Sayumi Arai vs. Valley Doll - Turn the Page

Valley was going to be seeing a GIF of that screw up when she checked her Twitter. Probably quite a few of them. Chances were, she’d be seeing them for quite a while, too, and she couldn’t even be mad. It was what her mother would call a ‘teachable moment’, a lesson about going too hard, too soon.

The crowd let out a shocked gasp at the kickout, and if Valley had to guess, it wasn’t because she’d managed to escape - no, they were probably surprised it had gotten that much out of her at all. In her experience, people tended to underestimate just how devastating a body slam was, especially when it was delivered from a lightweight like Sayumi, but all weight could do real damage when it was flying through the air at high velocities, even worse when you were taken off guard by it. All that weight, all once, right on her chest, slamming her into the mat, knocking the wind clean out of her, and with zero time to recover before having to kick out…

Thankfullly, Sayumi seemed to have some indecision going on, squirming on top of Valley for a moment before she settled on her next move. A small thing, but something Valley was grateful for.

It didn’t last forever, though, and it wasn’t too long before Valley found her head under Sayumi’s arm, clamped tight in a strong guillotine choke. Not a bad choice, simple and effective, and the youngster even had the foresight to grab her by the arm and lock it down. Smart. Valley forgot to do that herself, half the time.

For the moment, all Valley could do was grit her teeth and take the choke, struggling for every breath. She tried throwing a couple of punches into Sayumi’s side with her free arm, but she was never the best up-top striker even when she wasn’t being rapidly choked into unconsciousness. Couldn’t muster the impact she needed.

Didn’t mean she was going down to this, though. Just meant she needed a moment. ”Enjoy it...while it lasts…”

Even in a place of superior control she could feel the woman in her clutches straining, resisting the full pull of what she was attempting to accomplish. These sorts of holds rarely had a right answer. Struggle and give up precious energy, succumb and simply lose. Sayumi did everything she could to minimize how susceptible she was save for one nagging little issue…

That repeated cracked her along the ribs. Valley had a free arm still, one she hadn't tied up as she should have, bent it back behind her and gripped at the wrist while she kept the other arm hooked. She was getting sloppy, slipping up on a fundamental part of her style and was made to pay for it. She grunted at each strike, placed in a battle of attrition she was prepared to weather when they ceased. She drew in a ragged breath, thankful for the reprieve however brief it may turn out to be.

"If you say so~" She had considered saying she would enjoy it more if Valley stopped hitting her, but such comments might clue the other woman in on how close she had come to punching her way free. No, she would instead repay the threatening suggestion with a show of greater force.

Sayumi's rump wiggled in Valley's lap as the young wrestler scooted herself into more of an angle. Tucking her knees in she let her legs unfurl to either side of the veteran, bringing them into wrap around the woman's midsection. She brought her ankles together, trying to hook them back behind Valley's body to secure the added body scissor. Her toned thighs worked as crushing vices, making the hold all the more threatening as she yanked back hard at the other woman's head, digging her forearm into her throat even harder.

Sayumi might’ve been a little stronger than Valley overall.

It wasn’t the happiest realization Valley could come to, but that was the idea that was circling through her head as her neck was continually crushed. She was willing to bet that she had the hard edge when it came to leg strength, but Sayumi seemed to be more well-rounded over. Hard muscles met her fist when she cracked the woman in her side, and she could feel her body surging, straining, trying to get the most out of this hold.

It was effective. Made even more so when Sayumi rolled about and got her legs into the mix, clamping down on her sides with a tight bodyscissor, challenging her innards. It was getting to the point where the precious few breaths she could take were painful ones, and the stars were beginning to take over her vision.

Bad as this was, though, Valley had a couple of options at her disposal. It was just a matter of which one she wanted to go for, first.

She opted for the simpler, more energy-efficient one to start with. As much as the legs around her waist sucked, they meant that each and every one of Sayumi’s limbs were occupied. Which presented a unique opportunity.

