Giulia la Rocca vs Kyo Akamatsu

Kyo's carefully planned escape worked...sort of. He managed to slam Giulia against the ring apron, eliciting a grunt from his opponent...but her legs remained locked. He felt his legs beginning to buckle now under the she's pressure of those legs. Any more of this, and he would pass out.

Thankfully, Giulia finally released him. He didn't have time to be relieved, however, before her boots slammed against the back of his head. His skull rang from the impact, and he was sent tumbling o to his hands and knees, dazed and disoriented as Giulia clambered back into the ring...

Yes. This felt good. After Kyo's strong start and the way herself had been in trouble, it was a very satisfying sight for Giulia to see her Japanese opponent on his hands and knees outside the ring. Her kick had hit the right spot, and it looked like it was surely going to be hard for Kyo to regain his composure before he would have to get back into the ring again.

Giulia had a prime opportunity now to recover, and form some plans. And soon enough the Italian had come up with one.

Getting closer to Kyo, the Italian decided it was time for him to re-enter the ring. "Hey Kyo, don't you want to come play with me again? Come on, show us your skills!"

However, the Italian's real goal was just to get Kyo lured into getting back up to the ring as soon as possible. Giulia was counting on for him to be still a little dazed when he would be doing that, hopefully making it easy to yank him up, pull his head into a standing headscissor hold, and then perform a quick Powerbomb on him.

Giulia was definitely a pain to deal with, Kyo had to give her that. His head was still ringing a little from that last kick to his skull and given the power of the Italian's legs, it had left him extra dizzy. He blinked woozily, struggling to return to his feet. A few minutes ago he felt like he had this match under control, but then the short Italian firecracker had gone and turned things around on him, yet again. The longer this match went on, he knew, the more sore he was going to be in the morning. Clearly, Giulia wanted to give him something to remember her by.

Staggering up to his feet, Kyo heard Giulia taunting and turned to glare at her. He was in the classic wrestler's dilemma: he knew the moment he rolled into that ring, he would be attacked while he was vulnerable, but the longer he stayed out here, the sooner he would be counted out. The fact that he was still feeling a little woozy didn't help matters.

Hearing the ref girl start her countdown, Kyo staggered towards the ring. As he rolled in, he felt Giulia grabbing for his head. He immediately tried for a counter-- balling a fist, he would try to shoot a punch into her midsection, hoping to stun her long enough for him to recover a little!

Kyo had been smart so far in the match, and Giulia could guess that her luring surely didn't come through as genuine to him. That was also obvious from the way he was glaring at her. But she also knew that he was smart enough to re-enter the ring sooner or later, and the sooner that would be, the better position she would have.

It took a moment, but soon enough he was heading towards her. And Giulia had a clear plan on where he would be heading next...

Only problem with that was his fist, that sunk into her midsection. It wasn't nice, but Giulia could take it. However, before she could set him up properly for the powerbomb, he would have a few more opportunities to use that same fist again...and that was far from an attractive prospect.

Abandoning the idea of a Powerbomb, for now, the Italian took a few steps backwards. After gaining some distance to Kyo, she started charging at him again. And this time, her plan was to take him down with a Lariat, hoping that his body would become entangled with the ropes in the process.

Kyo felt his fist sink into Giulia's blue clad midsection, staggering his short opponent and making her pause in whatever she had been planning. Before Kyo could get another punch ready, however, Giulia retreated smartly, obviously rethinking her strategy. More and more, Giulia was proving herself to be a capable opponent who thought on her feet, a quality which Kyo respected immensely.

As Giulia backed away, she charged forward again. Kyo braced himself. If he wasn't fast enough, he would take her lariat on the chest and stagger backwards, sprawling into the ropes and getting himself entangled-- otherwise, Kyo would try to drop down, aiming to swipe Giulia's legs out from under her and send her sprawling into the ropes instead!

Kyo was definitely a nasty opponent. And stubborn. Those two qualities combined were not exactly pleasing Giulia. But he was quick, smart and honorable as well, which just made it harder to actually hate him...

