Entropy Championship Title Match: Valley Doll (C) vs. Ava Landry - The Brass Ring [FWC]

Valley stepped to the side. And waited. And stepped to the side. And waited. And stepped to the side...and waited.

Ava wasn't attacking. Great

Valley managed to keep her composure on the outside, but on the inside her teeth were grinding down hard. The younger wrestler was forcing her hand. She was the one hurting more, she was the one with the aching back, and she was the one who’d have to take the initiative. Her only choice was to attack in a way that didn’t leave her open to follow up. Luckily, she wasn’t without her tricks.

As Valley inched forward, she made subtle jerks with her legs. Not much movement, really, just the stuttering start of a kick, a flicker before she pulled back. Like she was hesitating to strike. Holding back. Drawing Ava’s attention to her legs…

She suddenly stepped forward and raised her leg as she moved into range, preparing one of her famed kicks, not unlike the ones she’d tagged Ava with earlier. Instead of fully launching this one, though, she pulled it back halfway and instead lashed out with a weapon she didn’t use nearly as much, but could be just as effective in the right circumstance: her fist. Valley threw a straight punch, right in Ava’s face.

Ava stood her ground, watching, waiting, patiently keeping track of all of Valley's motions, keeping her eyes out for any indication of attack, no matter how slight.

Then she saw it. The leg motion, the flicker of motion as the champ sized her up. Well no sir-ee, the Canadian was not going to fall for that one again. She flashed a small little smile, readied herself as Valley moved into range, shot her arms out in defense-

"Kuh!"

and got socked in the face.

Ava stumbled back a step from the impact, blinking in disbelief as to what just happened. She'd seen the flash of a kick, she'd seen it. Was Valley just messing with her?

She felt her face gently, then turned her gaze back to Valley with an impressed smile. Without a word, she shot back, sending a fist straight at the champ's face as payback. If that's how the blonde wanted to play, Ava could give as good as she got.

The punch landed, and just like that, Valley regretted her decision to not include padding in her gloves.

Ava, as she’d just discovered, had a hard skull. Either that or she’d just hit it a bad angle. One way or the other, it left her fist numb when she pulled back. She hissed and looked up just in time to see that Ava was in the process of not only recovering, but returning fire. There was a punch coming straight towards her face and she had the feeling she would take it harder than Ava took hers. The sort of thing that could lay her out. If it hit.

Valley had no intention of letting that happen. She ducked under the blow, letting it skip harmlessly off her shoulder, but that wasn’t the end of it. She had to make the most of an opening.

She moved over to Ava’s side as the punch sailed overhead, and reached across the Canadian’s chest, grabbing her by the shoulder. From there, she tried to straighten up, kick her legs out, and fell back in one swift move, going for the Reverse STO.

While Ava's thick skull could take a punch or two, the moment the adrenaline wore off she'd be feeling like her head had been thrown in a dryer for a few runs. In fact, she was already feeling a ringing pain through it.

But she couldn't let that get to her, not yet at least. She still had a lot to prove here, and she wasn't gonna let up on Valley just because she'd gotten punched in the face once. She was gunning for that belt, and even if she didn't get it, she was going to damn well give just as good as she got.

If she could hit Valley at least. Something that had proven difficult to do throughout the match, and wasn't getting any easier it seemed. The Canadian felt her blow fly over the American's shoulder and immediately knew that this meant trouble. That feeling turned into an imminent sense of dread when she felt the champ grab her by the shoulder. Then she hit the ground.

While Ava had managed to hold out through Valley's punch, the American's Reverse STO proved to be more than she could handle right now, feeling a sharp pain shoot through her face and forehead. The Canadian let out a disoriented groan as she laid on the canvas, cradling her head in her hands and trying to roll to the side.

The good news was that Valley landed the Reverse STO properly, smacking Ava’s face into the mat with aplomb.

The bad news was that doing so required her to land on her back. The back that was still aching from the camel clutch. This was less than fun, and considerably so.

Valley cried out at the impact and arched her back, hissing as she relived the pain from a moment ago. As she writhed, she looked over to see that Ava wasn't doing much better, which was definitely a good thing. She just had to make the most of it.

Her opponent was starting to roll over, but Valley pulled her back to the other side and reached over, grabbing her by the chin with one hand and the thigh with the other. She pressed her knees against Ava’s spine, rocked backwards, and lift the Canadian up above her with a tight Bow and Arrow hold, stretching her body into an upside-down U.