Valley gritted her teeth hard and threw her body to the side, rolling over on top of Sayumi. At first, it didn’t look like anything other than random flailing - until she planted her feet on the floor, posted up, and pressed her body onto Sayumi’s chest, attempting to pin her shoulders to the mat. It probably wouldn’t get the three count, even if it did work like she wanted it to, but she was banking on the surprise being enough to make Sayumi let go.

If that didn’t work, well, she’d have to go to a more extreme route…

Sayumi wasn't a cocky woman. She liked to think of herself as rather humble and open minded… but she had Valley right now, dead to rights had her. The brief lull in the action had been just what she needed to slow the match down to a pace she could work with and recover, locking the veteran down to this degree had been a happy afterthought that was going to win her the match. It gave her a surge of confidence, assured in her impending victory.

She drew her arms in, biceps flexing as she strained to slip the arm anchoring Valley's between them. Her fingertips searched the empty space blindly, finally finding one another as she grabbed her other hand, using it to pull both sides of the hold tighter. It wouldn't get any better than this, not at her level of expertise anyway. All she had to do was wait.

As Valley rocked the two of them, the lavender haired girl lean to compensate, trying to cut off whatever plans the veteran may have had. Was she going for the ropes? There was no way she could ever make it, not with how far out they were. Rolling them over? To what end? Even from below she could keep this hold locked in. She didn't take the other woman to resort to desperation tactics, so what was she playing at?

"You can't shake me." She confided quietly more of a mercy than anything gloating to her opponent. It was true, under her own power Valley likely would never power out, so she didn't. Sayumi didn't even realize what was happening, even as she was pushed over onto her back. Opting to give the hold a harsh crank as her first statement of intent.

"One!"

Sayumi's eyes snapped wide, head turning to the referee positioned down on the canvas beside the two women. She was shocked, perhaps a bit horrified that this had come about so sudden and unexpectedly. Her legs unwound, body bucking upright to force a bit of added room between them. White knuckled fingers slipped free of one another as she gave Valley a hard pull, trying to send the woman flopping off to the side as if she had pulled a ripcord and looked the other woman on the mat.

On her own end she rolled to the side opposite the other woman, taking in a gasp of air as if she had been the one being choked all this time. There hadn't even been a second count, but the aburbtness of it all shook her. She propped.her elbows on the canvas, lazily easing onto her front to glance sidelong at the veteran. It was frustrating to be so close but…

She started to laugh.

"That was really good… Darn it! I really thought I had you." She press her forehead to the mat, giving it a light tap with her noggin. "Oh boy… you are really tough." Sayumi groaned softly, already done with her brief rest. It was time to get back into it. Palms pressed to the ring, pushing her up onto her knees before she began the labored assent back to her feet.

‘The Alicia Trick’

It wasn’t exactly the same move that Valley had used to beat Alicia way back when, no. Back then, the first time she’d taken on the redhead, Valley had found herself caught in a devastating bodyscissor/full Nelson combination. Legs were crushing her ribs to pieces, the ropes were far out of reach, and her only means of escape had been a Hail Mary of a move - she’d bridged out and pinned Alicia’s shoulders to the mat, stealing the pinfall just in the nick of time.

It had been a long shot even back then, against an opponent who’d come in from MMA and wasn’t quite familiar with the rules of the squared circle. Against someone like Sayumi, who was every bit the wrestler Valley was, the similar trick wouldn’t be enough for a win. But it would be enough to get her out of the hold, and make Sayumi decide whether she could readjust it or give it up entirely.

She choose the latter. Thank God.

Valley flopped over to her chest and took a moment to refill her lungs, glad that her gambit had paid off in the right way. She was far from being out of the woods, though. Not even close. Sayumi has given up the hold, but she’d been taking her air for a while now, and Valley still has the effects of that high-altitude crossbody to deal with. She needed to even the odds. Right now.

