Mucha Lucha!

Julia Rogers was still getting used to doing her workouts at the Friction gym.

Soon after her arrival in Japan a couple years ago she had been accepted into the Higurashi Dojo, and from then on that was always where she trained. From weight lifting, to cardio exercises, and of course anything involving a ring, the dojo had been perfectly equiped with everything she could’ve needed. And even before she’d come to Japan, Julia’s routines at her family’s promotion in the U.S. had been very similar.

But now that the dojo was no more, she found herself regularly appearing in the Friction gym like most everyone else on the roster. Julia didn’t particularly mind the change. At least, not on the surface. The place had everything the Dojo had, and in some cases even more. More machines and free weights to work with, more options in the workouts she could choose, and more people….a lot more people. And most were people Julia had yet to meet or encounter yet. It was hard to keep that sort of thinking out of her head, but she did her best.

Entering the place with a red sports bra, matching shorts and a pair of white running shoes, the blonde made her way over to the empty ring and hopped up onto the apron. She grabbed onto the top rope, crouched down, then slung herself up and over, landing nice and easy on her feet inside the ring. She sat down on the mat with her legs spread out before her, then leaned toward her right leg and reached out to grab the toe of her shoe, stretching herself out a bit before she kicked things off. And while she did, she glanced around at some of the other women making use of the gym. Part of her wanted to approach someone, break the ice, maybe even make a new friend. But another part of her said to forget about it and just mind her business.

Unable to make an immediate choice, Julia just decided to wait until she’d finished stretching to make up her mind on that.

The Friction was indeed a popular setting for many members of the AFW roster to frequent. Despite not having used it anywhere nearly as much as some of the more well-known faces of the promotion, Katherine Hart was no stranger to any of the devices, amenities, or workout regiments, there. As an indie wrestler that spent time in various wrestling promotions in the states before choosing to come to AFW, she had familiarized herself with various gyms and adapted to them with relative ease. Enough ease to avoid seeming out of place or averse to anything going on in the gym. Or at least, she would seem a lot less conspicuous if she wasn't working out in her wrestling gear.

Katherine was a good sport and willing to play up or entertain her gimmick. Silly as it was, she enjoying being the purple fighting feline that her friends and fans back home had become accustomed to cheering for. And keeping the mask on, even in certain public settings, allowed her to get noticed while still retaining a little anonymity. She figured the rest of the outfit might as well be on if she was gonna wear the mask while working out.

After hyping herself up with some light cardio and lifting, Katherine made her way to where she felt most at home in any given gym: the practice rings. She would shadowbox a bit while making her way over, seemingly in the zone and ready to drill moves or even spar with someone. "There's a toooon of people today! Awesome~! I bet I'll be able to practice with at least half a dozen before heading out. Should be a super productive session!" The purple clad wrestler said to herself before closing in on a ring and rolling under the bottom rope. She almost immediately and energetically popped up to her feet to see someone stretching on the other side of the ring.

"O-oh! My bad. Didn't see you, there!" She said in a surprised tone before eyeing this woman up and down and giving her a look that communicated that she was intrigued with her. Kat couldn't quite put her finger on it, but something about her fellow blonde made her feel strikingly similar to her. Hart didn't often do her homework on other wrestlers. She often had her manager and her more astute tag partner do that kinda stuff. But she did have sharp instincts. And they weren't too far off. A fellow American blonde that had been wrestling in the states long before coming to AFW, another wrestler who often worked her matches while masked, was well liked by the crowd and was also described as sincere and energetic. If Katherine every stopped to look through the roster/profile database for the more prominent members of AFW, she'd have come across and sought out the high-flying Julia Rogers.

In the interest of being friendly and hopefully making a new acquaintance or even close friend, Kat would wave to Julia before commenting: "I'm Kat! It's nice to meetchya!"

Julia hadn’t even noticed someone else had entered the ring until a voice across from the other side caught her attention. She glanced up and saw a woman she’d never met before, but a woman she recognized nonetheless. The cowgirl liked to watch as many matches as she could. Not necessarily to study the other wrestlers, but largely because she just loved watching wrestling as much as she loved to wrestle herself. Katherine was a woman who had turned some heads recently, Julia’s included.

