SS21 - Adrian Kytes vs Maria Castillo

Maria turned at the sound of the jeering, and scowled as she saw Adrian scurry out of the ring. No....she wasn't getting away. Maria was hear to prove that she was a fighting champion, and no coward was going to say otherwise! Bouncing off the nearest set of ropes, she sprinted right for Adrian, before taking a massive leap OVER the top rope!

The veteran twisted her body gracefully in the air, coming down on her foe and slamming them both down into the padded floor with a hard BAM!

Adrian was quite enjoying her little rest on the outside even if it was a futile effort to push her hair back into place with her bare hands, still it gave her time to catch her breath and get a better perspective of the situation. She'd been able to keep up in the grappling very well with the luchadora but Maria's striking game was providing a problem to be solved by the former cosplayer, there was also the matter of how quick her opponent was to take to the sky.

Like right now.

"What the-!?!" Adrian let out before Maria's high jump completed with the Reaper landing on the brunette for the second time this match, sending her down to the much less comfortable arena floor while Maria used her as a human crash pad, again.

This landing was a bit rougher on Maria than her last jump, with the impact knocking the air out of her lungs momentarily. Not that it did anything to dull the crowd's excitement! With Maria finally picking up steam in her AFW run, the prospect of seeing Lucha Libre unleashed by a legend was far too tantalizing to ignore!

Maria rolled onto her back, revealing the tiniest of smiles that began to tug at the corners of her lips. Her chest heaved, and her muscles burned with the strain of her athletic moveset, but she wasn't giving one word of complaint for it. She WELCOMED this. But she wouldn't be fully satisfied until she put down Adrian. Rolling onto all fours, she pushed herself up onto her knees, reaching forward to grab at her foe's shoulder!

"Nghh..." Adrian groaned as she felt someone grab hold of her shoulder, still dealing with being used as the off-screen victim for whenever Maria's personal highlight reel got released. The laws of physics were a cruel mistress and was currently making the American her bitch but the former champ wasn't completely helpless against the luchadora, able enough to reach up with her outside arm and grab the reaper's shoulder herself before pulling her over. If they were in the ring, Adrian might have cinched it into a small package pin but for now the brunette just wanted to break Maria's stride, rolling her over and giving her time to stand up.

Maria's momentum was halted momentarily, when Adrian grabbed at the luchadora's shoulder! Before she could utter a curse, she was pulled over, tossed to the side where she hit the barricade hard enough to leave her momentarily stunned. As of now both combatants were flat on their backs, with the flummoxed referee already throwing her hands up to start the count out. With how heated the match had been, what was planned for this contest?!

Adrian breathed a sigh of relief as Maria hit the barricade from her quick roll, but if she wanted to be walking out with more gold around her waist than she came in here with, the former cosplayer couldn't afford to rest on the outside, the ring was a much better place to take a breather now that there wasn't anyone jumping at her in it. It took a bit of a struggle to get up but eventually Adrian was able to roll in to the ring without a single glance back at Maria. That could be a problem for when she was up to her feet again.

Maria massaged her head and back, still sore as the ref began the long count. Despite the fact that Maria's title would be safe in the event of a count out, she was NOT going to give the cosplayer the satisfaction of getting another cheap win over her.

Gritting her teeth, she threw herself under the bottom rope the moment the Ref was about to raise their arms for a count of 9. The match was saved from a rather anticlimactic end, but it gave Adrian almost a whole ten count to recover from the beating she had received!

A ten count wasn't as long as it seemed, especially as she and Maria had already spent some of it in the outside but every little helped as Adrian scrambled up to her knees and launched herself at the luchadora, slamming her hands into a double axe handle blow between her shoulder blades to keep her flat on the canvas instead of being up and in the former champ's face "Yah!"

Now that control was being re-established by the American it was time to do something with it, and with a look across to the corner she had a pretty good idea "Hope you've rested enough for a run~" the brunette taunted as she guided Maria back to her feet and tried to send her running across the ring with an Irish whip to one of the corners.

Maria had hopes that the beating would have at least taken a chunk out of Adrian's will to fight. An opening salvo like that would normally have downed a less experienced combatant, but Adrian somehow managed to deliver a stunning axe handle to the spine! The force sent Maria face first into the canvas, pain lancing through her back, "Gaha!" she cried, before she felt hands clutching at her jaw and dragging her to her feet! Among the roar of the crowd, Maria heard Adrian taunt her, before going for the whip!

The luchadora's hand latched on to Adrian, with maria spinning the pair on the spot to launch her opponent face first into the corner! She herself made a charge to squash her between the post and her athletic body, just to add more damage!

"Whoa!" Adrian yelped as her attempt at launching the luchadora became an impromptu dance party as she was spun around and sent stumbling across the ring instead, managing to turn at the last second so that her shoulder blades and back hit the turnbuckles instead of crushing her already small chest against the padded metal, not that that was much comfort as it still stung like anything "Geeeh..." it just gave her a better view of the charging Maria's attempt at a follow up.

With one hand on the top rope and the other going low, Adrian tried to get her head below the luchadora's centre of gravity before she straightened up and stepped out, sending the reaper flying up from a back body drop that somehow didn't end with Adrian being kicked in the face for the attempt.