Josh & Jesse Rogers vs Carmen & Army Rodriguez

Jesse felt an enormous wave of relief when her charge successfully brought Carmen to the ground, rather than just earn the blonde a heavy blow of some sort to the head. No, a takedown wasn’t by any means an indicator that Jesse had the match won. It was a wrestling match. This sort of thing was as basic as basic got. But it drastically decreased her chances of eating a knockout blow. Josh recognized where her head was at and gave a couple loud claps for her.

“Nice, Jesse! Just keep hangin’ in there!” he called out to her, though it didn’t really need saying. His sister had no plans of backing off now that she’d brought Carmen down, and she knew there’d be some immediate resistance. Sure enough, a pair of punches struck right against her face. With her arms occupied with Carmen’s legs, there wasn’t anything to stop the blows from striking. Had they been standing, the shots very well might’ve had enough power behind them to knock Jesse out cold. As it was, it hurt and dazed her a bit, but that was the extent of it, though Jesse still wanted to avoid taking too many hits like that if possible.

Carmen wanted her to back up, and Jesse did just that, leaning her torso back and away from the boxing legend. But if her foe thought she’d just retreat and let her get back up again, she had another thing coming. As she moved back, Jesse attempted to coil her legs around one of Carmen’s, while simultaneously trying to wrap an arm around the girl’s foot and twist it to the side to apply a heel hold. No, Jesse was no master submission grappler. Her striking prowess as a whole far exceeded her mat game. But this sort of thing was the one aspect of her match with Alicia in which she hadn’t been completely destroyed. In fact she’d almost managed to lock a similar hold onto that redhead. Had it worked, who knows how different the rest of that bout might’ve been?

In any case, Jesse doubted she’d be able to make Carmen tap here even if she did lock it in. It was early, and the Puerto Rican was likely strong enough to drag them over to the ropes well before surrender became a realistic option. But if she could upset Carmen’s base, establish a target to work over, that could mean everything for the Rogers’ chances tonight.

Jesse was a stubborn woman, Carmen could see that right away. Typically, getting punched in the face would’ve discouraged her opponent's from whatever course of action they were considering. While she couldn’t generate her maximum force from this current position, an unprotected blow to the face was still an unprotected blow to the face, and she made sure to deliver them to where they would hurt the most. She’d put bigger women on the mat with less.

Jesse, though, kept going. Even though she had to be hurting, even though her brain was surely scrambled, she had the wherewithal to not only soldier through, but execute a good maneuver. What Carmen thought was a retreat turned out to be anything but - Jesse was going for the legs.

Carmen’s growl was equal parts annoyance and rage, as the hold locked in and the pain surged. She hated submission moves, as a rule, despite getting better at both executing and taking them in the past few years. A less experienced opponent might have targeted her arms, thinking they would be taking out her best weapons, but the legs were the smarter target - so much of her style relied on mobility, she needed them both at 100%. The longer she spent in this hold, the worse her chances got.

She hated it, but she didn’t have any other options. Carmen had to make it to the ropes.

She sneered, pounded her fists into the mat, and started pushing backwards, dragging the blonde along with her. It wasn’t that far to the ropes, thankfully, but even so, she’d need a good two seconds to reach them. In a hold like this, that would feel like twenty.

Jesse felt quite relieved when she was able to lock her hold in successfully, but there was no time to pat herself on the back. Her time in this position was all but certainly going to be brief, so she had to make sure to make the most out of it. And just as Carmen growled, Jesse let out an adrenaline filled shout while cranking up the pressure as much as she could. Twisting Carmen’s foot this far for an extended period of time had all the potential of causing rather nasty injuries. But while she was certain the pain would linger for a good while, that was about the furthest extent of the use Jesse would get out of the hold until…

“BREAK!”

The size difference between the two as well as the distance to the ropes both were factors that worked against Jesse. It had only taken a couple brief moments for the boxer to drag them both over and grab a hold of the rope. A more sinister woman might have ignored that and kept the hold on a little while longer. Jesse was hardly a charming woman herself, but she was a Rogers. Like her brother and sister, she’d been trained to fight with dignity and integrity. So before the ref could even think about starting a warning count, she let go of the trapped limb and rolled away before pushing up to a knee, where she glared at Carmen and took a moment to catch her breath. A round of applause came out from the crowd, who seemed pretty pleased with the action they were seeing so far. But Jesse didn’t react to it in the slightest, as if she didn’t even hear it. The one voice in the arena that did noticeably reach her came from her team’s corner.

