Alaina Sanders vs. Kozue Kaburagi - Long Time, No See

So far, so good. Too good, being honest. As much as Kozue wanted to be confident in her training, she knew what she could and couldn't take, and realized that there was no way she was going to cleansweep Alaina Frickin’ Sanders. She was going to take hits in this match, against a woman who could put her down with one good, clean shot. There was just no way around it, and the best she could hope was to mitigate the damage, prepare herself for it.

It was coming. She knew it was coming. It was just a matter of how she handled it.

Her idea had been to move in after that last strike, hoping to stun Alaina with a right hook so she could start setting up for more substantial things. A good idea on paper, but in practice the Amazon turned out to be a little quicker on the draw than she’d anticipated. Kozue was just on the edge of closing the gap when her opponent leaped up, taking her off guard, and sent both boots flying towards her chest.

It was only by a small miracle that the New Jersey Ninja managed to get her arms up in defense at the last second, but it was a small miracle, at that. She was still knocked clean off her feet and sent soaring away, crashing down hard on her back. She rolled and rolled, and might have rolled off the apron if she hadn’t grabbed the ropes at the last second. That was where she stayed for the moment, too, her back laid across the edge of the ring, gripping the bottom rope for support and safety while she recovered.

Alaina landed the dropkick and got the result she wanted. Kozue was on the ground and Alaina was rising back to her feet. She was making her way over towards Kozue in order to grab hold of her. Alaina knew when the opportunity presented itself she had to get herself rolling. Alaina grabbed Kozue by the arm, lifting her up and grappling with her. Alaina was trying to slam her knee into the abdomen of Kozue before grabbing her around the waist, getting herself in position to move Kozue away from the ropes by way of a northern lights suplex!

Alaina might not have been as fast as Kozue, but she had to give the Amazon credit - when she saw an opening, she knew how to seize it. That could make up for a lot of slowness.

She had just been getting to her feet when her moving mountain of an opponent moved in to ‘help’ her with that, hauling her up fast and pulling her in. Kozue made the guess that she was about to be suplexed - always a safe bet with this power types - but that could’ve been a blessing or a curse. She could flip her way out of some suplexes, less so with others.

What she wound up getting was a Northern Lights Suplex. Good choice on Alaina’s part, but bad for her.

Kozue was brought down hard on the canvas and went rolling away right after the hit, rolling more than she actually had to, trying to carry herself all the way to the ropes. The further she was from the Amazon, the longer it would take her opponent to follow up, the closer she was to the ropes in case of submissions, and the more she could recover.

Alaina felt the solid impact, feeling good about having landed some good telling offense to try to slow Kozue down. The bigger woman wanted to keep the pace slow so as she made her way over to Kozue she was looking to try to pull her by the ankles to drag her back to the middle.of the ring.

Alaina was going to try to disorient the smaller wrestler hoping she would stay still long enough as she smiled, looking to set up a big swing on the nimble ninjette!

Kozue knew that Alaina having her snagged by the ankles was a bad, bad thing, but she wasn’t quite sure why it would be as she was dragged away towards the center of the ring. There were a variety of moves that a woman like Alaina could hit her with that would ruin her day - the standard stuff like the Boston Crab, yes, but also something spicy like an STF, or a flapjack, or…

...a Big Swing? A Big Swing. Kozue had to admit, this was a first.

She brought her arms in as Alaina spun her arm, taking away the drag on them and keeping them tucked in tight. It was all she could really do at the moment - that, and prepare herself for the inevitable stop, and hope that she came out of the with better equilibrium than her opponent.

Alaina let go after swinging Kozue around in circles, immediately stumbling over towards the ropes! Alaina was quite dizzy and shook her head trying to stabilize herself. Alaina hoped the landing hurt Kozue and that she was dizzy otherwise this little move that the crowd seemed to get a laugh out of would be ineffective.

Alaina lumbered back over to Kozue picking up speed as she got close and hoping to keep her down, leaping up and crashing down on top of Kozue's chest with a leg drop! Alaina was dizzy though and she really was hoping Kozue was just as dizzy or worse. Given her opponent Alaina realized all too late that she may have made a poor choice of offense just now....

Yes, getting tossed away like an overfilled bag of trash did, in fact, suck. Especially after being spun around like a centrifuge for the better part of a minute.

Kozue went rolling away after being released, tumbling hard and nearly going all the way to the ropes. She came to a stop on her back and stared up at the ceiling, blinking, trying to focus. There was some science behind this, her brain stilling from the momentum even though her body had stopped, sending out fall signals. It was a weird thing to deal with, but she could deal with it.

Focus. Compensate for the spinning. Find a center. And…

Kozue jerked to the side, moving out of the way just in time to let Alaina’s leg come crashing beside. She spun back around in the next moment, swinging her leg around in a wide arc to clock her opponent right in the face.

Alaina ran in, leaping up to bring a big thick-thighed leg drop down on Kozue... but Kozue wasn't there anymore! "Oomph! Damn it that- ARGH!" Alaina screamed as she missed, her backside throbbing from her own miscue. However the fast, hard hitting kick came screaming in right after. Alaina saw stars for a second and her head snapped back, hair flying everywhere as she howled and fell back to the canvas! That kick dazed the amazon and all she could do was cover her throbbing face with her hands and meekly kick the mat in pain!

The kick hit dead on, laid her opponent out, and Kozue was struck with a prime opportunity - her opponent on her back, wide open, with her nearby and already in a good spot to capitalize.

Go for a pin? Go for a pin.

Kozue scrambled on top of the Amazon, wrapped her arms around one of her knees, pulled it up and leaned into her for the quick pinfall. She knew there was a small, infinitesimal chance of this working, but that wasn’t the point, really - even if it didn’t, it would be a great way to keep her foe on her toes, keep her guessing, never knowing what would come next. That could pay out as the match went on, and she was all in for it.

The referee dropped down, slapped the mat, and started the count up. ”1…!”

Alaina groaned as the kick had dazed her but her muscle memory seemed to know what was going on even if her brain was scrambled. The one count snapped her back to reality, jolting a level of awareness back into the amazon. Alaina thrust her leg free and bucked her hips kicking out right when the referee was about to get the two count. She had a lot of work to do but at the very least she hadn't just succumbed to a sudden defeat!

Alaina tried to roll away to get some separation from Kozue hoping to push herself back up to her feet before her speedy opponent could act again to take her down.