Summer Splash 2020: Friction World Title: Adrian Kytes(c) vs Death Bunny: Hell in a Cell

As if it weren't painstakingly apparent enough, there was no avenue too dishonorable, no road too low for the faction leader when it came to achieve title-retention goals. Whether it was pelting sands, thwacking kendo sticks straight up cowardly retreating, or capitalizing on a possibly debilitated adversary. In this case by taking Death's leg and rising it upward, and practically ensuring Death's debilitation by sharply contorting it to to the side and slamming it against the canvas in a Dragon Screw that while unconventional, was effective in putting her leg through further torment as D.B. bellowed out in pained agony. She rolled over to the same side her leg was twisted, gnashing her teeth with strained, but ultimately meager efforts being made in pulling her goddamned leg back...

That had to have hurt by the way Death Bunny was audibly grinding her teeth to avoid having to scream out in pain, Adrian could hear it all the way down by the Grim Hopper's boots. With the damage done and the plan set, Adrian was already moving to up the ante against the challenger, this time by once again heading outside of the ring in search of an extra little edge. Her kendo stick had been broken and discarded but the underside of the ring still had a lot of goodies that the former cosplayer could use such as the old reliable steel chair: a hallmark of professional wrestling, carriable, practical & very painful.

With the blue steel slung underarm, Adrian slid back in to the stricken Bunny with evil intent. Grasping the sides of the chair, she thrust the edge down like a guillotine, driving it straight down onto the already hurting knee.

Credit where credit was due. The auburn-haired egomaniac seemed to take setbacks in stride, and consistently meets roadblocks with the same conniving and dishonorable tactics she's utilized to get the vaunted belt around her waist in the first place. A modicum of begrudging and perverse respect possibly could be offered to Adrian one day, but not at this particular moment. Not when she was rabidly targeting the first conceivable weak-point Death had shown the entire match. A chink in her tyrannizing armor that Adrian seemingly let fester for several seconds as Death buried her grimacing face into the canvas to better shield her pain, sweat droplets from her forehead hitting the floor from what felt like molten hot needles jabbed into her kneecap. Until the Bullet Commando proved she was just as malicious as she was unprincipled with a plummeting slam down on Death's knee that had her belt out an anguished wail, spasming about in unsightly convulsions before settling on her side and cradling her knee in a fetal position...

There was blood in the water and Adrian didn't need to be a shark to smell it. The Death Bunny had been a juggernaut, able to absorb any punishment before lurching back to life in order to put Adrian through something, usually the dirt. But this time the champion had managed to sniff out a weakness and chop the bigger woman down to size, in something that shouldn't have been a shock to anyone who remembered years ago when Adrian was the Hardcore champion, and how she could jimmy open weaknesses in to full blown fatal flaws, even from scratch.

With the big bunny nice and hurting, Adrian moved on from metal-based offence and back to more traditional wrestling, grabbing the injured leg and twisting around it as she settled into a painful figure four leg lock, letting the bunny sweat it out while the brunette leaned back, amping up the pressure on the already damaged limb.

The darkened discoloration on Death's kneecap could not have symbolized a more definitive bullseye. One that any seasoned competitor would be directing their attention upon, let alone one whose hardcore reputation relied heavily upon sadistically capitalizing on potentially career-shortening abrasions. Death snarled in protest from once again having her afflicted limb yanked out from under her with Adrian than stepping over and intertwining their legs together before collapsing down to the canvas in the Figure-Four's full implementation. Prompting a savage wail and an upright seating of the tortured Reaper, Death exhaling heatedly in between her bellowed howls, arms propped on her sides and leg muscles tightened for several seconds. Until desperation began to form in an attempt at twisting over to reverse this maneuver...and the match's momentum.

With the figure four locked in, Adrian just had to hold out until Death Bunny either submitted or the referee called for the bell, the champion even going so far as to demand that she "Ask her!" if she wanted to quit, if that was even in the undead rabbit's vocabulary, but when the bigger woman started to twist Adrian's smile fell lightning fast. She knew as much as anyone did that if the purple haired powerhouse was able to use her upper body strength to flip the two fighters over then it would be her and not the Rabbit on the receiving end of a world of pain.

