To Wrangle a Reaper: Maria Castillo vs Liz Page

Maria:

The crowd for this particular match was far more modest than the packed arenas of late, but that was to be expected. Not every show was an instant sell out, but upper Management clearly appreciated Maria's work eith the Aztec Championship enough that it was becoming prominent in the house show circuit as well as on PPV.

The luchadora brushed her dark hair back, making slight tweaks to her attire and mask before her upbeat music began to play, with the attendant ushering her out of the back and onto the ramp with quite the cheer for a smaller group. Waving to all of the fans sporting shirts and replicas of her mask, she gave them all a gracious smile, rolling into the ring and holding up her belt as she passed it along to the referee. She leaned back a bit, feeling her back pop a bit as she wondered just who was her mystery opponent for her small title defense today? She did tell Management to "surprise her" after all!

Liz had been chomping at the bit to get back into the ring and show off her new moves, and Lily had finally relented. Her opponent was some kinda hot shot champ from another circuit trying to make her name in AFW. Well, Liz had a mind to give the new comer a warm welcome into the neighborhood. For some reason Lily had insisted on escorting her into the ring, which had led to a long conversation as to if they had wanted to change up the entrance music for the both of them. While a few good tracks had been tossed about it was eventually decided that it was better to use Liz's music since Lily was only sitting ringside for this one.

When Maria's music faded away it was followed by the dark, sensuous notes of a cover of Black Velvet, a little harder and less romantic sounding than the original. Through a fan of lights Liz emerged at the top of the ramp, a full half foot taller than Maria. The fit blonde was dressed in a white satin robe, but as she stopped to pose Lily emerged to follow after. The manager was in a white blouse, her red bra visible through it, and black pencil skirt with silk stockings. Sliding up behind Liz she took her robe by the shoulders and pulled it back and away to reveal her toned body and her stars-and-stripes bikini. The Georgia girl proudly flexed to the roar of the crowd. She would strut and swagger down the ramp, flexing and blowing kisses to the fans. They didn't know or care much about her, but buff blonde was always a popular flavor around here.

Trailing after Liz, Lily wriggled and shook her hips, dancing her way down the ramp on high heels. She clapped the outstretched hands of fans and blew kisses, even catching a thrown pair of briefs. The manager wasn't well known enough to have a die-hard fan section, but she was at least recognizable enough to prompt fans to whistle and yell lewd things at her. It was a start.

Reaching the ring, Liz climbed the apron and took one last moment to pose outside of the ropes. Raising her arms she stretched her long body and folded her arms over the top of her head, arching her back to show off her killer curves in the process. With that out of the way she would step over the ropes, still having to push the top one down a little, and into the ring.

Lily would move to stand by their assigned corner, folding her arms on the canvas and absently pushing out her ass for the appreciation of those fans lucky enough to stand behind her. If they were attentive the might even catch a flash of red silk panties under her too-short skirt.

Maria was caught more than a little off guard by this revelation. Not only was her opponent a gorgeous, tall, toned beauty, but she was being flanked by the very manager who earlier had been trying to recruit Maria! Also some seduction may have been involved in that sales pitch, so seeing Lily distracted the veteran more than a little as the pair made their way down to the ring, with Liz stepping impressively over the top rope to stand much taller than she ever could.

At the ref's instruction, the masked luchadora made her way into the ring, looking up at her opponent with more than a bit of apprehension. She knew Lily saw her original debut. She even brought it up. So if this Liz was one of her girls, no doubt she was using Maria's weakness against powerhouses against her. Smart strategy....even if it made her a tad annoyed at the uphill fight ahead of her.

Nevertheless, she extended a hand, looking up at Liz, "Fight well, and shine bright." she said, being as good a sport as possible

With her head held high, more arrogant than refined, Liz strutted into the middle of the ring to meet Maria at the ref's instruction. Shoulders back and hands on her hips she looked down her nose at the shorter woman, seeming to do her best to project both confidence as well as disdain. In this moment Liz had a choice to make, regarding just how she wanted herself to be portrayed in this new chapter of her AFW career. Before she had been a cold hearted bitch, bitter and angry towards any and everyone around her and the fans had been no exception. Perhaps this time she ought to soften her image a little, if only a little. It had been Lily's advice to at least play a little nicer, at least until she could establish herself.

