Giulia la Rocca vs Kyo Akamatsu

Kyo's counter worked perfectly, using his smaller opponent's recklessness and speed against her and tripping her down expertly onto her front, neutralizing one of her arms and trapping her in a submission hold in the process. Holding his breath, he leaned back, tightening the hold as her stretched away at Giulia's upper back and neck, his arms coiling tightly around her head.

He winced as he felt her slamming arms against his hands-- hard enough to bruise them, but not enough to make him let go, though if had continued that then Kyo had no idea how long he could maintain This. "No shame in tapping," he whispered to her...although he highly doubted that Giulia would tap at this stage, especially since they weren't too far from the ropes.

Based on how this match had gone so far, Giulia was ready to admit one thing. Despite all of her power, despite all of her endurance and repertoire of moves, she had exhibited one clear weakness. Namely, how to attack Kyo in a way that he couldn't counter it, and how to get him caught up in her power moves. So far her success at that had been mediocre at best.

And despite her short frame packing huge amounts of power, despite how proud she was of her body, she had one disadvantage that could at times prove to be significant. That was the difficulty of reaching the ropes. With greater height would have come a greater reach, and she had had to learn how to live without it. Granted, that fact had improved her endurance over the years though.

Acutely those things meant that while the crossface was torturing her, especially after her back having already suffered in the last night bout, this wasn't a situation where the Italian would have had to submit. Despite Kyo's clever persuasions, those acted mainly as a catalyst for her explosive anger. That in turn served as a strengthening factor to Giulia's hammering - but Kyo wasn't one to give up easily either.

So, maybe she had to try powering her way towards the ropes after all. The Italian started trying to rock her body from side to side to loosen Kyo's hold, while trying to yank herself towards the rope as well. She also remembered to hammer Kyo's hands every now and then, hopefully discouraging the Japanese from maintaining the hold.

The pressure on Giulia must have been agonizing at this point. Kyo's body weight was keeping his smaller foe down effectively, and practically all of his upper body and arm strength was going into wrenching back. He wasn't holding back at alll, making it abundtantly clear to Giulia that he was trying to make her tap-- and Giulia, to her credit, was making it abundtantly clear that that wasn't going to happen. if anything, the tiny Italian terror seemed to be getting madder and madder, slamming her fist again and again agaisnt Kyo's arm even as she dragged them, inch by inch, towards the ropes.

Eventually, something had to give, and Kyo's grip did. He released the crossface-- but not before slamming Giulia face-first against the mat, hoping to keep her nice and stunned. Shaking his arm and wincing as he felt bruises left by Giulia's repeated punches, Kyo stood up, grabbing Giulia by the head to yank her up with him. As soon as he hauled his shorter opponent to her feet, he would her head between his arms and abs and grab one of her powerful thighs, aiming to take her down with a quick but effective suplex!

Giulia desperately needed a way to outsmart Kyo somehow. Unfortunately, the torture supplied by the crossface hold was making any clear thinking practically impossible. All the Italian could come up with was simply hammering Kyo's arms and trying to rock herself towards the ropes - a task that seemed to only succeed dauntingly slow at best.

But despite its simplicity, her strategy eventually turned out to bear fruit. Kyo finally realized that he wasn't going to get Giulia to tap out - not just yet at least - and released his hold. His way of doing that was far from pleasant though, as Giulia's face was slammed to the mat in the process. Desperate to gain some distance, the Italian rolled around one time towards the ropes, ending up holding her face and back.

Giulia thought that would be enough. Unfortunately it wasn't. Kyo was soon yanking her up again, and before she could really counter his move at all, the Italian was promptly slammed down again with a Suplex!

The audience might have found the recent events awesome, and based on what she was hearing they were quite impressed by Kyo's handling of the tiny powerhouse. Giulia might have slightly agreed on the second part, but still it was clear to her that she had to sneak out of the ring immediately to catch a breather. Thus, after the Suplex, the Italian hastily tried to roll under the ropes and out of the ring, hoping to get some rest and quickly form a plan on how to turn the tide of the match to her favor.

The entire ring shook as Kyo's duplex hit home, ramming Giulia hard into the mat. He sprung back to a sitting position, just in time to see Giulia rolling out if the ring, looking fairly dazed after that last blow and no doubt retreating for a breather.

At first, Kyo was willing to give her this much earned breather. After all, thus far, Giulia had been an honourable opponent, one who was fighting him on an even rooting. On the other hand, letting her recover might ultimately cost him the match.

No, he decided. Getting out and brawling outside the ring was beneath his dignity. It just wasn't who he was. Moving over to the ropes, he leaned over them as he looked down at Giulia. "Not bad, La Rocca San," he said, remaining unfailingly polite as ever even as he tried to goad his opponent back into the ring. "I can see now that what I heard about you defeating King wasn't just an empty rumour. But you'll have to do a lot better than this if you want to win here tonight."

Kyo wasn't nearly as big as Killer King, but his skills were definitely up there though. Giulia had been having a really hard time utilizing her strength, and needed some kind of a strategy to do that. Right now the situation was not looking good for her, as Kyo had even managed to force her out of the ring for a breather.

Still, Kyo had managed to be honorable and polite throughout. It was a paradox for Giulia. The way she had gotten used to her opponents being was different. If they were honorable and polite, that usually meant they would easily become Giulia's ragdolls. Skillful and strong opponents on the other hand were often self-conscious, and weren't afraid to brag about their abilities in the ring.

