Julia Rogers vs. Valley Doll II - Try Again

Moves like this were almost more mental than physical, Valley was convinced. There were probably plenty of women who had the body to do what she did, who were agile enough and light enough. But that was only half the battle. You had to know the move. Feel the air. Know exactly how much strength to put into the jump in order to get the right spin. Too little, and you wound up looking like an idiot. Too much, and you wound up looking like a crippled idiot.

Luckily, Valley knew the balance, and that knowledge came into use, as she came flying down on Julia with her thunderous finisher, hitting her like the wrath of god.

The crowd went wild after the hit, but Valley took no time to bask. She simply moved forward, grabbed Julia’s leg, and tried to hook her up for the pin, getting her leg in nice and tight for the pin.

The referee couldn’t drop for the count soon enough, in Valley’s opinion.

"1...!"

Julia could only imagine how much it would shock and wow the crowd if she kicked out of a pin right after being on the receiving end of such an amazing move. And if she later managed to mount a comeback and defeat Valley? Now that would be the stuff of legend.

“TWO...!”

And she could imagine how baffled Valley would be if Julia managed to pull it off. Maybe even angry. Of course, Julia wasn’t sadistic by any means, but even she would no doubt get quite a bit of amusement from the other blonde’s reaction, whatever it was.

Unfortunately, none of that would be happening tonight.

“THREE!”

The bell rang, and the crowd exploded into thunderous cheers as Valley Doll was declared the winner. Julia had fought hard in an attempt to repeat the history of their previous match. But it wasn’t to be. Tonight Valley had outsmarted and outwrestled Julia. She’d earned the victory tonight, and that was all there was to it.

It was happening. Valley could scarcely believe it was happening, but it was.

She’d been in this spot so many times, she couldn’t recount them all if she had a year to do it. So many times, she’d try to go for a pin. She knew the disappointment that came after someone kicked out a move that should have obliterated them. But this would be ten times worse. If she couldn’t beat Julia with this, she couldn’t beat Julia period

And then she did

Valley lifted off of Julia and stayed off her knees, staring down at her rival and barely moving. She’d won. It hadn’t been easy, it hadn’t been quick, but she’d done it. She said she would, and she did it.

”Wow.” She whispered and finally went back to reality, hearing the screams of the fans. She gave a little smile their way, but most of her focus was on her sparring partner for the evening.

”Hey,” Valley gave Julia a tap on the side. ”You okay?”

With the exception of the rising and falling of her chest with each heavy breath she took, Julia remained completely still even after Valley got off of her. Her expression, even with the mask on, did nothing to hide the pain and anguish she was feeling. Her head felt like it had been struck with brass knuckles. Her ribs felt like a baseball bat had been repeatedly swung into them. And her leg felt like it had been stabbed in over a dozen different places.

But despite all of that, when asked if she was alright Julia forced as much of a smile as she could and weakly nodded. “I’ll live...” she said, though as out of breath as she was, even that took some effort. She groaned and moved a hand up to brush some hair out of her face, then rested it over her aching head in a futile attempt to ease the excruciating headache.

“Heh... Guess I couldn’t getcha again this time after all, huh?”

Valley was a little worried for a moment, as Julia took her time rousing back to life. Not that she didn’t think the cowgirl was capable of taking a beating - she knew that wasn’t the case - but this had been a particularly grueling bout, and Valley had done a lot more working on the limbs than usual. The last thing she wanted to do was put Julia on the bench for any length of time. She was way too good for that.

”Not this time, no.” Valley smiled down at her rival, soft and comforting. “But next time…”

And there would be a next time, she was sure of it. The two of them were even with wins now, and unspoken wrestling law dictated they fix that at some point. It wouldn’t have to be any time soon. But someday.

For now, Valley was focused on the moment. She stood and extended her hand to Julia, wincing as she bent over. ”How’s your leg? Can you stand?”

“Next time...”

Even if Valley hadn’t said it first, the thought would’ve still been there. Without either woman outright saying so, there would no doubt be another clash between these two down the line somewhere. There had to be. With the score evened between them, things couldn’t be left as they were forever.

But that was a matter for later. Julia had hoped a victory over the number one contender for the Entropy Championship might be a stepping stone to get the cowgirl back into potential contendership herself in the near future, or at least open gateways to lots of exciting possibilities. Well, that didn’t exactly work out. Tonight, Valley was the better woman.

When the hand was extended to her, Julia took hold of it and let Valley help her up, and kept as much weight off her bad leg as possible. “Some ice and rest, and I’m sure it’ll be good as new soon enough...” Julia said, though she couldn’t help but wince as she spoke in reaction to the pain. But she ignored that as much as she could, and once she was up she raised Valley’s hand up high. An immediate round of applause came from the audience in response to the display of sportsmanship.

“Hey,” Julia said with a small grin a moment later, “Good luck at Avalanche. I’m expectin’ y’all to steal the show, so don’t let me down.” She winked at Valley, then took a few less than graceful, limping steps toward the ropes. Julia grabbed one of them and lowered herself onto her back, slowly rolled herself under the bottom rope to exit the ring, then limped her way back up the ramp. Normally she’d take some time to high five some fans along the front row, but considering how hard it was to even keep her balance right now, veering toward any of them likely would’ve turned out to be a bad idea. So instead she settled for a few waves and smiles before disappearing through the curtain to head back to the locker room.