Grace Allen vs Maria Tempesta

"Damn..." Grace breathed, giving the mat a slap in her frustration. That had been close, so very close, but the luchadora wasn't done yet. The kick out had been weak, however. Perhaps the wisest move was to simply attempt a second, even more secure pin, or perhaps simply transition into a submission hold?

No... that just wasn't Grace Allens style, for better or for worse. As far as she was concerned, it was all or nothing. "I'll be right back, chica."

She said before climbing off of her opponent and making her way to the other-side of the ring. There, Grace stepped through the ropes in order to stand on the ring apron outside. She stared across at her downed rival, judging the distance and taking a deep breath. There was no time to hesitate. She had to put Maria Tempesta away, here and now, before the woman could recover.

Grace gripped the top rope and leaped onto it with both feet, balancing on the rope for a second, then springing off with enough force and momentum to send her clear across the ring, aiming land on Maria with a springboard elbow-drop, aiming the point of her elbow for the center of her chest.

After kicking out, Maria flopped back down onto her back, her chest heaving after that kickout. Her white hair haloed her head as she kicked weakly at the mat, her body aching after recieving that moonsault. Given the way the crowd was cheering, they were no doubt happy that their heroine Grace was finally kicking the devil girl's ass.

Grimacng, Maria forced one eye open...just in time to see Grace diving down at her with what appeared to be an elbow drop. Alarmed, and recognizing a match-ending move when she saw one, Maria willed her body to move, trying to bring both knees up into Grace as she came plummeting down at her. What happened next would come down to what was faster-- Maria's legs, or gravity.

The problem with any high-impact, high-risk fighting style was the risk part. It was the sort of thing that should have been obvious, but some wrestlers just didn't know how to dial it back and become more conservative when they had an advantage. For Grace it was everything or nothing at all, and that was what drove her to fly across the ring, intending to crash into Maria as if the sky itself was coming down. Instead of delivering death from above, however, Grace landed ribs first onto the luchadora's knees!

"Aahh!" The pain knocked the air from her lungs and sent Grace bouncing off of her opponent to land beside Maria, hugging her waist and rolling back and forth of the canvas, the pain enough to make her eyes glassy with tears. She hoped her ribs were merely bruised, but that would be bad enough. "Ooh... damn it..." She moaned, hurting worse then she had in a long time. All Grace could do was hope that Maria suffered from the botched landing as well!

Maria's counter worked....mostly. Although Grace landed hard right on Maria's knees, her opponent's elbow, swerving off of its original course, still struck a hard glancing blow against Maria's chest-- a blow which was still hard enough to leave her gasping. As Grace toppled next to her, Maria remained lying flat on her back, white hair forming a halo around her masked face as her chest heaving as she sucked in air. That hadn't gone quite as well as planned.

"Joder," she groaned, trying to force herself to roll over. Around her, the audience was clapping for the two wrestlers to get back to her feet. Draping one arm across her hurting chest, Maria pushed herself over and began to get to her knees, slowly trying to return to her feet...

(apologies for the delay)

Grace Allen was only somewhat aware of the crowd, little more then background noise as she rolled back and forth on the mat, clutching her middle. She shut her eyes against the harsh glare of the arena lights, searing down from above, and worked to force spasming lungs to allow her to draw a decent breath after having it all crushed out on impact.

Slowly, too slowly, she forced herself to move, forced herself to stand, rolling first to her hands and knees and then grasping desperately for the ropes for leverage. Grace felt as if she could barely breathe. Her legs trembled and her limbs felt sluggish, her body protesting the forced movement, every muscle crying out for a few more seconds worth of recovery time. It was time she knew, even then, that she didn't have. Maria was getting up, and she had to be ready.

She could hear the crowd clearly now, the steady rhythmic beat of their clapping, compelling, urging the women to continue their fight in earnest. Grace forced herself to her feet, but try and she might, Maria Tempesta would make it first, and the american was in no condition to defend herself.

Slowly, and woozily, Maria stumbled back up to her feet. Her back was still raw from pain where it had taken the worst of that moonsault, and honestly, it felt like a miracle that she had managed that counter in the first place. She swayed dizzily as she finally got standing, but she was standing, that was the important thing-- and her opponent, meanwhile, was still struggling to get up.

Brushing her white hair out of her masked face, Maria, seeing Grace slowly staggering up, acted quickly, striding over to her foe and grabbing too handfuls of her hair. "Come on, chica," she snarled, dragging Grace with her as she strode across the ring, aiming to ram her opponent's head into the turnbuckle!

"Uuhh..." Grace Allen groaned, hurt and off balance, still too dizzy to manage proper footing. Having the wind knocked out of you was a sensation any high flyer became intimately familiar with over time, but it never got any easier to tolerate. She lashed out with a fist, a wild, desperate and entirely uncoordinated blow. She missed by a mile, hitting nothing more then empty air. The next thing she knew, Grace felt the sharp tug on her thick, dark hair.

"Let... go!" She growled under her breath, reaching up for the luchadora's wrist even as her legs moved automatically to keep her from tumbling back to the mat. By the time she realized Maria's intent, it was too late.

"Aahhh!!!" Grace cried out as her head smacked against the turnbuckle, hard enough to draw a sound of concerned sympathy from the crowd. Like a puppet with her strings cut, Grace would collapse to her knees in the corner post, moaning in pain and momentarily stunned by the blow!

Maria had to admit, it felt bloody satisfying to give Grace a faceful of turnbuckle at this stage. Yanking Grace upright as she sagged in the corner, Maria turned her around again so that they were face to face. "If hate to do this to these, but..." She deliberately trailed off before she could answer, delivering a hard chop to Grace's chest!

As the ref girl angrily warned Maria off, the Cuban girl backed away, putting some distance between herself and Grace...before running in again, aiming to slam a big boot into Grace's head while she was in the corner!

Grace was only vaguely aware of the fact that she was on the middle of a match, dazed and helpless as the luchadora roughly forced her back against the turnbuckle. As Maria spun her around so they were face to face, the American swayed on her feet, completely vulnerable.

"Huh? Wha- Unf!" Grace cried out as Maria lit up her chest with a chop! It hurt like hell, but it also brought Grace's world back into razor sharp focus. And not a moment too soon as the Masked luchadora came charging into the corner, looking to take Grace's head off with a kick for a second time.

She'd escaped unscathed the first time. Now, with tired, leaden muscles protesting all the while, Grace instinctively knew she couldn't throw herself out of the way a second time. The American had just enough time to get her hands up before the boot struck home! Grace heard someone, perhaps herself, cry out, before the dusky skinned woman collapsed into the corner, sliding all the way down until her plush backside hit the mat. She sat slumped there in the corner, barely conscious.

Maria smiled as her long diving kick, El Rayo, hit it's mark, slamming into Grace's head and sending the other girl crumpling into Hythe corner in a daze. All around her, the audience was in an uproar, some of them booing Maria as she started to take control of this match. Let them boo, she thought to herself. She was going to emerge the winner here, regardless of what they thought.

"Ohhh, what's the matter, chica?" She taunted. "Did that hurt?" Without waiting for a reply, Maria would grab the ropes and turn so that her sizeable butt was in Grace's face, grinning before slamming her add backwards, once...twice...three times, ramming her butt into Grace's head in a humiliation move before she would finally step away from the corner to admire her handiwork.