Adopting a patronizing smile she leaned down to bring herself eye to eye with the older fighter and took her hand in a firm grip. "I always do, darlin'. Just try and keep up... if you can." And in the way of all overly aggressive jerks she would tighten her grip on Maria's hand, attempting to intimidate her with a powerful squeeze before releasing her soon-to-be victim.

From ringside Lily was rolling her eyes and muttering "That isn't playing nice... just once. Just once try not being an ass..."

Maria winced a bit when the hand practically crushed her own in one of the stronger grips she come across in AFW. Combine that with Liz's impressive height, and most women would no doubt be intimidated by their seemingly herculean task in the match ahead. Yet Maria didn't show more than a small twitch of her lips, the only trace of the pain worming it's way onto her face.

She decided to let that last comment about keeping up go, as the pair pulled away from one another and went to their respective corners. With a nod from the fighters, the official called for the bell, and the fight was under way!!

DING DING DING

Unlike her previous fights, Maria decided to switch things up, cautiously moving closer and ducking low for a waistlock, trying to slip under Liz's guard and hug the woman close to keep her from grabbing the luchadora

The bikini clad blonde returned to her corner for the short wait for the official to begin the match, her chin held high with an air of confidence and almost sneering disdain. It helped her state of mind to think of opponents as obstacles, bugs to be squashed on her climb to the top. They could be colleagues again when the match was over. After a minute her wait was over and both women took up their stances and moved to meet in the middle of the ring.

She lunges in to try and lock up with Maria's shoulders only for the shorter woman to stoop in beneath her grasp and cinch her arms around the Georgian's waist. The big blonde took half a step back, as if she could step out of the hold, and gave a frustrated grunt of dissatisfaction ""Hey, get off!" Planting her feet firmly upon the mat, Liz reached down to take a hold of Maria by the trunk, and with a heaving twist of her body attempt to pitch the Azteca champion away from her and towards the ropes. "We can hug it out after you lose, if you're lucky."

Maria's attempt to latch at Liz's back turned out to be not as smart as she thought. Her reach proved to be a bit better than the Luchadora first guessed, managing to latch onto her trunks and HURL her clean across the ring!

Her body slammed heavily into the canvas, almost rolling out of the ring had she not managed to latch onto the bottom rope. Dragging herself up to her feet, she brushed her hair back and took a more careful approach this time. Taking a measured step forward, she lashed out to try and kick the giantess in the midsection!

Liz watched the older woman tumble across the mat and almost over the apron, all the while grinning with smug satisfaction. She stalked her prey, stretching her arms above her head in an arrogant flex and to show off her form for the fans while she had a moment to gloat. As Maria climbed back to her feet the giantess got herself ready for another clash. The luchador tried a quick kick to stomach, but a quick hand caught her by the ankle just before she could make impact. The big blonde shook her head disapprovingly, clicking her tongue in a little "tsk tsk" sound.

Yanking hard on Maria's leg Liz would try to pull the veteran closer, bringing the extended leg past her body until she could get an arm between Maria's thighs. Rather than going for anything untoward, Liz would try to lift her opponent in a quick scoop slam and bring her crashing down to the mat.

The kick being snagged out of the air was NOT on Maria's plan for how this was going to go. She never even got a chance to properly fight back, with the giantess snagging her smaller form up with ease. Her strength was more than evident in how smoothly she maneuvered her opponent's body. A twist brought her up and over, before planting Maria flat on her back, shaking the canvas with a hard WHAM! Maria bounced once, grimacing as her boots kicked at the mat.

Elizabeth Page grinned darkly down at her prey as the older woman crashed down to the canvas before bouncing at her feet. Oh yes, this was exactly how she expected this match to go. Placing her hands on her hips she sneered down at Maria with pitying disdain, "Really thought you were going to get in the ring with me and get somewhere, did you? Well, it's time to put you to bed, old lady."

Digging a foot beneath the luchadora's back she gave a gentle shove to roll the woman over onto her stomach. Stooping down Liz would pull her up by the back of her head, "accidentally" pulling on her dark tresses in the process, dragging Maria up onto her knees. From there the woman would find herself hoisted up across Liz's broad shoulders, stretching her sore back as the Georgia peach showed her victim's body off to the hungry eyes of the audience.