Ava could barely think over her piercing headache. She was sure that Valley would be getting back into the fight soon, and that when she did the Canadian would be in trouble, but at the moment she just couldn't quite bring herself to care.

That changed as the pinkette felt Valley's hand grab her chin and thigh. She let out a grunt as she felt the American's knees push into her spine, which soon turned into a pained cry as she was hoisted up into a Bow and Arrow hold. The Canadian shook, gritting her teeth as her body was stretched and she felt a tight pain shoot through her back.

This was enough to get the attention of the referee. Ava couldn't blame them, but she wasn't ready to give up just yet. So as she heard the referee ask "Do you give?", the Canadian shook her head.

"No way, not yet." She growled through gritted teeth, squirming as she grabbed at the champ's hand and strained with her legs, trying desperately to to get something free and release the pressure even just a little.

To the untrained eye, this probably looked great for Valley. There she was, with the Bow and Arrow hold locked in, nice and tight. It was one of the rarer seen moves in the female wrestling scene, but she’d always had a fondness for it - painful, simple to execute, and it was one of those special sorts of moves that left your foe with her hands free, yet unable to really do anything with them. A unique kind of helpless.

Normally, she would’ve been able to hold it for a good long time. Today, though, her back was hurting, and while it was undoubtedly no fun for Ava to be in the hold, it was hardly a picnic for her to maintain it.

So it seemed the challenger was going to get out of the hold. But that didn’t mean she was out of the woods just yet.

”Come on, Ava.” Valley growled, giving her one final tug. Valley rolled forward, flipping them over so Ava was down on her chest while she was on her back, then took the Canadian’s left ankle and pulled it between her thighs - the first part of the STS. She didn’t go through with the second just yet, but she began to lean forward for it, holding the threat out. ”Give up. Don’t make me take this as far as I can.”

For a moment, Ava felt hopeful that she might be able to escape Valley's grasp. But only for a moment.

Once she found herself on her chest with Valley on her back, that feeling faded fast. Even then, Ava had no intention of tapping out yet. She was approaching her limits, feeling pain burning in her back and head especially, but she wasn't there yet and she was going to take herself as far as she could in her big opening act.

Still, she could feel Valley pulling her ankle into the start of an STS, and knew that she was in for more pain if she didn't tap now. The champ seemed to be having fun with it, prolonging the threat while encouraging her to give. At the moment Ava couldn't tell if it was out of respect, or just a desire to get the match over sooner. Either way, it didn't matter to the Canadian.

"Not gonna happen. Show me what you've got."

While she held the threat of a full STS over Ava’s head, Valley was of two minds about the effects.

On one hand, she didn't want to risk seriously injuring this promising fresh talent, and she knew from painful and personal experiences that the STF was one of the worst holds to endure, targeting so many parts of the body at once that you could find yourself tapping before you even realized it. Her girlfriend, Silver Ace, had used the hold on her quite a few times to great effect, and Valley wasn’t about to hit her with the ear-nibbling version she favored. It was going to be complete pain.

On the other hand, though, her title was on the line, and Ava had proven herself capable of reversing situations. She’d given the Canadian a warning, she wasn’t accepting it, so there was really only one way to proceed.

Valley reached forward, wrapped her hands around Ava’s face, and pulled back with a vicious yank, pulling further and further back on the challenger’s neck, trying to get every single inch she could out of the hold.

She'd known the pain was coming. It was never in question that Ava's defiance was going to be painful, but she hadn't been quite prepared for exactly how much it hurt.

The Canadian gritted her teeth harder still, trying to keep her pain bottled up, to not cry out, but it was just too much. After what felt like minutes, but was truly a few moments of enduring the STF, she just couldn't resist anymore and let out a pained scream.

Wiggling her way out wasn't going to do her any good here, she could feel it. The blonde was locked in tight around her, and she doubted that she'd be able to do anything to dislodge her. Shakily, Ava raised a hand forwards, glaring out past the champ's arms at the crowd beyond. She was vaguely aware of the referee in her periphery, waiting for her to slam her hand against the mat and surrender. Sorry pal, that wasn't exactly what she was going for here. She still had one thing to try.

The Canadian gritted her teeth and planted her hand firmly on the canvas before her, then she pulled. She wasn't going to give up until she had tried everything, and there was still one thing she could save herself with. So Ava would try to crawl, putting everything she had left into pulling herself towards to the ropes.