Entropy Championship Title Match: Valley Doll (C) vs. Emily Nelson - Better Angels [FWC]

The thing about fighting backstage was that everything that was high-risk became even higher risk, when you took in account things like door and stairs and linoleum floors that were not designed for scantily clad wrestlers to be jumping around and bouncing off of.

Valley knew that going in, of course, but she only really knew it when Emily moved away from the somersault senton. Not enough to avoid it entirely, but enough that Valley’s landing was rougher than planned.

She’d been hoping to land on Emily’s back.

Instead she hit her from the side. Damaging, there was no doubt there, but it meant Valley was going to drop straight down afterward, and that she’d land upside down. On her shoulder.

It wasn’t a pretty crash. Valley down hard on her shoulders, sending twin shockwaves through her bones. She croaked and flopped down beside Emily, looking almost as if she’d been the one taking the move instead of dishing it out.

The ringing in Emily's ears persisted as she clutched her forehead, groaning as she felt her forehead throb dully. Her fingers came away wet, and she slowly realized that her impact against the metal shelf had opened a small cut across her temple-- not a deep cut, but enough to make this match a little more uncomfortable from this point on.

She heard the ref girl just behind them. She groaned, cursed, and inwardly wondered why Valley wasn't hauling her up yet. After several seconds of trying and failing to move, she finally reached up with an arm, ignoring the pain in her hurting ribs. Grabbing the shelf, she began to haul herself up, managing to pull herself to her knees. A quick glance to the side made her realize that Valley was down as well, somehow stunned by the same impact. Unfortunately, Emily was in no shape to take advantage of this: all she could do was try to hobble back upright, her hurting body protesting all the way...

Okay.

Get up.

Come on, Valley.

She should’ve been used to missing moves like that, she’d been doing it her entire career. Just the inherent risk/reward style she preferred, living on the edge from moment to moment. But God, could it be hard on her body sometimes, and she got the distinct feeling she’d be regretting some of her more insane moments in the latter half of her life.

For now, though, she was fit and able, enough to keep going through this fight. She was hurting, but so was Emily, and if the Wrestle Angel had enough strength to work her way up, she could, too.

”Ugh…” Valley moved up to her knees and threw a wild punch at Emily’s face - not her typical kind of move, but it would suffice. ”Had enough yet, Nelson?”

Through the doors of the storage room, Emily thought she could hear the volume of the crowd's noise increasing. No doubt, the fans were watching on the Titantron as the two ladies struggled to get up, each grievously hurt by this increasingly brutal match. She almost smiled at the drama of it. As she got to her knees, she saw Valley opposite her doing the same, the two ladies now at least upright and facing each other again. 

And then the American re-initiated the hostilities, charging in and lashing out with an angry fist. Emily took it on the cheek, her head snapping to the side, blood trickling a little more down the cut in her forehead. "You tell me, Doll," she growled, grabbing the back of Valley's head and nailing her with a punch of her own. Little by little, as the two ladies got back up, they traded blows, slugging it out as they tested one another's endurance.

Was it a little sick that Valley took pleasure in the fact that she'd drawn first blood in the match? Maybe. But it was a clear indicator that her foe wasn't implacable, that she was making real progress in hurting the Angel. Frankly, in a match like this, she'd take what she could get.

She unleashed the first salvo, and Emily never one to be outdone, gave as good as she got, hammering Valley right back and loosening her jaw. The Slamazon returned fire, the Angel struck back, and on it went as they rose, up and up, higher and higher, more and more, blow for blow…

But, in the end, Nelson had the edge in power, and that came through in a slugfest. Valley wound up taking one blow too many, and it ended up with her staggering back, nearly tripping over some wiring in the process, and finding herself leaning on the door leading to the locker rooms.

Valley, despite her shorter size, hit hard and hit fiercely, each blow pummeling muscle and jarring bone. Emily gave as good as she got, though, and in the end, she managed to force Valley back. By that point, Emily was swaying uneasily on her knees, and breathing hard. Blood was dribbling down her cheek now, as one of Valley's punches had opened her cut up even wider. Not good, she knew.

Staggering to her feet, she stumbled after Valley, ignoring the dull, throbbing drum that her head had become. "Oh no ye don't.." she breathed, wrapping an arm around Valley's head and catching the shorter girl in a rear naked choke. "Let's...head back to the ring, shall we?" And with that, she would move to drag Valley out the door...unless, that was, Valley managed a counter...

This might have looked back, but Valley had ways of dealing with having her back to an opponent. Things looked bad, but that was what she had the Pele Kick for. All she needed to do was flip back, kick Emily in the head, and things would flip back her way.

