Kyo Akamatsu vs. Valley Doll - The Road To Recovery

Valley’s thinking in this had been a simple, logical chain of assumptions. She ran after Kyo the moment she let him loose, staying close to make sure that, when he hit the turnbuckle, he wouldn’t be able to react in time to avoid her next attack. She’d been having good luck with him so far, and she figured it was, more or less, stemming from her speed and alacrity. It wouldn’t matter if this man was markedly stronger than her, so long as she hit him far more times he hit her.

And her current move seemed to be a good application for that theory, aiming to give him a crucial blow. If it happened, at least.

It didn’t.

What happened, instead, was that she wound up hitting nothing but the turnbuckles with her knee. Not the worst thing ever, but then she was plucked out of the air, caught in Kyo’s arms, and she knew nothing but pain was coming after that. ”Oh-”

She was brought down hard with the suplex, hitting with enough impact to send her bouncing off the floor. She flopped over to her chest and stayed there for a moment, rubbing her agonized shoulder.

Kyo had been hoping to get some offence back in, and he managed to get it in a biger way than he had expected. Dodging Valley's attack had been a lucky enough break in and of itself: the fact that he had managed to get a hold around her thigh, though, meant that his back body drop had been doubly as effective: the Slamazon has been sent sprawling onto her front, her shoulder in visible pain-- a weakness he could exploit later with a choice hold, and an another avenue of attack to follow other than her legs. For now, though, he had to make sure to keep her on the defensive.

Not wanting to give Valley too much time to recover, Kyo quickly rolled to his feet and moved after her, grabbing onto the arm that she had been favouring a few seconds ago. Yanking the blonde up to her feet, Kyo would make t swing her towards the ropes...though he had no intention of releasing her. Instead, as the whip towards the ropes would suddenly be arrested by his grip on her wrist, he would surge forward, hoping to knock her down with a close-ranged clothesline.

And if that all went through without a hitch, he would waste no time in dropping down across her chest and hooking a leg for a pinfall...

Valley was confident, but not unworried about Kyo’s prowess coming into this match, knowing how well rounded he was overall. She liked to think of herself as a Jill Of All Trades, too, but the truth was that, while she had a wealth of knowledge when it came to wrestling, there were still certain things she did better than others, a style she adhered to. Kyo’s flexibility made him dangerous, if he could get some momentum going.

But when the match started off so well, she thought that, maybe, she was catching him on a bad day, or she just had the right moves to handle him.

Silly, in hindsight.

Her hubris was being paid for now, as she found herself reeling off that suplex, left in a mess on that canvas. Kyo wasted no time taking advantage, either, lifting her up in what seemed to be an Irish Whip. Instead, she took a hard, clobbering blow that dropped her flat, and the next thing she knew, she was on her back for the pinfall.

”1…!”

The whole ordeal left her dazed and still for a moment, her mind struggling to process what had just occurred. She was still aware, but it was like her body needed a second to reboot. At first, all she could do was a weak twitch, as she shook her head from side to side.

”2…!”

At that count, she shot her legs up and broke free, just as the referee was raising her hand once more. Two and half. Far too early for that long a count.

And just like that, Valley kicked out, just as Kyo had expected she would. What he had not expected, however, was for the count to reach two and a half: his attempt at playing possum had evidently worked better than expected and caught Valley completely by surprise, and even as the woman tried to get up, he could tell that her head was still ringing from that clothesline.

"You didn't think it would be that easy, did you?" he said, grinning a little despite himself as he tried to roll Valley onto her front. Still conscious that her shoulder must be hurting from that suplex, he tried to straddle her back, grab her arm, and press a knee on her shoulder, before trying to folder her arm back over his knee in a classic grounded chickenwing.

He knew Valley wasn't going to tap so early, especially not to a submission hold as minor as this, but he did want to work that shoulder of hers a little, and make her expend vital energy getting free. It was practically wrestling 101 against a powerful striker: exhaust them and make their ability to strike that much more difficult. Now he just had t wait and see what Valley did to get free...

”Nope.” Valley quipped back as Kyo proceeded to flip her over, wisely taking advantage of the moment. ”The thought hadn’t crossed my mind.”

She was smiling, trying to remain glib, but the truth was that he had her in a pretty bad situation, and there weren’t any signs it would be improving any time soon, as he straddled her back and took hold of her arm. Valley put up a struggle, but with his superior position, there wasn’t too much she could do to avoid the chickenwing she was locked into. It was happening.

She gritted her teeth and tried to bare it for the moment, all while she attempted to pull forward and drag her way towards the ropes. It wouldn’t do much with the weight on her back, she knew that, but she had to at least make the attempt.

Even now, Valley was continuing to impress Kyo. He had her in a solid joint lock, pouring pressure onto the shoulder that he she had landed badly on earlier, and was even twisting a bit at the trapped limb. Valley had to be in quite a bit of pain, and yet not only was she visibly biting back a cry of pain, but she was also managing to throw a quip back at him in the process.

Well, if this was the tone she wanted to set in the match, he was obligated to respond in kind.

