SS21 - Adrian Kytes vs Maria Castillo

Maria caught what Adrian was doing but by the time she did, the woman had already ducked low to hoist her up and push her body away, aiming to throw her out of the ring...except that never happened. Oh she got tossed up......but she never fell down~

Her hands grasped the tope rope on either side of the turnbuckle pad, the top of her head balancing perfectly on the soft cushion as she stretched her body straight up in the air! The crowd's volume only increased in volume and intensity! Grinning at Adrian's back, she brought her legs down, cocking them back before slamming them dead center of her opponent's back with a nasty Mule Kick!!!

Visual for move~

Adrian definitely felt the weight of the luchadora fly overhead as she pushed the veteran over her shoulder but the lack of sound from a painful drop to the floor was giving the brunette a bit of cause for concern. Fortunately for Adrian the question of where Maria went would be quickly answered just as she managed to her breath back. Unfortunately it meant getting footprints on the lower part of her shoulder blades.

"UGH!" the former champ grunted as she fell flat on her face and chest, her opponent's handstand acrobatics giving her all the space to get much more force in that mule kick than she would have from any dropkick and now she was flat on the floor once again reduced to trying to get up to her knees before something worse happened to her.

Maria's feet hit the canvas with a muffled thud, one hand reaching up to brush her raven hair out of her eyes. Turning to Adrian, she moved forward, bending down to snatch her challenger's jaw and drag her up to her feet.

"Up you go senorita.....I think it's time the crowd knew who the fighting champion is between the two of us!" she shot at her, bending down to sling Adrian across her shoulders, struggling momentarily with the bumps she had taken, but she managed to keep herself standing as she turned to face the hard camera, flashing her smile. The crowd stood, ready for Maria to give Adrian her Kiss of the Reaper finisher as she tossed the woman up!!!

Adrian was launched up off Maria's shoulders and landed... a little off from where The Reaper had hoped the former cosplayer would have landed. Instead of a downward trajectory into her knee, Adrian had slipped behind and landed on her feet instead from the little push Maria had given her, which she quickly repaid by reaching up to wrap her arm over the luchadora's neck and throw both herself and her foe down to the canvas with a Reverse DDT. "Surprise! It's me," the brunette taunted through a pained smile as she sat up, back on the attack.

Maria was pretty sure she had this in the bag...riiiight up until Adrian managed to alter her landing, popping down behind the luchadora! Maria didn't even have time to properly turn before a arm managed to wrap around her throat, bending her spine painfully back so she could see the triumphant look in her opponent's eyes! A sharp drop brought them both down in a rattling slam, leaving the luchadora sprawled out beside Adrian, chest rising and falling with deep breaths as she struggled to even focus on what was happening!

With near-certain defeat deftly avoided and back on the attack, Adrian took the time to sit up and take a nice deep breath as she looked over at the suitably dazed Luchadora. There was a reason so many people did DDTs and various spin-offs: it didn't take much to do and they freaking worked as Maria probably knew before the former cosplayer jammed her head into the canvas.

With a deep breath, Adrian rolled back onto her feet to give herself a bit of space before she took a firm stride forward and leapt into the air, her feet flying upward as she returned to her roots of being one of AFW's original high-flyers, twisting herself backwards as she came splashing down with a somewhat sloppy but still impactful standing Shooting Star Press.

Maria's skull was throbbing with the spike it had taken with the DDT. On top of that, her lungs were struggling to breathe with the heavy impact her body had taken. She had just managed to roll onto her back when the lights above were blocked out, and in a split second, her silver eyes widened as she recognized the twisting form of Aiden come down hard across her torso! THe heavy THUD made her body jerk, limbs flopping at her side as her brain was scrambled from the sudden burst of pain!

With the arc of her flip complete and the impact painful for the luchadora beneath her, Adrian practically bounced up off Maria's chest gasping for breath as she fumbled to grab her leg and hook it in tightly. The scare with the attempted Kiss of the Reaper was enough to encourage the former champion to take any opportunity to end the match as soon as possible and that meant going for cheeky pins whenever she felt she might be able to shithouse her way to a three count.

"ONE!"

Maria's body stung from the impact of Adrain's fall, her limbs jolting as all the air was crushed from her lungs and leaving her momentarily breathless. Her vision blurred, feeling a hand cup her thigh and hook a leg toward the sky, pointing to those brilliant lights that seemed to spin all around her. It took a moment for Maria to gather herself, before managing to jerk a shoulder up just after the ref counted to "TWO!"

The crowd popped, knowing Maria was still hanging on for dear life!

"Damn..." Adrian grunted as she was pushed up, unable to keep Maria's shoulders down for the extra second she needed to win, rolling off the luchadora as she started to get her breath back as the burst of energy that propelled her started to fade. After being used as a crash mat it felt good to be on top for a while, but the former champion needed to do a lot more than fall back and do a flip to keep the Reaper out for the count. Although... maybe she was approaching this the wrong way.

Perhaps she didn't need to do more damage to Maria, she'd only gotten a shoulder up rather than a powerful kickout after all, so instead of forcing her up for some abuse Adrian quickly rolled Maria onto her hands and knees before straddling her and pushing her head down. With her legs hooked in underneath her armpits the leader of the Bullet Club rolled her forward, ending up in something close to a press-up position while Maria was stuck on her shoulders, rolled up in a Gedo Clutch.