Suzumi "The Tsunami" Ishikawa vs. Samiya Kusanagi

Suzumi staggered the powerful woman and had a plan to get her on the ground. She needed to force some sort of advantage on Samiya. She would show her that she was wrong about Suzumi needing to retire.

Suzumi jumped up into the air and kicked her legs out, aiming a dropkick right at Samiya's face! Her foe's short, wide base was a great asset in a lot of grappling situations. However it was up to Suzumi to work that against her and this was one such opportunity.

For a match between two submission specialists, both had very different advantages over the other as their very different nicknames might suggest. Suzumi was faster, Samiya stronger. Suzumi had the edge in range, Samiya had that amazingly solid stance that made her very hard to tackle.

But Suzumi was very sensibly not trying to match strength with the pocket powerhouse, instead taking advantage of her better striking skills to drop the Assassin instead.

Shaking her head free of the daze from the roundhouse, Samiya was just in time once again – this time, to see the soles of Suzumi’s boots headed right at her face. One of the downsides of being short was that it was easy for people to leap up and pull stunts like this, though the lower centre of gravity had some significant advantages to compensate.

As much by instinct as anything else, Samiya got her hands up in time to stop her taking the hit directly to her face. But, really, that was just a small blessing. She still took the hit to her arms and, given how rubbish her footing was, it wasn’t all that surprising when the smaller woman was sent flat on her curvy behind.

Rolling away, Samiya did her best to shake off the daze before something bad followed.

Suzumi saw Samiya go down. Perfect. She sprang after the woman as quickly as she could, reaching out to grab onto one of Samiya's ankles with both hands, wrapping her arms around the lower leg and foot. Now Suzumi had to make sure her foe was on her stomach allowing Suzumi to lower her knee down, kneeling right down on the back of Samiya's knee.

Ankle locks were not horribly complicated, but they sure could be effective when properly applied!

Being on the mat wasn’t a problem for Samiya. She did her best work down there, far more so than when she was on her feet. As such, she didn’t really mind Suzumi putting her there. The problem was that, after taking a dropkick only thinly blocked from hitting her in the face, her reflexes were temporarily slowed. If she’d been thinking clearly, her best chance would have been to keep on rolling. At least until she’d had a chance to shake off the kick or under the ropes to keep her safe from Suzumi.

Of course, Suzumi might have still caught her but Samiya made it easy for her by rolling over a couple of times before trying to push up to her feet again.

Stupid.

In retrospect at least, but she had time to think about that as she felt her opponent’s hands grab onto one of her ankles. Even in her dazed state, Samiya was too well-trained to miss the start to any number of leglocks, but she wasn’t able to stop the Tsunami securing that grip.

Ankle lock it was. With that in mind, Samiya did her utmost to stop Suzumi flipping her over onto her belly. That was something she could well, and it was a good few seconds before the Schoolgirl Assassin ended up face down and the pain began.

At that point, it was just a question of gritting her teeth and using her power to drag them towards the safety of the nearby ropes. Hopefully, she could get there soon enough to stop Suzumi twisting her foot off her leg.

Suzumi kept the ankle lock secured as long as she could, applying as much pressure as she could. She wanted more than anything to snap this woman's powerful ankle in half.

It was not to be. The referee called for a rope break and Suzumi honored it to the fullest. She let go and backed off allowing Samiya to get to her feet. She glared at Samiya with a burning hatred but refused to use cheap shots or anything to dampen what she believed would be a defining win for herself.

As Samiya rose to her feet Suzumi would not let up. She moved in as if she was going to grapple but quickly dropped down, trying to catch Samiya with a drop toe hold!

Clinging on like grim death to the ropes, her fingers pale with the grip she was exerting on them, Samiya was decidedly grateful that Suzumi was stupid enough to just let go. Oh, she was in no mood to be in the painful ankle lock any longer than she had to be. Samiya’s stems were short but thick and powerful, but she could have had legs like Alicia Wells and her ankles would still have been a weak point.

