Brünhilde Larsson vs. Stone - Wagnerian

”Nice move.” Stone spoke through grunts as she reached back to secure the headlock. ”Where did you learn-”

She had some genuine curiosity on where Brunhilda picked up her wrestling skills, but it would have to wait for another time, sad to say. Her younger opponent wasn’t without awareness from this position either, as she managed to block the headlock, showing a prescience that few people in this profession possessed. It certainly took Stone by surprise, as did the followup.

By the time Stone realized what Brunhilda’s aim was, it was far too late to really stop it. The legs came up, wrapped around her head, and it was all over from there - she clamped down with a tightheadscissors that force all the air from her throat.

She was able to stay on her feet, that was good, but she wasn’t able to do much more than that in the way of getting out of the hold. She only had two options - the first would have her trying to power out and attempting a reversal, while the other would have her going to the ropes.

As much as she hated to admit it, the latter was her better play, and that was what she decided on. Working her way to the side, she hauled herself over to the ropes with Brunhilda’s weight around her neck, reaching out to grab the ropes and secure her salvation.

At this point, Brünhilde was laser-focused on her takedown, particularly because she wasn't too keen on making herself look silly on two lockup attempts in a row. In spite of this, she couldn't help but grin when she heard Stone's praise. If she thought *that* move was nice, though, she certainly was in for a surprise. It wasn't too much longer before the Swede had successfully wrapped her legs up around her opponent's neck, locking in a tight headscissors.

Brun was impressed for a multitude of reasons -- first, she impressed even herself with how she was able to swing her body up and get the hold locked in as well as she did. However, she was able to get a firsthand look at her opponent's strength and fortitude, as not only was Stone able to stay standing, she was able to make her way over to the ropes whilst Brünhilde was still wrapped around her neck! This certainly was no easy feat, and her opponent's effort certainly hadn't gone unnoticed.

"Wow..." she murmured under her breath as her opponent made her way to the ropes, and was able to score a rope break.

Uh oh.

While she hung there, her thighs still wrapped around Stone's neck as the referee began to count for the rope break, Brünhilde couldn't help but think about one of her childhood cats. He loved to climb, but was notoriously bad about getting back down. There were plenty of times in her childhood where she would hear a commotion outside, only to look out the window and see her cat climbing up the screen on the other side. Once he would get high enough, he would suddenly realize how high he was, and his eyes would go wide when he realized he didn't have an escape plan. If Brünhilde could look into her own eyes in this very moment, she likely would be seeing something very similar.

Right as the referee's count reached four, she decided to make a break for it. She unwrapped her legs from around Stone's head and neck and attempted to flip backwards. While she wasn't exactly nimble, this sort of worked, and she managed to clumsily crash down to the mat, catching herself on one knee. She would attempt to get back to a standing position as quickly as possible, but Stone certainly had an opening for a counterattack, were she willing to take it.

Stone was keeping it cool on the outside, doing her best to live up the namesake and the Valkyrie brand, but things were a tad different on the inside. There, she was giving herself a solid kick for winding up in this situation in the first place, and maybe for easing up on her opponent so quickly. Had she really underestimated ‘Hilda that much? Was she really that much better than she’d first guessed?

It was definitely feeling like that was the case, as the younger wrestler showed off the power of legs at the expense of Stone’s skull. It was this relentless, crushing pressure, brought on with thighs that had definitely seen more work than just about any others that she’d encountered. Even Devine’s scissorholds didn’t put on this much pressure, though her fellow Valkyrie usually found her own interesting way to make up for it.

Needless to say, she breathed a sigh of relief and exhaustion when she managed to the ropes and end the hold, earning her freedom. However, that was the moment where things got a little weird.

She held the hold for the referee’s count, which seemed like an odd thing for her to do. While they’d only just met, ‘Hilda seemed like a fairly nice young pile of muscles, not the type to milk out a count. At first, Stone assumed malice, but then her opponent dismounted in a less than graceful manner, and all became clear.

Easy mistake to make, really. Didn’t mean Stone wouldn’t punish it, though. She was done handing out freebies.