“Tag me!” Josh yelled out, extending his big right arm out to his sister. Jesse didn’t want to tag him in. What she wanted to do was keep throwing everything she had at Carmen. Now that she’d confirmed she could bring the former 24/7 champ off her feet, she was starting to get some genuine confidence. This by no means felt like a guaranteed victory, but Jesse was at least feeling like her chances were a bit better in reality than they seemed to be on paper. But, she understood that Josh was fresh, she wasn’t. She’d made some nice progress, but it was time to hand over the reigns for a bit. So, reluctantly, and keeping her eyes locked onto Carmen the whole way, Jesse slowly rose to her feet and backed off to her corner, then reached out and slapped Josh’s hand. She stepped through the ropes to move out onto the apron, while her brother swung a leg over the top rope and stepped over it to enter the ring. The giant didn’t immediately go on the attack, instead opting to wait until Carmen decided whether she wanted to keep things going against him herself, or tag Army in and let the two brothers go at it.

The pain from the hold wasn’t the worst part of Jesse’s move. True, she’d locked it on pretty well. Carmen wasn’t any more of an expert on these things than her opponent was, she strongly suspected, but as near as she could tell, it was a perfectly serviceable submission. Regardless, it didn’t last long enough to be a big problem. Maybe in a regular, singles match, it would grow worse over time, but here she could take breaks. She could rest. Any gain Jesse got from it would be minimal.

But that was hardly the point. Jesse had come out the winner in that little exchange. Hardly the same as winning the match itself, but a mental victory that would give her confidence going forward. This match was looking less and less like a mismatch by the second, and that meant the psychological advantage Carmen enjoyed was fading. Not that Carmen needed it to win, but she liked to have every card at her disposal.

Irritating as it was, there was no getting around it now, as Jesse promptly broke away and Carmen stood, pushing up on her remaining good leg. She kept her eyes locked on Jesse as she moved back, marching that hardened glare with one of her own, but she wouldn't have to stare for long - Josh was coming in now.

In a straight up situation, Carmen would have had no problem taking him on. He was big, sure, but she'd laid out big men before, not the least of whom was her own brother. She could move around him, outmaneuver with ease.

At least, she could have if her leg was at 100%. That wasn't the case thanks to Jesse, which meant there was only one logical choice - it was time for her brother to step in.

When Carmen turned around, Army’s hand was already outstretched with his grin wide. She gave him a quick glance - her ‘don’t fuck this up, please’ look - and gave him the tag, officially switching places as the crowd cheered. As nice as it was to see two fine, talented women duel in the ring, the Japanese loved their big monster fights.

Army grabbed the ropes, pulled hard, and yanked his way into the ring with a big leap. He bounced off the floor once, then strode forward a single step, until he found himself staring at Josh. Or, rather, staring up at him. Rare concept.

”Yo.” He shrugged, looking at the big bruiser as if he’d just come over to his house for video games. ”Sup?”

One thing Josh liked to do when facing a new opponent, particularly if they were on the larger side, was get them to stare up at him, just like Army was doing now, then wonder how often they’d had to look up to meet their foe’s eyes before. Probably a silly thought to most. But Army was a big guy, competing in a league made mostly of women shorter than him. How often was it a guy like that came to the ring against someone taller and bigger than him? Josh highly doubted it was a frequent occurrence. Thoughts like that helped boost Josh’s confidence - not that he lacked faith in himself, but it never hurts to be reminded that you hold an advantage of some sort. An “x factor” to perhaps balance the playing field against Army’s veteran experience and precise strikes.

But if Army was bothered by Josh’s size, it didn’t show.

“Oh, just the usual,” the giant answered casually with a chuckle. He wasn’t quite as serious as Jesse during matches - or in general for that matter, but he usually wasn’t one to laugh and banter much with his opponents either. So with that he took a step back and held his hands up toward Army, daring the boxer to try his hand at a good ol’ test of strength.

If he had the balls to take that challenge, that is.

While it was true that Army had never wrestled a guy bigger than he was, he should’ve known how to approach. In theory, at least.

All he needed to do, really, was follow the same mold women did when they fought him. Dance around a lot. Use his speed. Stay light, stay mobile, and take any opportunity that came his way. Simple enough, and he probably had the tools to handle it. He wasn’t the fastest guy on the roster, but it was a safe bet that Josh was even lower on the rankings.

The last thing he should’ve done was try to test his strength against the big bruiser. He knew it. Carmen especially knew it, and knew that he should’ve known it, too. So, when he moved in for the test of strenght, despite knowing that...