Of course the same was true of Suzumi and both expert submission wrestlers were certainly going to be looking for chances to hit those weak points. Joints like the ankles, the knees, the elbows… The parts of their bodies that no amount of muscle could protect.

Luckily for Samiya’s chances in this match, Suzumi hadn’t had too much of a chance to wreck her ankle but the joint still hurt. As a result, and because she could, she took her time getting to her feet.

Not that she was given long to steady herself once she got to her feet. Suzumi came rushing in more or less as soon as the Assassin’s feet were flat on the mat. It looked like she was going to grapple with Samiya, which would have been a critical mistake even with a hurt ankle, but instead the Tsunami dropped down at the last minute and went to drop the tattooed terror on her face.

The drop toe hold would have worked – kind of did work even – but as Samiya dropped, she lashed out with a hand and caught herself on the ropes. It still left her down on one knee but that was a lot better than it might have been.

Not quite how Suzumi had planned it. Still, she had a slumping Samiya and if she was quick she decided to try a different approach to get an edge. Suzumi got up as quickly as she could and tried to stay behind Samiya. Samiya was the stronger of the two and thicker but Suzumi was no slouch in power, and not much lighter than Samiya.

She grabbed her around the waist and with a grunt did everything in her power to try to deliver a German suplex to Samiya! She didn't think Samiya would expect this, but was still wary.... her foe was a great technician inside these ropes.

Problem. Suzumi was on her feet while Samiya was down on one knee. Second problem. Suzumi was up fast enough to get behind Samiya and it wasn’t necessary to be a master strategist to see why that was a bad thing.

Under other circumstances, though, Samiya would have had more options to deal with it. As it was, she tried to stand up but her ankle – still tender from the lock before – wouldn’t take the sudden change of position. Stuck on one knee, there was virtually nothing she could do to counter the sudden lock of Suzumi’s arms around her waist. But, while her leg might be hurting, her mind was still in the match.

The tattooed wrestler threw a sharp elbow back but that was just an opportunity shot. Her principal attempt at countering was more technical, doing her best to use her low centre of gravity, her solid base and her weight against Suzumi as far as she could. Suzumi wasn’t weak but Samiya was expecting that, if she could stall the suplex for long enough, the other grappler would switch to something else.

If not, she was about to crash down on her head and there was nothing she could do about it.

As Suzumi lift and got Samiya off her feet an elbow strike the side of her head! Suzuni groaned and kept lifting, but the suplex was more of a lift and dump. It lacked the force it would have had otherwise. Suzumi didn't even attempt to keep thebridge, rolling off to her side and rubbing her head.

She knew she had still done a number on Samiya but she herself also needed a bit of time to recover. She rubbed the side of her head staggering to her feet. She blinked away some of the fuzzy vision and crouched, taking the extra time to recover as Samiya rose up to her feet.

While the attempt to stall the suplex didn’t pan out, there was still some good news for Samiya as her elbow clipped the side of Suzumi’s head. Not just clipped either, it hit home solidly and – just like that – the suplex lost a good deal of its momentum.

Still, Suzumi was too experienced to let go entirely and she still went through with the slam.

Just a lift and dump it might have been but being dumped on her head was still not a lot of fun at all.

Certainly better than a full-fledged German suplex but that wasn’t hard. In the wake of the move, Samiya groaned and wished she could just stay down for long enough for the aches to fade. That would have been a spectacularly bad idea though and she didn’t even waste the time contemplating it. Instead, pushing past the ache in her back and neck and the pain in her ankle, the Schoolgirl Assassin forced herself to her feet.

Hopefully, the elbow to the head had some sort of impact and, indeed, Suzumi looked a little less stable than she had before.

Crouching herself, Samiya raised her hands and moved in as quickly as she dared. Ideally, she wanted to lock up with Suzumi where she could take advantage of her edge in power and low centre of gravity. But she didn’t want to give the Tsunami a chance to slip around her as she moved in, or give her opponent another shot at her ankle.

So care was called for.