She’d seen a few of the girl’s matches, including the one she had with Alaina. The Amazon may have been on something of a slump since her heartbreaking loss at Avalanche, but Alaina had looked as good as Julia had ever seen her in her match with Katherine. Even still, Katherine hang right in there with her from bell to bell. That was enough for Julia to determine that this girl was legit.

With a friendly smile on her face, Julia rolled back onto her shoulders and kicked her legs out to spring up to her feet, then walked over to the other luchador. “Julia Rogers, and likewise,” she said, extending a hand toward Katherine for a handshake. “I’ve seen some of ‘yer matches, Kat. Always nice to see another talented lucha gal ‘round here!”

"O-Oh! Have you really?! Thanks! It's a pleasure." Kat said in response. She had replied in a happy and excited tone while reaching out to shake the woman's hand and shaking it with the same level of enthusiasm with which she spoke. Kat had gotten off to a decent start at AFW. But Hart hadn't imagined that any of the other competitors would have taken notice of her matches. It was pretty easy to go "under the radar", so to speak, in AFW. Catching anyone's attention with your matches alone was a feat in and of itself.

"The wrestling world could always use more lucha, you know? Wait, did you say your name was Julia Rodgers?" The purple clad wrestler voiced her stream of consciousness upon learning the name of her new acquaintance. She maintained eye contact with Julia as her facial expression and body language communicated that she had come to a realization. "I haven't really looked into much of the history of this promotion, or familiarized myself with any of the standout talents, here. But I swear I've definitely heard your name before. Like even before coming here. You...you were wrestling in the States, right? And you were doing a phenomenal job! I was, too!"

Katherine was surprised to be able to recognize Julia as a wrestler from somewhere outside AFW. She'd release her grip on her fellow blonde's hand before smiling at her and awaiting her response. It was a very welcome turn of events for Kat. Her day went from a run of the mill training session to getting the chance to meet and hit it off with a fellow indie star.

Kat’s response after Julia had introduced herself caught her by surprise. It wasn’t exactly that Kat hadn’t seen any of her matches or had only vaguely even heard of her. Most tended to be more familiar with her even on the first meeting, but that didn’t really matter. Some wrestlers spend countless hours learning everything they can about the rest of their roster, and others preferred to spend that time training themselves instead. Like Julia, Kat seemed to lean more to the latter end of the spectrum.

But what was surprising was that Kat had heard of Julia even before her arrival here in the AFW. Even among those who’d already seemed to know all about her right away had only known what they’d seen or heard of her here in Japan. It probably didn’t mean anything important, but something about hearing that from Kat just felt nice.

“Thanks! That’s really cool of ya to say,” Julia replied with a smile as she brought her hand back to her hip. “Shame we never ended up crossin’ paths over there. Got a feelin’ we coulda put on one helluva show! Actually, now that I think about it…” she said, then paused for a moment to look around them and make sure no one else seemed like they were wanting to use the ring too. Once she felt sure they had it to themselves, she smiled to Kat and spoke again.

“Hey, I was just about to do some practicin’ on the ropes, but now that you’re here too, any chance you’d be up for a quick spar or somethin’? Think that’d be a lot more fun than a little workout.”

Katherine nodded and smiled with enthusiasm and confidence when her new acquaintance expressed similar wishes of crossing paths way back when. Of course the very next train of thought to follow would be the idea of the two masked women to go at it right then and there! Once she noticed that her fellow blonde was scoping out the immediate area, she could already tell what was coming.

"Darn right it'd be fun! Let's do it!" Hart responded with gusto and a smile of her own as she began to stretch. She looked forward to getting the chance to throw down with someone like Miss Rogers, though she didn't let her enthusiasm cloud her judgement. "I know you said it ought to be quick, but if I'm reading this situation right, I don't think either of us are of the mindset of going down easily. I also don't think either of us are considering the idea of holding back....if you're pressed for time, we can put a time limit on this spar, just to be safe, ya?"

Katherine could tell that Julia wasn't someone to be taken lightly. She had every intention of giving her fellow Luchadora everything she could handle, but she didn't want to be an inconvenience. "Say, 30 minutes?" She offered, hoping it would serve as a reasonable time range.

Julia liked the way this girl thought.

Granted, the cowgirl was more than confident she was capable of taking on anyone in the league. And she was sure Katherine was confident in her own skills as well. And even if they had no intention of holding back, Julia doubted either of them would approach a simple spar as if it was a battle over the world title at Avalanche. Still, both were competitive women, and both were going to do whatever they could to try to win. It was just in their nature.

