[ONE] Round One Match: Melody Serperior vs Makie Akamatsu

The crowd was buzzing with excitement tonight as arena was prepped for one of the matches in the latest tournament to grace the ring. A lot of names had been gathered for this upcoming tournament, and while none of them were big title holders, it was still a fairly impressive roster all the same. Rumour had it that some of the new talent in Friction was going to be showcased tonight as well: given the fact that the Friction roster was constantly expanding further and further, it was anyone's guess who the new girls might be.

Regardless, the next combatant was certainly well known. 

"Lotus" by Dir en Grey began to play in the background, and the fans cheered as Makie Akamatsu made her way into the ring. Waving to her fans, the dark-haired girl almost broke into a run as she neared the ropes, before hauling herself up onto them, showing off her slender yet athletic frame as she raised a V-sign to her cheering fans. Dropping down from the ropes, Makie stepped toward the center of the arena, waiting for her opponent to show up...wondering at who it might be...

Standing in the gorllia position for a couple minutes now, Melody was waiting for a signal for her entrance. She was still sour about what transpired during the opening ceremony to the match, mostly about the 2 people she hated the most in this company were part of the tournament in some way. Even if she could believe Mina's words about putting everything between them aside, she obviously had to be on the look out for Tsunade during the tourney.

From the limited information her insider could get on Makie Akamatsu within the last 20 minutes, Melody discovered that her opponent had quite a resume for herself in AFW, including being a former No 1 contender for Tension World Title! Doubt began to creep in...

"No, screw it. I'll win this match, no matter who it is I am fighting. I'll win this whole thing.", she thought to herself, just as a crewmember signaled that her entrance is due in 30 seconds.

Her theme began playing on the speakers as Melody slowly entered the entrance ramp to...cheers, her past accidents seemingly forgiven by the crowd. As per her usual entrance routine by this point, she did a few poses, gave a few high fives before entering the ring a minute after her song began, and bowing to the crowd at 1:25 mark of her song.

Approaching the middle of the ring, and extending her hand, she would say to Makie: "Hello! I hope we'll have a great match!"

Makie watched warily as a tall, green-haired girl entered the arena, striding confidently and attracting the cheers and applause of a sizeable portion of the crowd. As her opponent's name was announced, Makie felt a faint flash of recognition. Melody Serpiorior. (Shouldn't it have been Superior?) She had heard about this girl making the rounds in the ring, and while her record was a mixed bag, she was supposedly a good striker with a versatile style. Right off the bat, she was being paired against a (hopefully) tough opponent.

As Melody entered the ring, Makie tried not to show any reaction to the height difference between the two of them: instead she met Melody's brown-eyed gaze with her own. It was only when Melody offered her hand, however, that Makie allowed herself some ease, and accepted the proffered hand. "Agreed, may the best girl win!" she replied with a smile. "Although that, of course, means me."

She bore Melody no ill will, of course. But if this tournament was going to get Makie's name on any future championship tournies, then sadly, the British girl had made the mistake of getting in her way...

Finishing the handshake, Makie backed away to her corner, keeping an eye on Melody as she waited for the bell...

"Oh? Well, I guess I need to prove you wrong on that!", she answered with a smirk to her comment, just as she was finishing the handshake.

As the 2 girls got to their respective corners, the ref signalled for the bell, and the 1st Round match was underway.

Melody would slowly approach the middle of the ring in a fighting stance, assuming Makie would do the same.

The bell rang, and Makie darted out of her corner, watching Melody warily as she moved out into a technical wrestling stance. She mirrored the other girl's approach, eying her warily, knowing full well that she couldn't afford to take her opponent lightly. Of course, if Melody knew anything about Makie, then she would be doing the same. 

Darting in, she moved in to tied up collar and elbow with the other girl. Almost immediately, though, she would drop back, trying to flip the British girl over her shoulder in an arm drag! If that all worked out, then she would not waste any time, following up on the other girl to grab her arm, yank her up and flip her a second time in rapid succession!

Problem with not knowing her opponent ahead of time was that you couldn't tell their strengths and weaknesses from a glance. So Melody thought that, even with her mediocre chain wrestling, she could get what Makie's style is from that without too much danger.

She was wrong, as within a second of locking with the Japanese girl, she will flip the green-haired girl over her shoulder in an arm drag! Melody would try to get up as fast as possible, but Makie managed to grab her arm and drag her upwards, not giving her any time to recover.

However, to try and deny the second arm drag, Melody would pull the girl's arm. She would then attempt to kick Makie in the stomach to get the wind out of her opponent to stop any further attack Makie had planned for the moment.

Makie delighted in taking the early advantage, and took it relentlessly, flipping Melody hard to the mat. She didn't give the green haired girl any time to recover, either grabbing her by the arm yet again and yanking her up, aiming to flip her a second time in quick succession and leave her too rattled for an effective counter later on.

Except Melody had other ideas: as Makie yanked her up, she was greeted by a hard boot to the abdomen. "OOF!" she gasped, doubling over...an action that left her vulnerable to any follow up...

With her kick connecting on point, Melody wouldn't waste any time to get Makie's head under her arm as she doubled down.

Melody would immidiately drop on her back with a simple DDT, not wasting any time in between the moves.

Within a second, she thought of how to procede...in short term (aka, just for this match), she should just pile on damage on Makie before the pin attempts (like in normal wrestling matches). Problem with that strategy being that an experienced wrestler like Makie would likely find an opening in her offence and turn the match to her favour. All is good if she could win, but in theory, she still had 2 more matches to fight tonight if she were to win the tourney. As such, she needed to pile on as many pinfall attempts as possible, hoping that, by accident or out of surprise, Makie won't kick out.

As such, after the DDT, she hooked Makie's leg and pinned her to the canvas for ref to count the first pinfall attempt of the match.

Melody was quick. Makie had to give her that. The thought was still ringing in Makie's head as she felt the other girl nab her in a headlock. Before she could so much as ball a fist in reply, she was swung her over heels, before being slammed down hard on her back in a DDT!

"OOPH!" she gasped...and then just as quickly, Melody was on top of her, hooking her leg for a pin. "Get the fuck off," she growled, kicking out almost as.soon as the pin fall attempt was made. It didn't change the fact that right now, she was on a serious back foot early in the match.