James Wright vs. Carmen Rodriguez

Jessica succeeded. Carmen was looking at her now. She didn't know what James was doing, but she had to rely on his experience. Which was a somewhat foolish enterprise, she knew, but she lacked many alternatives at this point. For a while, she just held the stare, not really saying anything other than what she could say with the steely and malevolent look in her eyes. The crowd moved to their feet to see exactly what this interloper would do.

James looked up to see that Carmen had turned his attention elsewhere. His breathing was strained a little bit thanks to the pain, but he had a window of opportunity that was quickly slamming shut. He knew that he would have to fight through it. What he was feeling right now was temporary, but leveling Carmen, well, that pride would last forever. With a wince, he got to his feet and got square with his opponent.

Jessica saw her older brother rise from the canvas. Her hard look faded into a condescending smirk. "Yeah. I know a really good plastic surgeon when your face gets screwed up." Her tone was bitter and sarcastic.

James took that as his cue. He sent a hard right hook straight into Carmen's face. It was time that this woman got a taste of her own medicine.

This woman. This fucking woman.

Carmen had learned to cope with a lot of things when it came to the transition from boxing to wrestling, but if there was one thing she would always a low tolerance for, it was this entire interference schtick. Back in her old league, any boxer that didn’t have any actual business on the floor would probably get tackled before she came halfway to the ring. Here, they just let whoever come down whenever they pleased. No concern for safety. No decorum. It was the wild west.

She was just about to open her mouth to respond to Jessica’s meaningless remark, when the real meaning of it become painfully apparent - emphasis on the ‘painfully’. She turned about just in time to see Jame’s fist heading straight for her face, but even she wasn’t fast enough to do anything about it.

It was far from the worst punch she’d ever taken, but having the element of surprise counted for a lot. It hit straight on and down Carmen went, seeing stars all the way. Her face slapped the middle rope on the descent and she wound up flat on her back, blinking as she stared up at the ceiling.

James had one shot, and he was going to take it. He was slightly less floored when Carmen was when his punch leveled his opponent, but the aerial ace was perfectly happy with the way things worked out. Hell, Carmen even hit one of the ropes as she went down. He didn't know if that was categorically a good thing but it seemed well enough. James was going to take it as something that he could take advantage of.

He jumped to the same middle rope that Carmen had just hit her head on. It was a springboard for him, providing him with the extra elevation that his powerful legs could not attain on their own. If he had come off the turnbuckle, he could probably do a flip to get more torque coming down. But because he was merely bouncing off the middle rope, he would have to live with tucking in his legs and trying to hit Carmen with both his knees.

Jessica looked on. In her mind, she had given him a lottery ticket. She hoped he wouldn't spend it all on stupid things.

Carmen wished she could smack her forehead, because she definitely deserved it for this blunder. It was bad enough that Jessica had tried this distraction crap on her - that would’ve been insulting enough. But no, she had to fall into it like a true dope, and here she was. On the mat. Hurting.

She was starting to truly dislike this woman.

Carmen was only vaguely aware of the world at the moment, but she was clear enough to realize that James was up to something, and she figured it was safe to say it was nothing she would like. That proved to be quite true, when he leaped off the middle rope, came down from on high with his tucked knees, and-

The noise Carmen made on impact was not unlike a dying animal, as James’ knees sunk deep into her body. It would’ve been bad enough from anyone, but he’d gotten some considerable airtime with that leap, and the result had her gasping and choking. Knowing she needed a retreat, Carmen tried to roll out of the rope and fall to the floor - not the best place to be with Jessica lurking about, but it would have to do.

James popped up and pumped his fist. Had Carmen stayed put, James would have gone for a quick pin to guarantee that he would not be punched again this evening, at least not by a woman whose name was not Jessica Wright. He was going to take a second to bask in the glory of having gotten a strong move off. But that was not going to last long. He quickly scaled the nearest turnbuckle and perched on top of it, waiting for his chance to strike.

Jessica moved closer to the barricades. If the trick worked once, it could work again. It wasn't against the rules to shout out from the crowd, after all. And James would have an opportunity to do something.