Ever-quick on the draw, Adrian tried to reach back to grab hold of the ropes which would technically be a break but with no disqualifications all that meant was if the Bunny did tap, it wouldn't count. It was a small risk in order to not be flipped but as she got her fingertips against the wrapped cable Adrian already felt herself turning over. "Nononono I've got a break I've got a BREAK!" She shrieked as Death bunny managed to get the two of them face-down, easing pressure on her own hurting leg and giving some payback to the former cosplayer.

Not much time was needed to ascertain the level of tortured misery Death was coping with from this Figure-Four, the scratch marks clawed into the canvas and inability to internally vocalize her pained wails being dead giveaways in that regard. Adrian's submission seemingly unbearable from the start via the angled contortion of Death's thick legs which tested the thresholds of the Dead Woman's endurance unlike anything else that had come before in this match. Sweat irritating her eyes and the referee irritating her further by doing as Adrian bellowed, D.B. briefly reaching out in the official's direction with a fleeting desire to strangle her...but she'd get her answer with a Herculean effort being utilized in a quite literal turn of events.

Death showcasing both her core strength and die-hard tenacity in somehow managing to reverse the submission even with the disreputable commando's rope clinging advantage. One brief army crawl later to separate Adrian from the ropes, Death's arm's would sluggishly elongate against the canvas with a savage roar in an effort to elevate their entangled legs off of the canvas. The uplift pouring on heightened pressure against Ade, a quivering shake to Bunny's arms as she panted haggard breaths with her head tilted down and bunny backside clenched. The referee now doing Adrian the same courtesy of asking for her submission to the tune of an entire arena offering their two cents. Undoing the Figure Four was an option...but one that wouldn't always be available the longer she held out.

"Adrian, do you want to submit?"

"WHAT DO YOU THINK!?" Adrian demanded as she pressed herself up off the canvas, looking into the confused face of the official before she screamed "NO! YOU IDIOT!" for clarity's sake as she clawed the mat, desperate for some position that could take the edge off the reversed figure four to little avail, she couldn't even try rolling back into the regular version with how deeply Death Bunny was pressing into the hold; she might as well have tried to roll over a dump truck for all the good it would do. There was one option left, but it was going to suck hard: reaching down the champ tried to forcibly de-tangle her legs from the purple haired challenger, trying to make just enough space for her to crawl away and back to the relative safety of the ring ropes while she still had some feeling in her legs left.

Droplets from her forehead pattered against the canvas below Death as she upheld her end of the Figure Four with steadied and ungodly determination, the strenuous labor of elevating the submission off of the floor began being registered to D.B. in abundant colors and a high-pitched pinging sound in her ear. Strained muscle fibers were being tested beyond their limitations for what felt like an eternity, but it was an eon ended abruptly by Adrian undoing what she started in the first place. The Dead Woman looking every bit of her moniker as she flopped back down to the canvas before making her own fatigued crawl towards the roped sanctuary nearby. Although neither submitted and their willpower fueled duel effectively ended in a draw, a steadied round of applause echoed about in an uncharacteristic show of mutual respect from the audience towards what had become a hellacious throwdown between two world class talents...

It had been a long, hard-fought match, and both competitors were visibly feeling the effects of their gruelling battle. Adrian's swagger and fox-like quickness had been sapped away as she laid on her side, panting as she glared at the challenger who dared to waltz in and try to take what she had worked so hard for. There was a visible grimace as she forced herself up to her feet, clutching the top rope to try and take some of the weight off her hurting back, knee and everything else that ached with the way Death Bunny had thrown her around, and how she'd thrown herself around as well.

Limping across the ring, taking care not to tweak the pressured leg from the countered hold, Adrian beckoned the Grim Hopper back to her feet not that she needed the encouragement. Damning the pain that came with it as soon as the big Rabbit was up and turning towards the champion, Adrian side-stepped towards her and threw her leg up with as much force as she could muster. A big Superkick with the aim of taking the Purple Hared Powerhouse's head off.