Giulia La Rocca vs Kyo Akamatsu - Grudge In Chains

Standard match
No rope breaks
Victory by pinfall of submission
Special stipulation: Wrestlers are connected by a chain attached to their other wrist, disconnecting from the chain causes disqualification. There are no other restrictions regarding the use of the chain.



Giulia La Rocca knew that she had to often plead guilty to being a perfectionist. But for her, it usually was not a terribly bad thing. In fact, it had helped her a lot in life. Being obsessed with grades meant that her education was stellar. When she had began gym training, becoming strong and sculpted had been guaranteed. And when she had picked up interest in wrestling, countless hours of practise had been mandatory.

All those things combined had ended her up here in AFW. And Giulia was absolutely loving it. The crowds loved her, too! The short and curvy powerhouse had gained widespread admiration across AFW for both her physical assets and wrestling skills, having begun her career in the brand by sternly putting the men of Tension in their place, the big and the small, the strong and the weak.

With one exception. One exception that the Italian perfectionist could not get out of her mind. An exception that kept bugging her day after day, week after week. An exception that needed to get fixed.

The name of that exception was Kyo Akamatsu. The Japanese man had been the Italian's second opponent in the league. He had specifically invited Giulia to come to face him in the ring, and Giulia had naturally not turned down the challenge.

She had had absolutely no reason to. There had been nothing in Kyo, that would have appeared as something Giulia couldn't have overcome. There had been nothing in him, that would have suggested that he'd be capable of defeating the Italian powerhouse. And during their match, Giulia had indeed gotten extremely close to defeating him.

But she hadn't. Instead, one lucky little roll-up pin performed at the right second had spelled doom on the Italian.

Tonight, that had to be fixed.

Giulia La Rocca - La Forza Italiana:

So here she was, standing in the dark, in the middle of the Tension ring. She had a mic in her hand, and a chain on her shoulder, but the fans weren't aware of her yet. She was aware of them though, thinking of just the right words she should say. The right words that would convince them of her superiority, and ensure that Kyo Akamatsu would soon be making his way down the ramp she was staring at.

Suddenly the spotlight turned on, revealing La Forza Italiana to the crowds. They immediately erupted in cheers and roar, until it was time for the girl to say some words.

"Buonasera Tension.... I hope you're doing well... I am! And that's why I'm here tonight, to right some wrongs..." Letting the crowds roar for a while before continuing... "Some time ago, I had a match against Kyo Akamatsu. It went very well, until he got lucky... Now I admit, that yes, he did win that match.... But... It is something that should have never happened. No, not if there's any justice left in this world!"

According to what she was hearing, at least most of the crowds agreed with her. A good reason to continue. Not that she even needed one though... "So, Kyo, I know you're back there. Come here! Come here to face me, unless being out of luck this time scares you too much!" By now it was obvious, that the crowds definitely wanted to see him appear. But Giulia still had one addition to make. "Oh, and one more thing... I hope you're not scared of chains either... Because tonight, this chain that is on my shoulder, will connect my wrist, and your wrist... And there will be no rope breaks! Now don't worry, we can have otherwise a perfectly standard match, but getting rid of the chain is going to mean disqualification. And that is just so that you can't try escaping from me all the time like a little prey, just like you did last time..."

Now that last sentence might not have been exactly true, but Giulia didn't care.

Kyo could barely believe what he was hearing coming from the Titantron. He had heard of some people being sore losers, but this...this was just ridiculous.

Several minutes ago, he had recieved a text from the Tension GM, tipping him off that he was about to be challenged from the ring by a new opponent. He had hurried to the change room and slid into his ring gear, all the while wondering at who the person he'd be fighting would be. Maybe it was one of those new tag teams, like the Red...Nation, were they called? And the White Army and the...whatever those guys who dressed in blue were called. Or maybe it was one of the other newcomers, like Brunhilde Larrson or Ivy Emerson. Or maybe it was one of the GASTER sisters (he could never tell them apart), or one of the two Irish Amazons wanted a piece of him again. If it was the latter, he found himself both frightened and excited by the possibility of it being Alaina Sanders again...