Besides, 30 minutes would be plenty of time. Not that Julia doubted Katherine’s ability. But it was rare for matches to go that long, regardless of who was in the ring. Something like this would probably take, oh...10, maybe 15 minutes. Tops. But it would be nice to have some leftover time to work with just in case.

“Good idea!” Julia replied with a smile, then looked over to the nearest trainer and waved to get her attention. “Hey! We’re gonna spar over here. Mind timin’ us?” she called out, and the woman smiled and nodded before walking over and coming into the ring. “I’ll be happy to ref too if you need it. What are we setting the time for?”

“Thirty minutes,” Julia answered. Again the trainer nodded, then took out her phone and set a timer for 30 minutes. “Whenever you two are ready!” she said. Julia moved into one corner and stretched her legs out one more time, then nodded to the trainer to confirm she was good to go. The woman looked over to Katherine to make sure she was ready too.

“Alright. Aaaaaand…. GO!” she’d then call out, pressing the button to start the timer, then stuffing the phone into her pocket as the spar officially kicked off!

The time window of 30 minutes seemed rather reasonable. If anything, it gave both ladies ample time for a well-fought spar and a chance to talk and possibly bond afterwards. They clearly saw eye to eye upon their first meeting, so the idea just made sense. After the two settled on the terms, Kat smiled nodded with gusto when Julia expressed that she felt it was a good idea.

Julia went on to catch the attention of a nearby trainer. With her reputation preceding her, it seemed effortless for Julia to have the spar arranged. Katherine had witnessed many newer girls get long spheals about safety and such when prompting trainers to oversee their contests. After Rogers stated the time they'd be wrestling for, the trainer looked to Kat for confirmation from both women. "Yes, ma'am." She said after being given the look.

After the timer was started, Kat put her fists together before assuming a stance with her feet with and her arms forward as if ready to grapple. She'd begin to circle the ring with her new friend and soon to be formidable opponent whilst stating: "Really glad we got this going. I was honestly a little bummed that I didn't get to wrestle ya, back home." After finishing her sentence, she lunged forwards at her opponent, aiming to lock up with Julia and summon her strength to try to push forwards and force her back towards the ropes or a corner.

Julia took one last big breath as the timer started before moving out from her corner, slightly crouched and almost completely mirroring Katherine’s stance and movements. Given the similar background and styles between the two, this didn’t come as much of a surprise to Julia, though she did appreciate her sparring partner’s kind words.

“Thanks! Woulda loved the chance to do that myself. But better late than never though, right?” she replied with a wink. Then it was time to go to work, and Julia lunged out almost simultaneously with Katherine, locking arms with her fellow luchador in the middle of the ring. Julia strained and pushed, but could quickly tell a battle of strength wasn’t one she was going to win here. Her right foot took a forced step back, followed by her left. So, since it seemed futile to try to drive Katherine the opposite direction, Julia elected to go a different route.

Easing up on her resistance, the masked cowgirl allowed herself to be driven back a few steps, bringing her straight toward the ropes. But then she reached out and back with a foot, found the middle rope with it, and pushed off it to send her lower body swinging into the air while her arms remained locked with Katherine’s. As she came back down to the side, Julia attempted to readjust an arm to snake around her foe’s, so that once she fell back to the mat she could twist to the side and attempt to toss Katherine down with an arm drag.

As the spar began and both women tried to get a feel for the other, the two would meet each other head on after Julia winked at Kat. The Luchadoras would lock up in a test of strength and attempt to drive their opponent back. It seemed that Katherine was poised to win the contest. She smiled confidently as her fellow blonde was pushed back step by step. Kat had planned to follow up once her foe had her back to the ropes. But once they were close enough, Julia responded to The Super Kitty's strength by placing a foot on the ropes and pushing off of it to gain some height. She'd artfully maneuver her way through the air while ensnaring Kat's arm with her own before landing. The momentum and height from the jump would culminate in a well executed Arm Drag from Rogers!

"Huh? W-woah!"

Kat seemed to be caught off guard by the maneuver. Few wrestlers she'd faced could manage such a dynamic move from the situation she had placed Julia in. Kat was thrown down the the canvas, but quickly recovered by landing on her upper back and rolling before popping back up to her feet. She'd turn around to face her foe before smiling at her and remarking on their exchange.

"This is gonna a be fun one!"