Of course, it was kind of hard to do that when her throat was being squeezed in a rear naked choke. Unfortunately.

Valley let out a choked cry as the larger woman powered down on the hold, gripping her tight and squeezing the life out of her. While she wasn’t averse to the idea of going back to the ring, she would’ve like to be fully conscious when they reached it, and that wasn’t a guarantee with the way Emily was powering down. She needed an escape. A quick one.

While they were still close to the door, Valley raised her legs up and ran them up the door, lifting her body along with it. When she reached the apex, she swung her body up and over, trying to pull her head free of the hold as she flew over, grab Emily by the head, and bring her crashing to the floor with a makeshift version of the Sliced Bread.

Valley almost got into the next room before Emily got hold of her. Locking her arms tightly round the other girl's throat, Emily used her greater height for leverage to add power to the squeeze. Personally, she doubted someone as tough as Valley was going to be knocked out before either of them got back to the ring. If anything, Emily would have been disappointed if she had been knocked out. But at the very least, this would hopefully help Emily keep the powerful glamazon under control until they both got there.

Valley, however, clearly had other ideas, kicking her legs up and propelling them off the wall. In an instead, Emily felt inertia pull Valley's head loose from her grip. "What the h--" was all the Scotswoman managed to saw before Valley was propelled over her, grabbing at her head. Gravity kicked in and Emily was pulled down hard onto her back, grunting loudly as impacted on the floor, before groaning and lying dazed near her opponent.

While Alicia was backstage, she wasn’t expecting to be involved in anything. The redhead wasn’t on the schedule for a match, nobody had seemed likely to call her out and so she’d been in the gym, working out.

Having worked up a good sweat there, both on the machines and sparring with – for which read ‘demolishing’ – a pair of trainers in a handicap brawl, the British amazon was heading back for a shower. Dressed in her workout gear with a towel across her shoulders, she didn’t cut a particularly unusual figure in the quiet corridors. With a show on, most of the staff were busy.

As she approached the locker rooms, however, it became clear that there was something going on – the sound of a fight was unmistakeable to anyone who’d worked at Friction let alone who’d been in as many as Alicia had. The only question in her mind was what exactly was going on, a question answered when she turned the last corner to find a referee hovering over two limp bodies. As the ref saw her, the girl was clearly about to ward her off but Alicia pre-empted her by raising her hands and stepping back.

She had no interest in getting involved in someone else’s match, after all.

And that was only reinforced when she recognised Valley Doll as one of the two, though her opponent wasn’t someone Alicia immediately knew. The redhead kept a safe distance, her violet eyes fixed unrelentingly on the compact blonde.

Someday and soon, this would be her and Valley instead. It was a day she was looking forward to, and it was taking no small amount of self-control not to get in the way here.

Ha. That worked.

Valley wasn’t sure it would, quite honestly. She’d done the Sliced Bread before, of course, used it to take down Teddy Kat Hori a year or so ago, but there was doing a move and then there was doing a move off a door onto a linoleum floor. It wasn’t the softest of landings for either of them…

...but Emily undoubtedly came off worse in the deal. So there was that to take away.

As the crowd roared outside, the referee came over to check on them, making sure that move hadn’t taken too much from either of them. Valley was okay - her rear end was a bit sore, as she sat there with her legs spread and Emily between them, but she could get up. Just needed a second.

She spent that second looking out from the corner of her eye, at a flash of red that caught her attention. At first, she’d thought she was just seeing things, but her vision cleared and it was still there. Watching her. Silent. Unmoving.

Alicia Welles.

It was brief, a flash, but there was a lot packed into it. Remembering how close Alicia had come to beating her in their first spar. Remembering how close she’d come to beating her in their first match. Remembering that the redhead had been making a name for herself in the division ever since then, challenging for the title, taking on high-level talent, coming out on top, impressing…it was a hurdle she’d barely jumped once, and one she’d likely have to jump again, someday. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that.

However, she was sure that, if she didn’t beat Emily Nelson, that match wouldn’t be for a belt. Her eyes narrowed for a moment, then turned back to her current opponent, the one she’d been warring with for the past few minutes. The longer this went on, the more it favored the Angel, with her stronger, more resilient body. Best to start bringing things to a close.

”You want to go to the ring, we’ll go to the ring.” Valley got a tight grip on Emily’s head and pulled her up, getting her back up to her feet and snapping on a headlock. After one last glance to Alicia, she’d start pulling her opponent forward, heading back the way they came.