Natasha Han vs. Tessa Price

Some time after her match with Emily Nelson, Natasha Han was in the AFW's gym. That had been a rough match, and even though she had won, it was an extremely close win. She wasn't fond of wins that were so close; even though she greatly respected Emily, she would had preferred for her win to be a bit more solid.

So she was in the gym now, dressed only in a tight sports bra and a pair of gym shorts, working out. The Russian had been here for several hours already, a glistening sheen of sweat covering her body from all her exercise so far. Now she was working on a punching bag, giving a loud shout with each strike to it, paying little attention to what was around her.

"Aah! Haah! Arrgh! AAH!"

It was a rather nice day for Tessa up to date. Finally her little apartment looked like a place someone could live in, not a wild arrangement of moving carts, clothes plugged out of a bag for a quick try and then tossed aside, the list of uncomfortable things had seemingly never ended until today. But now? She had found cups in her cupboard, coffee for the machine , clean clothes in her wardrobe and even her training clothes.

So she had really been in a good mood as she had entered the gym and trained a while with a medicine ball. A terrible invention, but obviously good for everything so she used it regularly. After finally rolling the ball back in its cage, she put a towel around her neck and went up to investigate the equally patiently training person in the next room that she had heard a while ago but had been too busy by herself.

Taking a good look from the side, she believed to know the lady. No slacker, Russian, well known in the independent circus.
C'mon, what can probably happen?
she told herself, trying to look confident but friendly as she stepped to the side of the women, patiently waiting until Natasha had time to pay her attention.
Sorry to interrupt you. You're Miss Han, aren't you? Natasha Han? I have seen some of your matches on tape. Really impressive ring work. Although i have not seen the newest material yet, had to move my stuff from Europe over to Japan lately and was quite busy.
Tessa smiled politely.
My name is Tessa. Tessa Price. I used to mainly compete in Germany and European indies until joining AFW.
maybe her opponent had at least heard her name in the wrestling dirtsheets which shoved people from here to their when their contracts came near to their ends.

Natasha didn't acknowledge Tessa at first. She struck her punching bag several more times, a focused look on her face, then finally stopped, panting slightly and turning to face Tessa.

She smiled, her eyes glancing over the blonde briefly. "Yes, I am Natasha Han. Thank you, I am always trying my best in the ring..." She didn't reconize the girl's name, but she definately enjoyed getting compliments from fans.

That effort definitely shows. Doesn't hurt to admit that another fighter can go in the ring.
So she was not well known here, but that would have only be a problem if she would be the kind of person who couldn't see very far cause her ego was in the way. And Miss Han, as good as she was, was only midcard at the moment in the eyes of Tessa. Which was no shame, upper card and main event in AFW was obviously packed with harpies, behemoths, vipers and anacondas. And when you try to grip a feeling for the new league, why not just start with one of the professionals?
So then, what would you say about a training with a much more mobile target than your punching ball? Like, hm, let me think about it, how about facing me in a match? Right now if you like, the next free ring can't be too far in this gym.
Tessa smiled innocently and slightly wiggled a little bit with her head to move away some hairs who had fallen on her face while the Russian had addressed her.

Natasha grinned slightly, grabbing a towel she had off to the side and wiping some sweat off her face with it.

"I would quite enjoy that, da..." She slung her towel over her should, giving Tessa a brief nod. "Is better than facing a bag who can not fight back."

She stepped past the blonde, and began to make her way to one of the empty practice rings, slipping under the ropes and climbing in, looking back over her shoulder at Tessa. "Coming?"

Definitely. Your gain is my pleasure.
Tessa followed her opponent to the next ring, which was even nearer than she had expected. After rolling into the ring under the lowest rope and standing up again, she removed her warming training clothes to reveal training gear modeled after her ring outfit, but was more intended to gather sweat than look shiny in the ring.
Don't go easy on me. I am no model thrown into the ring with some basic fighting lesson where everyone just hopes that she won't kill herself in the next minutes.
she added in a more serious but still friendly voice after throwing her unneeded gear out of the ring. Many opponents had faced severe consequences by thinking of her as an easy pushover.

And trying to be a good sportswomen, she also offered Natasha a fair handshake before the start of the match.

Natasha slung her towel over a rope and laughed, shaking her head at Tessa. "Trust me, I do not go easy on anyone. This might being a practice match, but I am still here to win."

She grinned again, and took Tessa's handshake, gripping her hand firmly then stepping back, raising her hands up defensively as she waiting for Tess to start.

Strong, firm grip. Striker type. Will be a tough nut to crack, perfect test to see where I stand.
She thought, moving her fingers to shake the feeling of the firm handshake. Tessa's smile turned to in-ring business face as she was thinking about the best route to go here. Not too keen to get hit in the face mere seconds after the start of the match, she decided to fake a slow beginning with a lockup, expecting that her opponent would fire a straight punch to the face with her hands high. Instead of the lockup, she would try to close in, sidestep an eventual punch and grab her opponent by the torso to deliver an Irish curse Backbreaker(a Side slam backbreaker) to Natasha instead.

Tessa would soon find out though, that her assumptions about Natasha being a striker weren't entirely correct.

When Tessa sidestepped to try and grab the Russian for the backbreaker, Natasha would turn her head slightly to smirk at her, quickly firing off an elbow strike at her face to get her off and away from herself.

Yay!
A surprised, short scream came from of the lips of Tessa. Her face was the aim of Natasha, something she couldn't stomach very well. But she couldn't back up so fast to not look like a total wimp who couldn't handle a single strike to the head.

So her assumption hadn't been totally wrong, but not right at the point. She received a nasty reminder of Natasha's elbow to the back of her head as she turned away, but would try to roll with the turn-around movement the strike from her opponent forced out of her, the elbow hit giving additional momentum for a Puroresu discus punch aimed at the collar bone of the Russian.