"Oh good," he breathed, "for a minute there I was afraid you weren't taking me seriously." He twisted sharply on Valley's arm, but at that point felt her pulling them towards the ropes. A part of him wanted to transition into a crossface, but knew it would be wiser to save that for the middle of the match, when it could really wear Valley down. Instead, he kept his grip on her arm until he saw her leg quickly drape over the bottom rope, and released her before the ref could tell him to let go.

Stand up smoothly, he grabbed a hold of Valley's arm again, and tried to push her into the nearby ropes before rebounding her across the ring. If he managed that, then he would run at her on the rebound, keeping himself ready for any counter attack she might pull, but otherwise raising an arm as though for a clothesline, hoping to instead catch her arm and swipe her boot with his own to flip her hard to the mat in a well-timed judo toss.

”Ha.” She fake-laughed back, as best as she could given her current situation. ”Where would you get that silly idea?”

Quipping was fun, really. Keeping things lighthearted. It wouldn’t do anything to distract from the mounting pain, though, as Kyo continued to work over her arm. The strategy spoke for itself - while this wasn’t a flashy or devastating move, it didn’t need to be. He was softening her up, the sort of thing that would pay dividends. Even if she wrested control of the match away from him, this would hamper her abilities and make it all the easier to seize other moments. Smart man.

He had the good sense not to hold it too long, as well, sticking with the move until she managed to get her foot on the rope. He immediately eased up on the move and broke without the referee’s prodding, but didn’t mean she was out of the woods yet. Far from it.

In the next moment, Valley was brought up to her feet and sent off running to the ropes, with the pull exacerbating her aching arm. When she came back, she saw him approaching her for what seemed like a clothesline, and readied herself to duck under the blow.

That, as it turned out, was a mistake. Instead of going for the obvious attack that he knew she could avoid, he switched it up and sent her flying with a judo throw, one that dropped her on the mat once again. She sat up immediately from the impact, hissing at the pain through her spine, her face a wrinkled mask, but she tried to keep her mind clear. Things were starting to get out of hand, and she needed to be on the look out for a way to change things up.

Kyo was in the driver's seat now as he managed to flip the former Entropy champion head over heels, crashing onto her back and jacknifing up into a sitting position. He was already in motion as that happened: against an opponent of Valley's character, he could afford to be courteous, even amiable, with her, because she was every bit as much of a face as he was. But that did not mean he could afford to take her lightly, or to give her even a second to recover: a fighter of her caliber would be hard to win against if he didn't take her seriously.

Running forwards, he suddenly dropped low, aiming to hammer his knees into Valley's exposed back as he knelt behind her: a part of him was tempted to go for a boston crab here and now, but he decided against it. Even after a few bumps, Valley was still relatively fresh, and he needed to wear her down a little further before he went to take out her deadliest weapons. Instead, he hooked one arm around the arm of Valley's he had been working over, trapping it, while his free arm roped in around her throat from behind, locking in a rear naked choke hold.

She was going to escape: Kyo knew that much. Somehow, Valley would fight her way free...but how much energy would she expend in the process, and how groggy would she be afterwards? These were the things Kyo was counting on as he sought to continue working over the Slamazon, clenching his teeth as he squeezed into her.

Valley was open, vulnerable, practically begging to be capitalized on, and there was no way Kyo would miss the chance to put another nail in her coffin. The only question was what kind of hammer he’d use to drive it in - something a little more dramatic, something flashy, something embarrassing, something that might give her an opening to exploit.

No, no such luck. Valley gritted her teeth as his arm snaked around her throat and clamped on tight, snapping her up with a familiar favorite - the rear naked choke. The definition of an effective hold, all substance, little style.

It was a good thing that she took a deep breath beforehand, because her oxygen stores were rapidly depleting. She needed a plan, or something close to it, or he’d been putting her down all too fast.

First step? Getting up. She planted one foot on the floor, then another, and pushed her way up, struggling against him to stand tall and plant her feet firm. The second step? Escape. She worked her way to the side, tested his give as much as she could, then twisted her body about and tried to ram her elbow into his rib, shooting it in hard with two consecutive shots. Hopefully, that would convince him to switch tactics, but if not, she’d have to work from there.

Kyo clenched his teeth, sensing that Valley was doing the same, as he coiled his arm tightly across her throat, her ragged breath fluttering against his arm. He doubted he'd be able to put Valley down with this hold, but he also knew he didn't need to-- he just needed to force her to needlessly expend energy trying to fight her way free of this hold. The more he made Valley tire herself out, the more in control he would be in this match.

Except, Valley wasn't wasting time uselessly trying to pry his arm loose. instead, she was getting one boot on the mat, and then another, and then, slowly but surely, she was pushing herself up to a sitting position. Breathing through flared nostrils, Kyo tried to keep her down as best he could, but slowly but surely, the Slamazon started to force her way to her feet. Around them, the fans were chanting her name, rousing the fan favourite back to her feet.

And then an elbow came slamming into Kyo's ribs. He winced, loudly, as sharp pain stabbed through his chest, and his grip loosened. Another blow slammed back into the same spot, and this time his grip on her came away completely as he was forced to double over, clutching his chest as he sucked in in air, giving Valley a vital, seconds-long opening...