[color:ce9f=#ffooff]”You were close, yeah.” Valley took a quick glance over her shoulder, establishing Sayumi’s position, before she began to push her way up, too, with her back facing her opponent. ”But close only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, and-“

She cut her sentence off there, using it for part of a distraction with what would be coming next. Valley leaped up, swung her legs upwards, and did a full flip, letting her feet arc through the air and, ideally, come crashing down on the neck of her rising opponent.

The Pele Kick, her signature move. Albiet, done a bit differently than usual.

Sayumi wiped her brow with a forearm, positively beaming with pride at the admission she had almost had Valley. It felt pretty great hearing that come from her lips, justifying what what essentially her biased reality. Besides, if she could get her that close once… she could do it a second time. She knew it!

The lavender hair girl straightened up, reinvigorated in the moral boost she had been gifted. Despite getting to her feet first, she waited. Valley was talking after all and Sayumi wasn't about to rush a woman with her back turned, so she took the time to recoup just as she assumed her opponent was doing.

Her head tilted to the side as perplexed by the Americans statement. She wasn't sure the connection between horseshoes and grenades… especially as they related to being close to something… the explosives she could understand since they had a big boom blast radius… but horseshoes? Maybe it was something about being trampled? Americans were just weird Still, she listened intently, very invested on what the third thing could be that might tie the mystery together…

So unprepared what she for what came next, she was still standing there dumbfounded as Valley took flight. Her eyes followed the flip, though it wasn't just before impact they started to widen with the realization of what was happening. The solid crack of hard contact as the Japanese native's head was jarred forward, snapping back in turn after the kick rolled off her.

Her arms raised up, balancing on one foot as she appeared almost as if floating on one leg, limbs gently listing in the air. Her airborne boot touched the ring, bent slightly inward as she stumbled forward, than back, body leaning as she looked onward with a vague look of confusion.

"Ooooooooo!" The crowd slowly revved up, becoming louder and louder as Sayumi shambled from side to side to maintain her balance before…

"Aaaaah!" A sudden booming pop from the crowd followed by cheers as Sayumi tiled backwards, falling to the mat with a hard thud. Applause rang out through the arena for Valley, a few people taking to their feet.

Sayumi had been laid out, visibly dazed as she stared face up at the overhead lights. Arms and legs spread to the side as if the girl had intended to make a snow angel. She blinked rapidly, trying to put together what had just happened from the jumbled remains of the kick's aftershock on her brain.

It was, naturally, impossible to see how well the Pele Kick connected from this angle, but that was fine with Valley. She’d been doing the move for years, more than enough time to get a feel for what the impact should and should not feel like, and she was easily able to tell when she got good contact with it and when the blow landed shallow. The shock of the strike, the way it echoed throughout the arena, the sound of the crowd hissing in reaction - it all painted a picture better than her eyes ever could.

A good hit. A palpable hit.

If that weren’t enough, Sayumi was still reeling from the blow when Valley landed and rolled onto her back, watching as the woman teetered and tottered. It was quite a sight, seeing her body trying to recover from the hit, struggling to get equilibrium. Back and forth and back, until, well -

Down she went.

”...and nuclear weapons.”

Valley let out of a soft sigh of relief at the sight, but she knew better than to do more than that. Sayumi was down, stunned, but only that. A pinfall wouldn’t work on her, she was sure of that. This woman needed something more substantial than a kick to the head before her shoulders went down.

Her first thought was to go for the Full Moonsault, her finisher, but Sayumi wasn’t in the best position for it and Valley was still woozy from the guillotine choke. Something a little simpler was called for, here, and she had just the move.

Rolling to the side, Valley went under the bottom rope and out to the apron, climbing her way back up with the ropes’ assistance. She gripped the top one tight, gauged the distance, and didn’t waste another second - she pulled back and slingshotted herself into the ring, somersaulting through the air as she flew, extending her lower limbs out and coming down on the prone Sayumi’s chest with a high-altitude version of the Somersault Leg Drop.