But then, as he watched on the Titantron, his opponent had turned out to be a familiar face: Giulia la Rocca, La Forza Italiana, the diminutive terror who, even when exhausted from a previous match, had still inflicted plenty of pain on him. She was in the ring. She was angry. And she was declaring that he had gotten lucky and then run away like a coward.

Kyo prided himself in his emotional control, in his ability to keep cool...but Giulia's words stung. Deeply. The one other thing he prided himself upon was his skill, on his ring ability, and on winning matches thanks to those qualities. Giulia's implication that he had just gotten lucky stabbed hard at the perfectionist in him.

Taking a deep breath, he focused himself as best he could, and strode into the arena.

Kyo's new look, complete with tats:

He strode down the ramp, ignoring the cheering fans as his gaze fixed in the small but powerful form of Giulia. He was wearing his standard ring gear, the only exception being the black and red AFW t-shirt he had neglected to take off while changing. Sliding under the ropes, he took a few steps towards Giulia and stared at her, the size difference between them becoming apparent.

He motioned for the ref to give him the microphone. He wasn't normally one to indulge in these theatrics, be he needed to clear the record. "Giulia la Rocca," he said, "when we fought, you fought well. I admitted it then, and I admit that now. But as good as you are, and as skilled and as powerful as you are...you were NOT defeated by luck." He paused for a minute to let the audience take measure of that. "You lost, simply because you were unable to follow what I was doing. You lost because you did not anticipate my counter, and got stuck in a pinfall. In short..." He almost paused when he realized he had made an involuntary pun, "...you lost because I am better."

As the crowd went into an excited sussuruss at Kyo's verbal jab, the so-called Samurai of AFW continued. "But if you want me to demonstrate that again, I will be all too happy to do so. Today, you did more than question my ring ability. You questioned my integrity. You questioned my honour." His grip on the microphone tightened involuntarily. "I will NOT let that stand. I accept your challenge, Giulia la Rocca, and when I defeat you on your own terms...then you will see just how much I rely on luck."

And with that, he passed the microphone back to the ref girl, pulled his shirt off and tossed it aside, and waited to see what Giulia's reaction would be.

It could have been one, it could have been two. It could have been five, or maybe even ten. Who knew how many minutes Giulia would have had to wait, before Kyo would have showed up. If he actually did show up! It was always a possibility, that the Japanese guy would decide to spare his skin from further treatment by Giulia, and her chain... But that's exactly what the Italian had wanted to prevent when deciding what to say. She wanted to ensure through her words, that Kyo was definitely going to appear.

It was ten seconds. Maybe less. He appeared in an instant, and he was angry. Giulia grinned.

There was going to be some tension in the ring tonight. Even more, than usually at Tension. It was good news. See, the last time that she had faced Kyo in the ring, it had been her who had become somewhat frustrated. It had been her, who had begun losing her patience with his persistence. This time, it had to be exactly the opposite way. This time, Giulia wanted to get Kyo frustrated. She wanted to get him to lose his cool. And she was confident, that her own mind had what it took to stay mentally on top of the situation, to stay in control. It had happened countless times before. Why not tonight?

Giulia stayed silent, stayed still as Kyo entered the ring, and began his little monologue. She was determined not to show any emotion, any reaction to his words. And frankly, it was far from easy.

The thing was, despite the sour taste that their last encounter had left with Giulia, deep inside she remembered a few reasons Kyo deserved some credit. Throughout their match, the Japanese had stayed reasonably polite, honest and honorable. It was obvious that ultimately, he was not a bad person. He was not one of those heels, like Killer King, who would have deserved to get destroyed as badly as possible. And ultimately, Giulia was not a bad person either. She did have a faint sting of her own in her heart for calling out Kyo in such a ruthless way.

But all this was about her own honor too. She just had to settle the score with him.

Finally, Kyo stopped talking. It was obvious that he was more than ready, even realizing to take his shirt off. Which in turn made it obvious, that sparing his skin hadn't exactly been a big thing for the man recently... Giulia cleared her throat, concentrated, and relighted the microphone for some additional words.