Kyo was of different breed. And while Giulia certainly was impressed by the way he was fighting, there was still some frustration growing inside her for her inability to take the lead of the match. And as the Japanese guy came leaning on the ropes talking to her, his words weren't mitigating her frustration at all.

"Oh yeah? You think so?" the Italian replied as she positioned herself right in front of him. And she had decided to play some dirtier tricks now. Suddenly, Giulia would try to grab Kyo's ankles and yank them forward, hoping to first get the guy to trip and his upper body to slam onto the ropes, then pull him all the way out of the ring.

Kyo had hoped to spur his opponent back into action, to goad her back into the ring where the two of them could fight properly. If he had his way, he would much rather defeat Giulia properly in the ring, not brawling ringside like some base thug. Watching Giulia roll back to her feet, he saw her look back at him, and met the fierceness of her gaze.

He did end up spurring her back into action...but not in the way he expected.

His boot was unexpectedly yanked, and he gave a cry of surprise as he was unbalanced. His chest smacked against the ropes, before he collapsed onto his back, momentarily winded. "Ah..." The next thing he knew, Giulia was practically manhandling him as he was yanked hard and sent rolling out of the ring flat into his ass.

This is what I get for underesimating her...again... he thought gingerly to himself, even as pain shot up his tailbone. Hissing a curse, he nonetheless rolled, trying to get moving again before Giulia could take advantage of this...

No, it wasn't the most prestigious move ever. Far from it. But by now, efficiency was gaining a lot of ground from prestige in this match, if Giulia wanted to up her game and overpower her skillful opponent. And efficient, the move was.

The sound of Kyo's chest smacking against the ropes brought a smile back to the Italian's face. He had finally been surprised. That was good news. And the situation only got better, as Giulia managed to pull the guy all the way to the floor. Now that had to hurt.

Kyo was still staying smart though, as the next thing Giulia knew, he was already trying to roll away from her. But this time she wouldn't be so unprepared for that. She wasn't going to just let him go. Instead, the Italian promptly grabbed hold of his wrist, pulling him back. Aided by her other knee, the Italian then abruptly slammed his back back against the ringside.

"No no no... Not that easy this time..."

Giulia had the option of just getting back up to the ring herself. But Kyo had managed to be quite showy, and she wanted to have the same opportunity. So the Italian decided to jump over Kyo, hoping to get into a position where her upper body would be leaning on the ring apron facing away from Kyo, with her hands taking support from the bottom rope. Her legs should have been then hanging around Kyo's head, and yes, the Italian would naturally then attempt to lock them tightly around his head, hoping to deliver him some serious pain by the muscles of her leggy prison.

Kyo had initially hoped to get some ground away from Giulia. Inititally, that was: the Italian was learning, not giving Kyo room to maneuver or escape. Even as he huffed for breath from the way his chest had impacted the ring apron, he felt himself being grabbed by the wrist, yanked shakily up to his feet by his smaller, relentless foe.

And whipped, before he could so much as throw a punch Giulia's way, towards the ring apron. He gasped loudly as pain lanced up his spine, arching briefly and leaning against the ropes as he was incapacitated by the blow. Giulia wasn't playing around now: now she was going out of her way to pulverize Kyo here at ringside, to show him exactly who was the boss.

Gravity kicked in at that point, and he stumbled forward, clutching his back. He didn't even notice Giulia jump over him...so he was caught completely by surprise when her powerful legs clamped around his head. "MMMRRFPH!" he gagged, clutching at Giulia's powerful limbs. To say that it was a crushing grip was an understatement: it felt like an iron vice was around his skull, compressing and cracking at it.

He wasn't without a way out, however. He wanted dearly at this point to tell Giulia that it was a good move, but not an inescapable one, but his mouth was neatly sandwiched between her thick thighs. Instead, Kyo simply dropped down, hoping that the sheer suddenness of the drop would be enough to make Giulia's body swing downward (or even better, break her grip on the ropes) and slam chest or face first into the ring apron! If this failed, however, then he would have to think of another way out of this leggy prison, and fast.

Finally, Giulia was becoming happy about the situation. She was getting control over Kyo. True, it had required her taking him out of the ring for that, but the Italian didn't care. She had gotten her thighs locked in well around Kyo's head, and that meant the guy was finally learning exactly what he was dealing with right now.

Giulia could hear the crowds going wild at the scene. Despite the hometown boy being the one in trouble, her move was, in addition to being very effective, very showy as well, giving the audience some nice views again. The Italian had clearly reached her goal.

It soon became evident though, that Kyo wasn't about to just succumb to his fate. The guy suddenly dropped further down, causing Giulia's chest to get slammed onto the apron. It hurt, but honestly wasn't totally unexpected. Quite logical actually, and that's why the Italian managed to keep up the hold for now...

But did she have a plan on how to continue from this? No.

If anything, Giulia needed to get back into the ring. But at the same time, it would be beneficial to try keeping Kyo out of it for as long as possible.

After a brief moment of pondering, Giulia finally let Kyo's head free from her leggy prison. But that came with a cost. The Italian attempted to quickly kick the back of Kyo's head still outside the ring with her boot, before pulling her own body back inside the ring. Hopefully that could give her some time to recover in the ring, while preparing herself for Kyo's attempt at re-entering the ring himself.