Wrestle Angel and Rookie: Suzumi Ishikawa vs. AJ Shay!

Suzumi locked the hold in, spreading her arms for stability and leaning back, really applying pressure to put the screws to A.J! "Come on A.J, whaddya say!?" Suzumi shouted out as the referee checked up on A.J to see if she was going to submit.

Suzumi grit her teeth and put all she had into making the hold as painful as possible. She was not any sort of sadist, but she did want to win and she knew her way around many submission holds to make them as agonizing as possible. She let out a shout as she leaned back further, trying to make this as damaging to A.J as she could. She was in her opponents shoes not too long ago, and knew that A.J was fiesty. She was driven. That is why Suzumi showed her the respect to go all out. Suzumi was never going to treat an opponent as anything other than a serious threat. She had to be just as driven if not more so than the hungry rookie.

It hadn't been long before Suzumi had cranked the leg lock in so painfully it halted her progress to the ropes completely. She lay barely having crossed the threshold past center ring dead in the water. She couldn't take it, it hurt so much worse than she remembered. The referee looked nearby, once she had ceased trying to escape, they remained on hand, checking with her repeated if she wanted to give up.

She wanted to surrender so badly, just to make it stop. This hurt more than it had any right to. Why should couldn't even fight it. Every second she remained writhing in agony seemed to demoralize her further, making an enemy of herself as much as her opponent was. The match hadn't even been going for two minutes and she was already on the mat about to tap out. She couldn't help but feel small and pathetic.

Suzumi was goading her on. She knew it wasn't meant to be a Barb at her, but encouragement to fight on. She was letting her down too. She shouldn't have taken this match, she wasn't ready. Was coming to Japan a mistake?

"No!" She finally screamed, pain and frustration had built up for too long. She bucked, making things worse, but she was doing something. She was trying. "I won't give up!" She clenched her eyes shut, a tear rolling down her cheek. She looked like an animal caught in a trap.

Breath. You know what to do.

She did. She studied it.

The pain though...

The pain would go away, she just had to do the right thing. She craned her neck straining to look down her body at Suzumi. She was ready for it, arms spread wide. Did she even have the energy to try to overpower the Japanese native? She wasn't sure, she had to try. If she couldn't manage this, she was done for. She would be the laughing stock of the back. Hated by the fans. She knew she could be better than this.

Her mother had faith in her choice. Ryoko believed in her. The Black Fang had been impressed by how well she did. She couldn't surrender, not after everything she had sacrificed to get here. Not like this. She needed to be stronger, better... She didn't want to disappoint them all. She didn't want to shame her father...

"I am not a loser!" She shouted at the top of her lungs, seemingly to nobody but herself. She twisted her body to the left before swinging her weight back the other way, trying with all her might to roll the two women over to turn over the figure four. The pain was excruciating beyond her comprehension as she wrenched her own legs into the hold to do this, unsure if it would even pay off. She knew doing so would reverse the hold putting Suzumi in her boots. She had never done it before though. This would be the first time.

Suzumi had A.J in the hold so long she expected the pain to overwhelm her. Suzumi was very wrong! Suzumi was taken by surprise by the roll and now she was screaming loudly in pain at the reversal of fortune! Suzumi was a long ways from the ropes laterally, and her legs were to intertwined to escape.

Suzumi looked back, realizing her best recourse. A hard, long, pain filled crawl towards the ropes. She howled again in pain, her head thrashing about as she reached back, trying to dig her hands in and drag them both towards the ropes!

Thankfully for Suzumi, Alexa was incapable of applying as much pressure as she had done. For her, this had become something of a rest hold to try and recover from the damage that had already been done. Her legs were burning, but they had finally felt release. She winced as the Wrestle Angel dragged them along, having far more luck than she had.

She leaned forward, pressing her hands and forearms down onto the canvas as she lifted herself up slightly, trying to army crawl herself in the opposite direction, doing all she could to stall Suzumi reaching the ropes. She knew there was no way she could make her tap with this, but she had to buy herself time. If the hold got broken up now, she was going to get absolutely destroyed the moment her adversary recovered.

"I'm... Not letting you get away!" She shouted as she crawled, still steadily losing ground as the veteran wrestler tugged them both along. She finally found it in her to arch her back, drawing her legs back a bit to tighten the hold. It felt to strange handling the leg lock from this side of things. It was almost frightening how easy it was to apply so much pain.

Suzumi crawled and found her pace slowing dramatically as A.J had resisted and arched back! "AHHHHHHHHHH!" Suzumi howled in pain as her arms shook, the tsunami struggling to keep her crawl going! She had managed to underestimate A.J and was paying the price for it! She screamed again as she continued her slower pace, reaching out and trying to grab onto the bottom rope for dear life!

Even if she got the rope break she wasn't sure it would be honored and she wasn't sure what shape she would be in after being released! Suzumi wasn't sure who was in the hold longer. She regretted not trying to roll again to bring the hold back to the starting point, or just rolling laterally to try to make it to the ropes that way. Either way, her error in judgement had cost her dearly.

