James Wright vs. Carmen Rodriguez

James was fairly content to sit back and breathe a little bit. Things were about to happen, and he knew it. Maybe his sister would hit Carmen in such a way that she would be incapacitated for a while, and he could recover. The crowd was picking up, which meant that the moment was pregnant with possibility. That encouraged the aerial ace, and he began pulling himself together to get back into this match.

Jessica watched. She was a hard lady, and didn't want to show the horror that she was experiencing as Carmen started throwing herself over the ropes. It was somewhat ironic that Carmen was using a flying technique against James. It was an impressive move, to be sure. And once Jessica invited herself over to James' apartment to berate him after the match, that would be one of the pain points that she would elaborate on.

James was not thinking about that though. After Carmen slammed into him, the only thing that he was thinking about was how much pain he was in after the boxer pulled off the move. Well, given how much he could think. Which was not a lot, in the present moment.

While Carmen was never going to make a habit of flinging her body through the air like this, she could certainly see the practicality of it. It brought her into the ring quick, took James by surprises, did some good damage thanks to her solid weight and body frame, and, as a nice little bonus, drew a round of applause from the audience, even though she hadn’t done anything that a ten year old in a gymnastics class couldn’t have pulled off.

While she wouldn’t be joining the high-flying ranks anytime soon, she made a note to look into more moves she could pull off like this. It was never too late to expand the arsenal.

She wasn’t sure if that would be enough to finish it, but she felt there was a good chance - James was looking fairly wiped out, and there was no harm in taking the chance. She spun about on her knee after the impact, crawled forward, and draped her body over his chest as she grabbed his leg and pulled it in, going for the pin and the win, with the referee sliding in to oblige her.

”1…!”

James was still reeling from the force of the blow. When it came to wrestling, there were quite a lot of things that he just could not predict, and Carmen flying off the top rope could not be counted in that number. James had no choice but to lie there and groan as Carmen quickly pivoted into a cover and got to the count of one. James grimaced, and knew that he could not simply accept this fate. But the pain that he was dealing with was immense.

TWO!

It was time for James to dig deep. He summoned up the courage and strength and bile that he had within him, and kicked out. The aerial ace was not that strong, opting to soar through the air. But it was do or die time, and he did not feel like dying.

Carmen wasn’t too surprised when James kicked out - it had been more of a cautionary gesture in the first place, a way to gauge where he was at. He managed to break after two, but not much before three, which was a good sign. He wasn’t quite there yet, showing some of his sister’s stubborn tenacity, but he was definitely on the edge, just needed a good push to get him off that cliff.

Or, maybe, she could explore other options. Options that, even if they didn’t win her the match, would make everything just a bit easier from here on out.

And, thankfully, his kick out made it easy to do just that. Instead of just letting it fall down back as he lifted his leg up and raised his shoulder off the mat, she reached out and grabbed hold of it, keeping it nice and secure as she stood. She gave him a hard yank to flip him on his chest, turned about, then sat right down on the small of his back, pulling his leg in the way God never intended to bend him with a Single-Leg Boston Crab.

James had gone from one bind to another. Carmen was awfully clever by holding onto his leg, and James regretted that he did not get that down a lot faster. Had he actually watched Carmen's matches like he told Jessica he would, he may have been able to realize just what she was capable of. But now he was loudly lamenting, through groans of pain, the fact that he was not-so-blissfully unaware of the fact that his opponent was one of the most dangerous fighters in all of Japan. The crowd roared at his pain. It appeared as if their hatred of Jessica had transferred to him, which honestly was probably.

"If you don't make it to the fucking ropes, I am going to bite your head off." The sound of his sister's harsh voice pierced through the din of the crowd, and James rolled his eyes. He looked over to the ropes. It wasn't that far, but it may as well have been Nebraska.

But he had been to Nebraska before. It was a series of dingy little high school gyms, but he had been there. He breathed in deeply, which was more of a sigh, and started crawling for all he was worth. For all the pain he was in, that scant few feet were going to feel like he was crawling all the way back to the center of the United States from Japan. He was going to make it to the ropes or die trying. Or maybe both.

James was a determined man, Carmen would give him that. Granted, she was reasonably certain that a good chuck of that came from fear of mortal injury thanks to his psychotic sister, but, hey - motivation was motivation. Whatever worked.

She’d been in a Boston Crab like this before, and she knew how painful it could be. This single-leg version in particular was a true bitch of a move, one that you were guaranteed to feel for weeks afterward. Those nerves pinches, the spine stretched, all your tendonds screaming for mercy, your own body revolting. It could drive you crazy, and she had to admire his drive, as he climbed closer and closer to the ropes.

A shame she was going to mess it up.

Carmen abruptly ended the hold and let his lower body flop down, just as he was about to reach the ropes and his salvation. Instead of backing off, though, she reached down and wrapped her arms around his waist, pulling his lower body up against her stomach. She took took a deep breath, then jerked backwards, lifting him up and over, attempting to slam him down on his shoulders with a sharp deadlift German Suplex.

James was so close. It had only been a scant few feet. But the aerial ace suffered for every last inch. Before he made it to the ropes, however, something miraculous happened, or at least miraculous for him. Carmen ended the hold while James had not yet reached the ropes. He was not entirely sure if it was interference on Jessica's part, or from the wrestling gods. But given how terrifying his sister was, he was not entirely sure that he understood the difference. Either way, he was grateful that the pain shooting through his leg had ended. Carmen had the musculature and know how to make it excrucitating, and now James had a moment to breathe.

But only a moment. The Latina bent down and picked James up. Despite the fact that James' leg was still burning with pain, he was alert. Perhaps because of it. Carmen was going to be on the move, so James was going to have to act quickly. The second before he found himself being flung up and over, while he was upright, he took a half step forward. He did not know for sure what was about to happen, but he reckoned he could guess. German suplex. The half step would give him enough space to pull off what he wanted to.

Before his head hit the ground, his hands would meet the ground. The initial shock was going to suck, for sure, but it would give him the ability to stay the suplex long enough for him to push his lower half in the direction that it needed to go for him to hit a back handspring. There were many ways to get out of the hold. He was going to go for the splashiest, as he had a wonderful proclivity to do.