but ultimately the Russian knew that she had to fight at some point if she wanted that monthly paycheck. With a low nod, she would push off the wall, stepping past Esdese to head to the stage, stretching her arms up and unleashing a loud yawn as her theme song soon blasted through the arena.

The Ravager stepped out to face the crowd, whom also had mixed reactions for the sadistic Russian. It was a rare sight to see Shanari in the ring nowadays, and a Hardcore match seemed to be more appropriate for the battle hardened woman! She stepped down the ramp after she was ready, fireworks flaring up from the sides of the ramp the moment she was walking down, rolling her shoulders a few times as she headed to the ring, stopping in front of it  before she would roll under the bottom ropes, pushing off her hands to get back up onto her feet to face her opponent.

" You're going to regret those words. " She hissed at her opponent as she stood in front of her, tilting her head from one side to another, rousing herself up to fight as she waited for the referee to get ready now.

Liberty honestly didn’t know too much about Shanari. She’d heard about her, sure, but mostly just heard - she didn’t have too many matches under her belt in the AFW, precious little recent. Her few showings had been impressive, so she had high hopes on getting a solid fight out of this. But, aside from knowing she had a weird taste in hairstyles, there weren’t many conclusions to be drawn about the current state of Shanari Drackanov.

That changed when Shanari came out and made her way down the ramp. From that point on, Liberty knew an extra thing about her, bare minimum: the woman could make an entrance.

Pyrotechnics. Confident walk. Catchy electronic rock theme that Liberty’d probably be Googling after this match was. A little over-the-top to the simple walk most women in the federation did, but that was the point. This was wrestling. Presentation was half the game, and Shanari knew how to present.

"Fireworks." Liberty muttered and folded her arms. "Need to get my own. Damn."

Wouldn’t make a difference when it came to Liberty planting Shanari's pretty face square into the announcer’s table, but all the same. Nice.

She waited in the middle of the ring, tapping her feet to the music as it started to fade and her opponent slid on in. There was, of course, the customary warning tossed her way. Liberty just smirked for a moment, canting her head to the side while she checked Shanari out up close. Good build. Good body. Liberty was clearly the bigger woman between them, but a lot of that was in her curves, her bulk. If there was a speck of fat on Shanari’s body, it wasn’t showing.

”Pfft.” Liberty waved Shanari off after a couple of tense seconds, as the referee made her way in between them. “Don’t think so. Really don’t think so, hornhead.” She blew a few stray hairs out of her face and started to crouch, balling her fists, muscles tensing with anticipation. ”Prove me wrong.”

The bell rang and Liberty came charging out of the gate before it could even finish echoing, bolting straight for Shanari. She brought up her hands as she closed in, aiming to get the Russian in a lockup and bully her into the corner.

Shanari was ready to begin to match, though not in the fashion her opponent seemed to want. Shanari treated every fight like strategy game, where she exploited weaknesses and set up tactics that could lead to a more advantaged position. To her, wrestling was more than just gaining enough strength to over power someone. Through the years, she had her wits in battle, but not the strength to equalize it, which she had changed over the course of last year, where she trained vigorously to harden the body she had today.

When Liberty came rushing towards her with those hands up,s he knew the woman wanted a lockup to see which one of them was stronger, a rather smart move to find out who could be the dominant one in power based moves, but Shanari was going to let that remain a history as she ducked low and pushed herself to the size, going under the lockup attempt so she could get past Liberty and quickly turn around and face her back.

She already knew what she wanted to do, moving in to quickly close the distance so she could bring her arms down under Liberty's armpits and her hands up to the back of the girl's head, wanting to quickly bring her opponent in a Full Nelson hold to gain that quick advantage over her and start sapping the strength Liberty wanted to show her. As much as it might have been a good idea to start a test of strength, Shanari needed to make sure her opponent could not retaliate, thus she tried to start the match with the first submission hold!

When Liberty started moving forward with purpose, when she really put some effort into her momentum, she could turn herself into a living wrecking ball. There were bigger women than her in the AFW, lots of faster ones, but few had enough of a balance to charge like she could charge. Shanari was put together well, but that wouldn’t matter when she was trying to stop a freight train.

Which was probably at least part of the why she didn’t try that at all. Liberty found herself staggering forward as her sly foe moved around her flank and caught her from behind, locking her into a deftly applied full nelson

”Tricky fucking-”

Liberty went into a muttering, struggling, raging fit in the hold, but it wasn’t getting her anywhere. The grip was tight, solid, a mainstay in combat sports for good reasons. She wasn’t just going to break out of it, but that hardly meant she was helpless, either.

With a defiant roar, Liberty pushed back with her legs, driving Shanari towards the corner to sandwich her in the turnbuckle.

Shanari managed to move past and behind Liberty, locking her opponent in a Full Nelson that allowed the Russian a lot more ground to work with, not to mention to work over those arms to make them less useful for the duration of the fight. She had to make a guess for the time being. Since it was a hardcore match, arms were the most preferred limbs of choice to overpower their opponent with, and Shanari would have to exploit whatever weakness she could find in Liberty and use that to decrease the strength in her arms before going for anything else.