As Suzumi had started to slow, the effectiveness of simply arching her back to add pressure to the hold had become very apparent to her. Rising up from her forearms, she planted her palms to push herself up, creating the steepest incline with her body as could manage. She grit to teeth, straining as her own legs were even unhappy with the added pressure, but she carried on knowing it was several times worth for the veteran.

She had become so invested in the moment, when the referee finally called for a break it had almost felt like a slap in the face to wake her up. She twisted, turning them slightly to untangle their legs and slip free. Inching away from Suzumi, she rose to her feet on wobbly legs and backed off to allow the woman to rise up before she resumed their match.

There was no doubt the Wrestle Angel had done a number on her. She only hoped having reversed the hold she had managed to make enough of an impact on her for it to have mattered. She shifted her weight between her legs, shaking them out lightly, trying to limber herself back up.

Suzumi gasped as she used the ropes to help her up. She had an aid right there she would be crazy not to take advantage. Her legs were beyond hurting, and the friendly look previously on her face was replaced by a far mpre focused one. More intense.

Suzumi nodded to A.J, circling and stepping in, this time being the one to initiate a grapple! Suzumi wanted to try to work away at A.J using whatever methods she could. She knew she was bigger and decided to try to work that edge. She intended on landing a hard knee strike to the abdomen before disengaging, grabbing onto an arm and sending A.J running to the ropes with an Irish whip!

As Suzumi came in on her, she stepped forward taking the grapple at an awkward half angle.whole one arm reached don't for the woman's shoulder, the other moved to intercept and press her palm up against the underside of the Wrestle Angels arm to put it shove it away from allowing a full lock up. She was opening a path, trying to slip to Suzumi's side with a punishing suplex in mind.

"Ooof!" She didn't get their fast enough, still getting caught with the knee, just in her side rather than her stomach. While she attempted to recover, her opponent had already grabbed hold of her arm, sending her fumbling towards the ropes. Between her battered legs and breathless run, she almost fell flat at the force of the Irish whip. Recovering int a few strides, she headed towards the ropes, paranoa plaguing her. When thrown away, she had lost sight of Suzumi. She could still make something of this, she was just at a disadvantage.

Pivoting on her foot she hit the ropes hard, sinking her back in as they stretched to accommodate her. She stopped to a brief stop before shooting back the way she came, picking up speed. Lowering her head she ignored the burning in her legs as she pumped her arms, charging Suzumi full on.

Just before she reached the woman she threw herself down and to the side, legs parting wide as she slid along the mat the last foot or so. Once she was in range Alexa brought her legs together to try and capture the girl in a drop toe hold. Twisting her body to try to wrench her down to the canvas hard. If she managed to get her down, she would keep her legs locked in and roll onto Suzumi's back to clamp on an STF hold.

A.J needed to be softened up. That is what Suzumi thought. A strong slam or two, maybe a suplex along with a smattering of strikes thrown in. That is what Suzumi planned to do anyway. That was before A.J managed to get the upper hand and seemingly start beating Suzumi at her own game!

Suzumi had set herself up for a powerslam, and hadn't expected A.J to have recovered so quickly! Suzumi fell landing on her face as her head bounced off the mat, the momentary daze more than enough window for A.J to lock in the STF! Again, Suzumi was stuck on the mat screaming in agony as the young woman had caught her in a hold! Suzumi's limbs flailed and her arms reached up to try to grab hold of A.J's wrists. Suzumi was in the dead center of the ring so the ropes were a less attractive option than before.

Suzumi's pride was taking a bit of a hit at this point as she was the one looking like a rookie! She cried out as she tried her best to pry A.J's hands off of her, the first attempt of Suzumi's to escape this painful, devastating hold!

Alexa had been quick to reposition herself atop Suzumi's back, she didn't have a moment to spare. She knew a simple misstep could cost her. As she reached around the woman's head her hands clapped together, slipping up under her chin. She had even managed to interlock her fingers. In the middle of the ring, this was the perfect place to have her. Maybe she actually had a chance after all!

She could feel Suzumi tense beneath her, fighting the various components of the hold as she pulled herself more compact, drawing up the other woman's legs and head, stretching her back in the process. "I got you!" She almost laughed triumphantly at her good fortune.

Suzumi was clutching at her wrists, trying to pry them apart. The excitement in her face slowly draining as her arms strained, fingers slowly coming apart from one another. She grunted, trying to hold it all together but despite her best efforts the Wrestle Angel was straight up powering herself free! Alexa couldn't help but feel a bit starstruck in the moment, she couldn't believe this.

"No way! No way!" Her hands finally were thrown apart, freeing Suzumi from one of the key components of the hold. She wasn't going to just give up though. She was still the one on top, she still had her legs. She could salvage this! She pulled her arms away, planting her palms on Suzumi's back to shove the woman down into the mat, it was less about pushing her down, and more about propelling herself backwards.

Alexa flopped herself onto her back, grasping and the foot and ankle of the single leg she still had captured between her own. She attempted to hug her body around it, legs scissoring the other woman's thigh while she held the woman's foot desperately to apply an ankle lock. It was less than ideal, but she couldn't give up her chance to take as much out of the veteran as she could. In a straight up wrestling match she didn't have a chance unless the playing field was evened out.