"Eww, so that's what's new... I was already afraid that you'd gotten fat, since you had that shirt on..." she began with a mocking tone, before becoming more serious again. "But fair enough! You seem to be holding on to your own delusions so stubbornly, that you certainly don't leave me any other option than beating them out of you... And apparently you're more than willing to let me! So, without further ado, I'll just chain us up then..."

Throwing the mic away, Giulia approached Kyo, locking the other end of the chain around his left wrist. But as she did so, she had some final words for him, away from the ears of the crowds. "I knew that you were honorable enough to accept the challenge..." this time with a distinctively more honest tone, looking him deep in the eyes for a second before retreating further away again. Then, the Italian locked up the other end of the chain around her own wrist, prompting the ref girl to come performing her final checks that everything would be set for the match to begin.

Unsurprisingly, Giulia responded to him with just more trash talk, happily declaring her intent to beat him upnin the ring, before casually tossing the mic aside. As she did so, however, she then turnednto Kyo and quietly said how she had expected him to come. Something about the sincerity in her tone-- and maybe the surprising softness in her eyes-- made Kyo pause. But then Giulia backed away again, and let the ref girl start to chain up her wrist.

Quietly, Kyo raised his wrist and let the ref chain him in turn, his thoughts turning back to the fight. He didn't need to just win this bout: he needed to prove to Giulia that he deserved to be here, that his win wasn't a fluke...and to do that, he could not and would not hold back. As unused as he was to a chain match, if this was how he was to defeat Giulia, then so be it.

He loosened his tattooed shoulders. "Ready when you are," he breathed icily at Giulia as the two were chained up, readying himself for thr bell...

So, why the chain? Well, the only purpose of tonight was to be Giulia's show. And she was going to ensure it in any way possible. And while the Italian girl had to admit not having any considerable experience of such chain wrestling from before, she was confident that it served many beneficial purposes for her.

First of all, it would make sure that Kyo could not just escape. No, he would have to face the wrath of her power moves, no matter how hard he wanted to get away from them. He would have to face all of Giulia's strength and stamina. Also, the Italian hoped that the chain would have a psychological effect too. She hoped that it would make the match appear more dangerous to him, and that it could cause some intimidation and anxiousness beneath his inexorable appearance.

Whether or not that had an effect, Giulia could not tell. She had no way of knowing what kind of thoughts were running inside him. Kyo was as stony-faced as they come, and she just had to live with it.

The Japanese guy signalled his preparedness for the match to begin, earning "All right!" as a response out of the Italian. And if he was ready, so was Giulia...

As soon as the bell rang, the Italian would try to pull the chain hard towards her, to get Kyo yanked roughly towards herself. She tried to get him close enough, so that she could shoot a fast kick to his midsection to set things off.

Outwardly, Kyo was not showing any apprehension about the chain, gladly offering his arm so that it could be linked to Giulia's. Inwardly...as much as he tried to quell them, there were butterflies in his stomach now migrating to other parts of his body. He had never done a chain or strap match before, and the tactician in him already knew that this kind of match limited his ability to maneuver and really favoured a powerhouse like Giulia. All the same, he couldn't back down now: he absolutely refused to show weakness in front of this short Italian terror.

Then the bell rang, and Kyo was nearly yanked off his feet by a pull of the chain. Gasping, he saw Giulia spin, before her boot hammered into his midsection. "OOOOOF!" he gasped, doubling over. The match was a few seconds old, and already, he was learning how the chain could be used against him. This match was definitely going to be a learning experience, that was for sure.

Everything was all set for the match to begin, and Kyo had loudly declared how he was all ready to start things off. Well, Giulia decided to find out whether he actually was as ready as he claimed himself to be...

The Italian yanked the chain hard, and surely enough, Kyo stumbled forward accordingly. Giulia's face turned into a grin as it was obvious that the guy had not in fact anticipated the effect of the chain at all, and it meant that she knew that her planned kick was most definitely going to connect spot on.