That didn't mean Giulia would waste any time on trying to beat him though. If anything, it was making her more eager to defeat him, outsmart him, show him that despite all of his skills, she had what it took to achieve that. This time her way to do that would be the Lariat.

That seemed to work. Kinda. At least Kyo went down. That was good news. What wasn't was the fact that Giulia found herself in the ropes without his body between her and them. She had felt her Lariat connecting, but apparently Kyo had been already expecting it, managing to somehow slip away, and cause her to fall in the process.

That development made it easier to start hating him. Turning quickly around taking support from the ropes, Giulia checked if she had Kyo in sight and in her reach. If he was, he was about to get a boot to whichever part would be nearest to her. Preferrably his head.

Kyo found himself smiling a little as he brought Giulia down with that leg sweep, dodging her lariat in the process. He could tell from his opponent's body language that she was starting to get exasperated. Perhaps now she was finding that Kyo wasn't going to make this easy for her at all.

Just as Kyo was spinning away, however, Giulia lashed out with a kick. Kyo reacted a fraction of a second too late, and felt her boot slam against his skull. "UGH!" he gasped, the blow sending him stumbling away, dazed, blinded and vulnerable to whatever Giulia might be planning next...

Even if Kyo had been very much an honorable opponent, Giulia's patience was really starting to run thin by now. She just had to up her game somehow. She needed to find a way to stop Kyo from escaping her attacks, performing his tricks, and delivering his counters that had already bitten her multiple times during the match.

Giulia needed to start being more ruthless. The boot to the head was a good start.

It was clear that Kyo was feeling its effects. Giulia had already gotten quite a few hits to his head already delivered, and it was obvious that the Japanese guy wasn't likely to attack imminently.

So, the Italian rose and went after him. First tripping him from behind on his knees, Giulia then positioned herself in front of him. Tucking his head first between her thighs, it was time to try lifting him up and then slamming him down in a Powerbomb.

Kyo blinked furiously, trying to clear out the cobwebs as his head still rang from Giulia's furious boot. His skull wasn't feeling too great, admittedly, after all of those hits to the head he had taken. And Giulia must have known that as well, hence all of those kicks. He groaned. He needed to get back in form, dammit, and start winning-- he had gotten one good submission hold in so far, but what he really needed to start doing was slowing her down, hampering her movement, putting strain on her limbs...just as soon as his goddam head stopped ringing...

Suddenly, Kyo felt one of his feet tripped, and he stumbled onto his knees. Groping blindly at the mat, he pushed himself up, but quickly felt Giulia's legs around his head. Panic gripped him just before he felt Giulia wraping her arms around his midsection, and the next thing he knew he was being lifted upside down. He would try to kick, hoping to unbalance Giulia enough to get his legs back down and reverse her bomb into a back body suplex-- otherwise, Giulia's power bomb would go through and slam him, head-first, into the mat like an oil rig meeting the desert, toppling him face-first to the mat.

Kyo was going down. This was it. His head had been rocked, and he was set up as the perfect prey for Giulia's powerbomb. He was going to feel once more the Italian's strength, and there was nothing he could do about it...

...before out-of-nowhere, the Japanese guy somehow managed to kick his body alive again. And not only that. Giulia got a bitter sample of his technical skills at countering moves, as he somehow managed to turn the move into a suplex for Giulia!

The unexpected turn of events prevented the tiny powerhouse from reacting on time, causing the Italian's back crashing to the mat. It could have been worse really, Kyo clearly hadn't gotten as much power in the move as he might have under easier circumstances, but it was still infuriating for Giulia that he had once again managed to escape her attack.

Driving her fist a couple of times to the mat in frustration as she got up sitting, the Italian wanted to get quickly back up again. She had to get her hands on Kyo again. ASAP.

Giulia's plan was to position herself behind Kyo's back as he would be getting back up again, then pressing her hands on his shoulders and trying to down him by delivering a double knee backbreaker!