With a tactical approach, Shanari thought about either giant swinging Liberty or going for a dragon suplex, though she could feel the woman struggling already, narrowing her eyes as she started to lose her stability as Liberty began to push backwards instead, knowing that she was about to reach the turnbuckle if this kept going.

Shanari decided to use Liberty's strength against her, twisting her body to the side and turn their positions around so she could use that short momentum to try and drive Liberty's front against the corner instead and keep that full nelson in locked. However, if Liberty managed to prevent that, Shanari would have no choice but to brace herself before her back would smash against the corner!

Liberty had been in too many fights to really be 100% sure, but she was reasonably certain that this was the first time she’d ever been put into a full nelson. It was a little too technical for her typical matches, and nine out of ten AFW wrestlers rarely used anything more complex than a boston crab when it came to submissions.

That being said, she absolutely fucking hated, as one could likely guess from the furious growls and grunts she made while flailing about in the hold.

It didn’t even hurt that much, really, but it was doing a good job at keeping her locked down, and Shanari was annoyingly out of reach. So, she had high hopes when driving her opponent against the turnbuckle seemed to be working. This hope did not last too long.

”Fuck!” She got out a short curse before Shanari expertly used her own momentum against her and made her hit the turnbuckle instead, making her fulsome chest slam against it. It, also, didn’t hurt all that much, but it just further served to piss her off, and she was eager to show Shanari why that was a bad idea.

”Enjoying the view?” Liberty snarled and brought her up leg, wedging it between her and the turnbuckle. She planted her foot on the middle pad and tried to shove off with a mighty push, looking to make Shanari crash to the canvas with her on top.

Shanari needed to keep this raging woman in check and keeping her pressed against the turnbuckle allowed her to think. She didn't seem to care much that her opponent was cursed. It was a natural reaction when things didn't go their way and Shanari was guilty of letting out a few of those as well. For now, she avoided that by trying to sap the strength Liberty's arms, and even though it wasn't going to be a burst of damage, she was sure that the longer the full nelson was applied, the more annoying that burning sensation in her arms would become.

She couldn't keep that hold for long as Liberty decided to change things, using the turnbuckle to her advantage and catapulting herself into Shanari, who couldn't maintain her stability and fell over with the large woman coming down on top of her. The Russian grunted upon impact, the full nelson loosening but was quick to try and prevent Liberty from breaking free and straddling her or something like that. She could now use her legs for an offensive front, bringing them up so she could try and wrap them around Liberty's waist and give her a simple yet sometimes effective waist scissor hold!

At the same time, she would also try to apply pressure in that full nelson hold again to make sure the woman couldn't use her arms to counter her. God forbid Liberty would get free and turn things around on her, especially in the position she was in now. It would bring great trouble to Shanari, who wouldn't have much of an angle to work with.

Liberty had only known Shanari for less than a minute, and already, the barefoot beauty was earning a nice spot on her shit-list. Really, really getting tired of the fucking full nelson.

She had some momentary satisfaction as she crashed down and flattened Shanari under her, but it was fleeting. Liberty tried to slip her way out while the hold was loose, but she was caught before she had the chance to pull away. On top of that, she was given a new problem to deal with, as a pair of slim but powerful thighs wrapped around her waist and bore down like twin pythons.

”Grrk!” She clenched her teeth hard to keep the pain silent, but the anguish on her face was all too real. The hold was starting to take its toll, numbing her arms. Even if she got out, this would be a serious thing she’d have to deal with for the rest of the match. Her options for escape were low, too. No rope break to save her.

Then again, that didn’t mean going to the ropes was a bad idea.

Kicking her legs out, Liberty started sliding and bouncing towards the ropes, confusing the crowd. That was, until her leg slid under the bottom rope and she kept going. Liberty kept working her way across the mat, right onto the apron, where she tried to tumble off and fall to the outside, on top of Shanari if she was lucky and the Ravager didn’t just let go before hand. Either way, she was hoping it would be enough to earn her freedom.

Shanari was really trying to squeeze the life out of Liberty in the early hold, both the full nelson and the waist scissor combo should be enough to make most people cry out in agony, but it seemed that Liberty was a very resilient opponent, which made it a little more interesting for Shanari! She grinned wide when it felt like Liberty was just trying to flop around like a fish on dry land, though soon she started to realize that Liberty was trying to roll right out of the ring to bet things on a more solid impact for Shanari!

Before she could free herself to kick Liberty away from her, the fall happened and with some good dexterity Shanari was the one getting slammed down upon the much harder ground, with Liberty falling down on top of her again, squashing her between two hard placed and effectively forcing Shanari to release both the full nelson and the waist scissor, needing a quick breather while she was pushing against Liberty's shoulders, trying to force her off so she could roll away from her.