No surprises there. The kick was a perfect hit, causing the Japanese guy to double over in front of her. If he was looking to stand tall next to the Italian instead of looking like a ragdoll, he'd better step up his game, and fast... The thought made Giulia smirk, as she had a clear plan on how to prevent him from doing so.

With Kyo in front of her, the Italian had a prime opportunity to inflict some more damage early on in the match. This time, her chosen method of that was a Suplex, but one that would involve some taunting too... So, Giulia would try to lift Kyo up for a Suplex, but delay the throw, wanting to keep him upside down for a moment for some words first. "Did you mean you were ready to become my puppy?" Only then, she'd want to slam him down.

Kyo opened one wavering eye as he sucked air in through gritted teeth, instantly quelling the soreness in his gut from where Giulia's boot had done its best to leave an imprint. Giulia held one definite advantage so far in this match, in that she'd obviously come prepared for chain fighting...whereas Kyo's inexperience at this was becoming embarrassingly obvious. So far, this definitely wasn't a great start to the match.

He had sunk to his knees, but Giulia clearly wasn't content to leave him where he was: he felt one leotard clad arm snake around his head, pressing it firmly against her side, one of her orbs pressing against his cheek and shoulder as he felt her abdominal muscles and biceps tighten around his skull. He gasped, and the next thing he knew, he was suddenly lifted upside down, the blood rushing to his head as his powerful opponent let him linger there, taunting him all the while.

"Sorry..." he said through gritted teeth, "...but you'll have to find someone else to be your pet." He would suddenly kick hard, yanking hard on the chain to unbalance Giulia and also to loosen his grip. If he managed either of those, then he would drop back down onto his feet, try to yank his head free, and reply to Giulia with a simple kick of his own, hammering his boot into her own midsection to repay tit for tat...

Giulia was having a good feeling about this match. Especially about the chain part... Surely it must have been a great idea indeed! While she was not really that experienced with it herself, she was the one who had had plenty of time to mentally prepare herself for it. Her planning phase had included ample time to think about all the things the chain could help her to perform, and by now she was well on her way of executing step one. She had gotten to the phase where Kyo would be suspended in the air, waiting for an imminent suplex to follow.

The Italian was even confident enough to reengage in some not-so-friendly taunting. Her plan had been to drop him right after, but since he began to reply...Giulia was just too curious not to listen. And she did let out a chuckle after hearing his words...

...but that was before she found out that her plan had a hiccup. Kyo wasn't going to be slammed down without a fight, and this time it was the Italian who got caught off guard by the yank. Her balance was compromised, allowing the Japanese guy to get back onto his feet. And adding insult to injury, he was keen to reciprocate the kick she had just been delivering to him!

Giulia would have really wanted to convince everyone that the kick did not hurt, but based on how she instantly fell on her other knee in front of him, that was not really an option. But what was however, was unleashing her own offence immediately again. Just one kick wouldn't do too much to her, and she still wanted to start the match off by showcasing her strength. Thus, as she was half-kneeling in front of Kyo, the Italian tried to quickly wrap her arms around his legs, and then lift him up and slam him to the ground again in the spirit of a double leg Flapjack!

Thus far, as the audience watched, it seemed as though Giulia and Kyo were testing one another, trading moves back and forth. This was reinforced when Kyo countered Giulia's big suplex attempt and nailed her with the same kind of kick she had hit him with earlier. As Giulia dropped to her knee, Kyo moved to follow up, rushing to drive a knee into her face--

--only for her to grab a hold of his legs with a lunge of her own! Wide eyed, Kyo was unable to stop himself as he was lifted off the mat and slammed down frontally against it! "UGH!" he grunted, the impact causing him to bounce before sending him rolling-- as he rolled, he felt the tug of the chain against his arm as he rolled over onto his back.

Giulia may have thought he was down at the moment, but he was just getting warmed up. The moment Giulia would come at him, he would suddenly yank on the chain, before kicking his legs up and snapping them around her head. If he managed that, then he would twist his body, trying to repay Giulia's earlier hit but using his legs to drive her down hart into the mat as well!