‘Hilda started to make her way up, and Stone moved in to greet, turning to the side and shooting her leg out for a low Superkick to the face.

Well, that landing certainly could have gone much better...

Brünhilde winced a bit as she landed on her left knee, and in that moment began to question her decision not to purchase knee pads for her wrestling attire. It was nothing unmanagable though. If you weren't prepared to take any hits or falls, this wasn't the right place for you at all. She slowly began to rise to her feet, but unfortunately for her, Stone was a bit quicker on the draw than she had accounted for. She attempted to put her arms up and dodge but she was far too late -- Stone's superkick didn't quite land flush, but it certainly connected enough, and Brünhilde found herself knocked back to the mat.

The redhead found herself temporarily dazed from the kick, but moving purely on instinct, she rolled over to the ropes on the opposite side of the ring to put some distance between the two of them. It was there that she had to consider her options. Her opponent had taken control for the second time this match, and this time it didn't appear that she was handing out the same mulligan she originally offered.

Knowing full well that Stone would likely be upon her very soon, Brünhilde hastily began to consider her options. About the only thing she had going for her right now was that she was able to lock in that headscissors for a decent amount of time, and maybe if she struck while the anvil was hot, she could still take advantage if Stone was trying to recover. On the other hand, she was completely prone on the mat, and she didn't necessarily have momentum or even size on her side. It would be a risky move for sure, but then again, it was only because of a risky move that she might be able to successfully pull this off.

Brünhilde stayed down on the mat for a moment longer, playing possum as Stone began to make her way over. Then, all of a sudden, she sprung to her feet and lunged forward at Stone in a low grappling stance, attempting to wrap her arms around her legs and thrust her shoulder into Stone's stomach. Though she didn't quite have the advantage in this grapple, she was hoping to catch her opponent by surprise. If successful, she would attempt to lift her up, dropping her backwards in a waterwheel suplex.

Right on the button.

Stone tried not to be too optimistic about her decisions in this match, knowing that Brunhilda was a competent opponent who could give her all kinds of trouble if she wasn’t taken seriously enough, but it was a little hard not to be confident after landing such a palpable hit. The crack of a boot against a face was always such a satisfying sound to hear.

As was the tangible result. Brunhilda was sent back aways her world clearly rocked, and she’d became far too tempting of a target to ignore. While a small part of urged caution, knowing she hadn’t fully recovered from that hellacious headscissors, the majority of her brain cells were in agreement: the iron was hot. Strike now.

So in she came, hard and heavy, and she wound up paying for it in an instant.

It was hard to pinpoint what exactly went wrong, but she was sure that it involved a few key things. First, it involved her rising up far faster than Stone thought she was capable of rising up. The next thing she knew, she was caught at the waist and sent flying, coming down on the mat with all the grace of a, well, stone.

The ring shivered at her impact and she shook along with it, sitting up right with a hiss. That hit put a nasty shock through her spine, and she’d need a crucial moment for it to pass.

It was kind of funny how these things work, really. One moment you're being pushed into the corner and blasted with a swift boot to the face, and then next moment you have your arms wrapped around a larger woman, tossing her directly over your head. Brunhilde landed on her back from the suplex, catching a bit of the recoil from the ring below, but there was no denying just how satisfying the sound of the thud of her opponent hitting the mat, and the subsequent vibrations that followed were.

Brunhilde looked over at Stone, and while she could tell she had a moment to recover, she didn't want to squander her chance. She quickly got to her feet and began to run the ropes, attempting to throw a running knee strike directly into Stone's spine on the rebound.

Stone was so used to being the one throwing people around that she almost seemed to forget that, in theory, the reverse could be done on her. There weren’t too many people in the AFW would fling her about, even among the male roster, so she often enjoyed the advantage of limiting her opponent’s moveset - they couldn’t hit her with the power moves, so they had to find some way to work around that, while her own opportunities were laid out.

Not so with Brunhilda, though. No, this was a humbling sort of experience.

She’d just been working on getting back to her feet when the Swede came rushing at her from behind, planting a knee in the middle of her spine. Stone let out a shriek as the pain worked its way through her body, as if the impact carried a shock along with it. She arched her back, then fell forward on her hands and knees, languishing there for a couple of seconds before she made another attempt at getting to her feet.

