Whose Gym Is This Anyway?

Despite what she was saying, Valley didn’t have the highest confidence in her ability to choke Alaina out. She was desperate to get out, and the Slamazon was desperate to hold her - desperation all around.

The elbows, she could take. Barely, but she could take them. Each other crashed into her side, made her ribs ache, but she clamped down and stayed with it, refusing to give it up easy. It would take more than that to shake her loose…

...like, say, Alaina crashing down on top of her. That would do it.

The two of them came down hard on the mat, with Valley by far getting the worst of it, as her opponent’s hard, bulkier body flattened her. It was enough to make her drop the hold, her arms and legs splayed out to the side and her breath blown clean out of her body, winded by the heavy impact.

Alaina was relieved to be breathing again, gasping for air as she gagged and wheezed after finally being released. She rolled over onto her stomach and began to crawl to the ropes nearby for her to help herself up. She tried to be quick but in her oxygen deprived state her movements were sluggish to say the least. That was not good against a woman like Valley. Alaina grit her teeth as she pulled as hard as she could, finally rising to a standing position as she leaned on the ropes. She took a moment to recover as she knew Valley would be right behind her.

Once she was ready she was going to try to move in close to Valley to try to grapple with her again. Alaina would try to use her knees to try to soften up that abdomen of Valley from up close, trying to keep her from running around or being mobile.

God, it was easy to forget how powerful Alaina was, why they called her the Amazon, but it was all coming back to Valley quite quickly, now. This was the same power that had ran her ragged when they first met, the same power that had been a heavy hurdle every other time they clash, and the power that was coming quite close to sealing the deal right now.

Valley pushed her way up, ignoring her body’s numerous protests, realizing how crucial it was for her to rise as soon as possible. Alaina seemed to realize it, too, as she wasted no time in coming in to close that gap and grapple with her, pressing the advantage. The Slamazon gasped as those knees crashed into abdomen, knocking more and more wind out of her with every step. She tried to push back, but she would’ve had more luck stopping a runaway train - for the moment, she was going where her opponent wanted her to go.

Alaina landed a few blows and hoped that it would be enough to stun Valley. She lowered herself, thrusting her shoulder in to Valley's abdomen while lifting up, hoping to drape her across her shoulders as she stood back up holding Valley up. Alaina took a couple deeps breaths as the toll was starting to show on her. She tried to stay steady before falling off to one side hoping to use her size to drive Valley down to the canvas as hard as she could with a death valley driver! This spar felt more like a big venue match, but Alaina expected nothing less from an opponent like Valley.

This was rapidly spinning out of control, in ways that Valley couldn’t even hope to combat. She’d been in tough with Alaina before, sure - in fact, that seemed to be the default state of things - but now? Now the match was leaving her all the way, and she couldn't see a way to turn the tide.

She tried to gain her bearings, but the next thing she knew, she was on Alaina’s shoulders, the whole world was going topsy-turvy, and she was sent crashing towards the mat, dropped straight on her head with what she was fairly certain was a Death Valley Driver.

Her mother’s old signature move. She doubted that was a coincidence.

It was just as effective in Alaina’s hands, too, as the blow sent a shock running through her system. Valley rolled to the side, cradling and caressing her head, wishing the pain would subside as the world spun about her. She couldn’t get up, she could barely stay conscious, and that meant she was little better than a sitting target at the moment.

Alaina sent Valley crashing down to the mat, breathing heavily after the impact. Alaina was tired and hurting herself, stopping to gasp for breath for a second before flopping over to lay across Valley's chest for a pin! Alaina brought her arm up high and let is smack against the mat calling out the count as she began.

"One!"

Alaina was tired and clearly in a lot of pain, hoping her weight along kept Valley down. She didn't hook a leg, reaching down to try to do it after the one count hoping that it didn't come back to bite her. Both women were looking gassed and Alaina was unsure if Valley would kick out or not. If she did Alaina was at a loss for what the heck to do to keep her down!

In Valley’s experience, non-wrestler’s tended to underestimate just how effective a pinfall could be, even if it wasn’t all that well executed. The human body was just not designed to knock off the weight of another human body on top of it - not in three seconds, anyway. Even a smaller opponent could keep you down in the right situations - say, if you’d just been beaten and slammed around a ring and you were dog tired from the exhaustion.

But when that woman was an Amazon who had a sizeable height and weight advantage on you?

Harder, still. Much, much harder.

Valley managed a little twitch as Alaina pinned her down, but not too much more than that. Not enough to get her off, not enough to escape, and not enough to stop another count.

“2…!”

"Three....."

Alaina was in a bit of disbelief, staying on top of Valley partially because she was too tired to move and partially because she was in shock of what had just happened. "I.... did I just win?" Alaina said before rolling off Valley and laying on her back looking straight up at the ceiling. Her chest was rising as she drew breath, and she was still in shock. For Alaina it felt like mission impossible in the ring. Valley always knew how to attack Alaina and just the right moves to do along with the perfect time to use them against Alaina. She was still looking straight up although a small smile was slowly spreading across her face.

Valley  was having a hard time believing it, too, stunned at the way things had gone. Flat on the mat for three seconds, she found herself staring up at the ceiling, trying to steady her breath and gain control of her heartbeat. She wasn’t surprised that Alaina had pushed her so hard, the woman had always been one of her most dangerous opponents, but she’d always had the antidote before. It was hard to believe the pendulum could swing so far away from her.

After almost half a decade of knowing each other, Alaina finally had a win over Valley. It wasn’t an official match, wouldn’t be on their records, but that hardly mattered. They knew.

”Heh, yeah, you got me.” Valley managed a weak laugh as she sat up and shook her head, nice and slow. She gave Alaina a thumbs and a smile to go along with it. ”Good match, really. You just get better and better.”

Alaina sat up but stayed seated on the mat, still gasping for breath.  "T-thanks.... but you know what they say.  Aside from the title run I only win when it doesn't count for much.  When a thing of consequence is on the line you come out on top no matter how hard I try."  Alaina said as she looked over at Valley.  "Growing up I just wanted to be as good or better than the original Valley Doll but that was before I got here.  Ever since my second Frictiom match I wanted to be as good, as versatile as you, you beat me when I threw everything I had at you.  When I took you on with the title on the line I was set to prove to myself I had finally done it, but it turns out I hadn't."

With that the amazon flopped back down to the mat staring up at the ceiling.