In her jumbled mind, the thought of trying to get up hadn't even existed. She simply lay in the middle on the ring with the only real sign of life being the rise and fall of her chest as she breathed heavily. The official had knelt down beside her, giving her fingers a small squeeze to make sure she wasn't too seriously injured. She knew to squeeze back, signalling she could keep going… even if she wasn't sure what was going on. It came from instinct more than anything.

If she had any positive take away, Valley had given her the third puzzle piece of whatever she had been saying… and it still made no sense to the pounding in her head. She groaned softly, audible strain as she murmured something about horseshoes. Things had taken a serious nosedive for her in one swift kick, which shouldn't have been at all a surprise considering who they had come from.

Her palms felt blindly around on the mat as she collected herself, trying to gather the will to rise but she just couldn't muster it. Thankfully Valley see e to be leaving her be… thought she could hear the rising excitement of the crowd. What was happening? She squinted, weakly lifting her head to place around in a daze…

"Unh!" Sayumi let out a choking grunt as the vaulting veteran's legs came down across her chest. That weight and momentum hit her like a truck, snatching the air from her as if she had taken a shot directly to the lungs. People often looked to the well endowed women of AFW and their "assets" and generally only saw the upside. If they took shots to the breast like this, she was inclined to believe they would reconsider how great they would think they were.

The Japanese natives hands shook as her body felt faint with this new shortness of breath. She pushed, weakly at the other woman's legs over top of her, trying to get out from underneath her to the best of her ability.

Up and over Valley went, clearing the ropes with the sligshot’s help. It wasn’t her best execution of the move ever, she had to concede that much - not quite the best rotation, could’ve gotten a bit more height on the flight, maybe landed closer to the center of mass. It worked, but it didn’t work nearly as well as she wanted, and it was a testament to how much the match was wearing on her.

Either that, or age.

...she preferred the former idea.

Whatever the case, it still did it’s job decently enough, throwing the younger wrestler for a loop and knocking the wind clean out of her. Valley found her legs resting on top of a deflated Sayumi, the air taken clean out of her sails. Pinworthy? Only one way to be sure?

Valley swung about to sit on Sayumi’s chest, dropping her full weight on it. Reaching back, she grabbed a leg, leaned forward, and brought it all down onto her opponent’s shoulders. She was a bit more confident in this getting a win than the last attempt, but either way, it wasn’t a wasted effort. Kicking out of pinfalls took energy, and the more she made Sayumi waste, the better her chances become.

The referee dropped down and started slapping the mat, counting her off. ”1…!”

She tried to push Valley off of her or at the very least slow whatever she was going to do next, but it seemed as though her weak attempts to hold the other woman up weren't even good enough for consideration. She was powerless as the veteran shifted on top of her to sit across her chest, sandwiching her between the mat. Her leg came up easily, raised high before being drawn back down , folding the failed idol in half to the point of pain.

Her free leg dangled, forced to float in the air while the rent of her body was bent in such a way she had no good foundation in which to fight from. She kicked at the air, trying to buck herself free but Valley had set up shop on top of her and any weight she had felt tripled in this position of weakness.

"One!"

She struggled and flailed best she could, trying with all her strength to power her trapped leg free. It was no use. The amount of effort it took Valley to keep her trapped with this leverage was only a fraction of what she was spending trying to free it. Her free leg bicycled, trying to swing up at her captor from behind, maybe to hook a shoulder and reverse the pin… but Sayumi didn't have that sort of flexibility, not with how far forward Valley was.

"Two!"

Her face reddened with strain as she twisted her body, trying to work within the limited space she had. Her left shoulder was dug into the mat, rolling to scoot it further under Valley while the right was working itself out from under one of her captor's legs. She just needed a little bit more….

"Thr-" The referee suddenly stopped the count, hand hovering just above the mat. While they hadn't counted it, the crowd did proactively, already ecstatic for different reasons depending on their ankles. Many assumed Valley had one, while one side of the audience could see she hand throw up one arm between the Veteran's legs, reaching for the ceiling, shoulder just barely off the mat.