She had little faith in this one being any more successful than the last, but she turned her head this time, trying to at least keep her eyes on Brunhilda. Maybe if she was lucky...

Brunhilde had a fairly bad habit of closing her eyes just before she landed certain strikes. Not necessarily because she was nervous, but she was firmly in the belief that closing your eyes let you focus better and let the strike land harder. This line of logic was much along the lines of "leaning forward makes your car drive faster in video games" and "If you close your eyes and mimic a salt shaker on your tongue, you can actually feel the salt!" There was no denying the loud slap of flesh colliding with flesh, however.

Unfortunately for her, driving her knee into Stone's back also served as a stinging realization that the knee she had fallen on earlier was the exact same knee she relied on for a large majority of her offense. For someone who specialized on knee strikes and backbreakers, this could be an issue. She thanked her lucky stars that Stone was facing the opposite way so that she could hide her slight wince -- even if her knee was giving her a bit of trouble, the absolute last thing she needed was that weakness telegraphed to her opponent.

Moving on though, she still had the advantage, and she wasn't quite looking to give it up just yet. She kept an eye on Stone as she began her ascent, giving her a small grin as their eyes met. In that moment, Brunhilde had a small temptation in the back of her mind to try and crack a lame joke about not needing a Chiropractor, but now was not the time. Besides, in this short period of time, she gained what seemed to be a mutual respect of her opponent, and she didn't want to make it seem like she wasn't taking the challenge seriously.

"Weren't expecting that last one, were you?" She asked before attempting to duck under Stone's arm and wrap her arms around her waist as she began to rise. Provided Stone didn't have a response to this, she would lift her into the air before dropping her in a back suplex.

It was a good thing that Stone found Brunhilda to be a rather fun person, even with their limited time together. She was energetic, a little bit spunky but not too much so, with a good, vibrant energy that suited a wrestler well. Strong. Driven. Sure, in the way only young can be. There was a lot to like about her opponent. It didn’t hurt that she was easy on the eyes, too, and not in the trying-too-hard way that Devine and so many other women in the AFW were.

A good combination. In the end, it all kept Stone from being annoyed about the way she was currently being manhandled.

‘Manhandled’ was about the right word for it, too. She couldn’t remember the last time she was sent reeling this early on in a match, and if the cheeky words from her opponent were anything to go by, it wasn’t about to get much better, unless she pulled something out to change it.

As it turned, an opportunity was quick to present itself, as Brunhilda came from behind, going for the telltale setup to a back suplex. While Stone was more of a bruiser type, she had a good deal more agility than most women in her weight class, and now was as good a time as any to show it off.

She leaped up as Brunhilda lifted her, giving her far more force than she likely anticipated. She kicked her legs up, turning the back suplex into a back flip, and came down on a foot and a knee behind her foe. Not wanting to get too fancy and throw away her chance, she moved in slipped her arms under her opponent’s shoulders, and attempted to capture the Swede in a tight full nelson, something to keep her tight and locked down.

Brunhilde couldn't help but grin as she moved in on her opponent. This was just about everything she could wish for in a debut match -- it was competitive, her opponent seemed relatively evenly matched with her, and thus far she didn't make herself look like a complete and total lura. Above all, though, this match wasn't anywhere near as stressful as she thought it may have been. In fact, it may have even been...fun?

It didn't take very long for Brunhilde to find out that she wasn't the only one full of surprises. She slipped under Stone's arm and attempted to lift her up, but her opponent was already two steps ahead of her. She gasped a bit as Stone flipped away from her suplex attempt, and before she could wrap her head around what happened, she was completely locked down in a full nelson hold.

"Well...I didn't think I would throw you that far." The Swede quipped as she squirmed around, though she didn't accomplish much aside from accidentally grinding her hips up against Stone. She tried to lean forward and carry Stone up on her back, but it was no use. Her opponent was taller, had a stronger grip on her, and definitely had the edge in close-quarters combat due to her military background. At this point, Brunhilde could only wait and see what would happen next.