”Ugh.” She muttered. ”Damn it, Army.”

Army locked up with Josh, finger to finger, hand to hand, and started pushing forward. His base was solid, his stance was good, and he had great upper body strength to work with. It was enough to push back about 99% of the roster...but he had strong feeling this guy was in the 1%.

Josh couldn’t help but grin just a bit when Army came in to lock hands with him. And though Jesse didn’t show anything in her face, she felt herself relax a little bit. With her brother just holding his hands up like that, it wouldn’t have taken any effort at all for Army to slip a few potentially rib-cracking bombs through the giant’s open guard. Fortunately that wasn’t something they’d have to worry about. Not for now, at least.

The moment their hands were locked up Josh anchored himself down and focused on preventing Army from pushing him backward. Part of it was just mind games, trying to show the boxer right away this wasn’t a battle he was about to win. Another part was that he wanted Army to waste some valuable energy and tire himself out just trying to push this human mountain back. Yet still another factor was that if Josh pushed back now, all he’d succeed in doing would be sending Army back into his own corner. Dealing with one veteran boxer was going to be a challenge in and of itself, but he’d rather not have two sets of fists to worry over at once.

So while they were deadlocked in the middle of the ring, Josh started to turn them, adjusting their angle until he had Army’s back facing one of the neutral corners. Then, finally, the big bull took charge. “RAAAAAAAAAGH!!!” Josh roared out while driving forward with everything he had, trying to outright overwhelm Army and drive him back all the way into the corner!

At first things seemed to be going well enough. Josh had the weight advantage on Army, sure, but it seemed like he was holding his own well enough in the middle ring, keeping in place as the two musclemen vyed for position. It wasn’t easy to hold this, but he was pulling it off. Josh was the bigger down, but that didn’t mean he could bite harder.

Carmen, watching from the sidelines, saw things a little different. Army was a good wrestler most of the time, but he often forgot that the ring could be a weapon itself in a lot of ways, especially with someone smart. And judging from the way Josh was moving them around, getting in just the right position...”Army!” She called his way. ”Look out, he’s trying to reposition you to-”

He warning was cut off, but it hardly mattered, since Army wasn’t really listening, anyway. Josh’s surge caught him off guard, and the next thing he knew, he was getting pushed into the corner by his bullish charge. And held there.

”Gah, fuck!” He strained, pushed against Josh hard, but he couldn’t quite muster the energy to get this bruiser back. ”Okay, you’re a little strong. I’ll admit.”

He had a quick chuckle, then scrunched his face up and swung his head forward, looking to make their heads collide. A headbutt, hopefully with enough force to make Josh release him.

Carmen was wise enough to see what was coming, but her warning was too late. Josh caught the boxer off guard, charged him straight back into the corner and pinned him up against the turnbuckles. Something like that alone certainly wasn’t going to win them the match. Far from it. But he’d managed to back his more experienced foe into a disadvantageous position. From here, the ball was in Josh’s court so to speak…

That is, until Army stole it right out from under him.

Josh was just starting to draw back. Not enough to give Army an opening to slip away, but enough that he could try to attack and get the full effect he wanted. But before that could happen, the Puerto Rican’s head slammed right into his own. Josh had a pretty hard skull, but the blow still caught him by surprise and dazed him. He staggered back out of the corner, hissing in pain, and holding both hands over his aching head. He wasn’t down, but he was still quite vulnerable.

“Don’t take your eyes off him, Josh!” his sister yelled out from the corner, hoping he’d have enough time to heed her warning.

The headbutt wasn’t exactly fun-fun happy-happy time for Army, either, but he had the advantage of expecting it. From the sound and looks of it, the blow had rocked Josh’s world, sending the behemoth of a brute stumbling away, and giving him something you rarely got in matches like this: a wide-open view of your opponent’s back.

Josh was a big dude. Josh was a goddamn huge, big, monstrous dude. Army was a big dude, too, but a smaller big dude. That meant he would have to do some things he didn’t normally do if he wanted to get this guy down. Things like…

Army looked back, then grabbed the ropes and pulled himself up, planting his boots on the middle ropes. Having never done this before, he had to take a moment to get his balance, but he managed to stand up soon enough, standing tallest in the ring for the first time.

”Hey! Gigantor!” Army called out to get Josh’s attention, then leaped towards him the second he turned around, swinging his body around as he flew to come crashing into his towering foe with a diving crossbody.