James was doing his own math in his head. If Carmen moved too far away from him, he would not be able to fly off the turnbuckle at her. She was moving. It didn't appear to him that she was moving that fast, but he did not want her to get out of range. He had to get her attention, and quickly.

"Hey!" James cried out.

"Hey!" Jessica cried out.

Okay. Stop. Think.

James was the main problem, here. Jessica was a threat, yes, but she wasn’t the opponent. Ideally, Carmen needed to focus on this man. He was a highflyer. That was never her thing, but she knew the style well enough to guess what he’d be trying at any given moment. She was on the outside, she was open, and the two of them seemed to want to use distractions to their advantage. Put that all together, and…

Yup.

She heard Jessica and James at the same time, but it was his voice that concerned her the most, coming from a higher elevation. She looked up to see him and jumped out of the way, hoping she’d be able to move in time to avoid whatever was coming her way.

James came soaring off the turnbuckle like an eagle from its perch, two legs extended in a missile drop kick like talons reaching out for some tasty salmon to be plucked from some frigid river. But the look on his face was anything but predatory. He was not the only one to call and try and distract his opponent, and the unmistakeable sound of his sister calling out from the sidelines echoed in his ears. He was cringing as her plummeted towards the earth, because he saw that Carmen was stepping out of the way.

Jessica, for her own part, was cringing as well. It occurred to her that it was almost certainly her fault that James was now going to hit nothing but mat, but she was never going to cop to that. Instead, she would probably verbally rebuke him for going for such a stupid move at such a juncture in the match. But for now, all she could do was watch.

James came down to the canvas hard, bouncing up once with a loud "oof!" before coming to a halt. It was supposed to be a crowning moment, but it had gone down in flames. Slowly, he tried to push himself off the mat.

Carmen was fairly certain she’d never done an aerial move in her entire wrestling career - they were pretty much the antithesis of her ground based, orthodox style of fighting after all. Too big, too flashy, not enough payoff the risk. There was little point when she could always get better results as a striker, with far less chance of crashing and burning in the process.

So she had no idea how much it hurt for James to miss his target like that. But, wow, it looked like it sucked.

Just right down. Splat. Like a bird, shot out of the air. Kind of sad, really.

Not that she wouldn’t take advantage, but still.

The referee was counting them both out, so the next priority was to get this match back into the ring, and she had a good way to do that. Carmen pointed at Jessica, a quick jab her way, before she ducked down and ‘helped’ James get to his feet, lifting him and holding him in a fireman’s carry. She took a step back to the ring, turned around, then jumped up and threw him off in the same motion, letting him come down chest-first onto the ring apron, where she’d roughly pushing him back in under the ropes.

Jessica receded a bit when Carmen came at her, and managed to move her body back in time to avoid the worst of the jab. The blow still grazed her. The Violent Violet could have thrown the kitchen sink at Carmen, but she held back. Despite how big of an idiot her brother was, she didn't want to wreck his chance at winning the match legitimately. Although she recognized that due to James' little stunt, the chance of that was rapidly diminishing.

The other Wright was still reeling when Carmen seized him. The strength in his body had gone for the time being, which was a fact that Carmen used to her advantage. The aerial ace slammed into the apron chest first, and was then thrown into the ring the same way someone might stuff a turkey. The sudden blow to his chest did little to help his overall state, and James found himself with his eyes closed and his back to the mat.

And with an opponent like Carmen, that was a very bad place to be.

Carmen spared one more quick glance to Jessica, making sure she wouldn’t be a factor. The hardcore champion was too much of a force to totally ignore - if she had her way, the referee would’ve ejected her from the match. But she didn’t seem too keen on interrupting the match so long as it stayed away from her, so the path was clear. Keep things between the ropes, and the sooner she ended it, the better.

She made her way up on the apron, and her first thought was to just follow him inside. She almost did, too, even raised her leg for it, but then she put it back down as another idea occurred to her. It wasn’t something she normally did - ever, really - but this was a special occasion, and she had an idea on how to really rub things into Jessica’s face. So.

Carmen gripped the top rope, leaned back, then threw herself up and over the ropes, soaring into the ring. She tumbled forward into a full turn and dropped all her weight onto James’ chest, attempting to nail him with a simple - but effective - Senton Bomb.