William Castur vs. Carmen Rodriguez - Back in Business

Match Type: Standard
Victory Conditions: Victory by pinfall, submission, or KO

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Carmen stood in the gorilla position, waiting for the cue to be  called out for her next match. Maybe ‘next match wasn’t the best way to phrase it, though - that carried the implication that she’d had one recently, and that couldn’t have been further from the truth.

There was a mirror nearby, meant so wrestlers could get a last minute look at themselves, and she took the opportunity to give herself a once-over. Her new outfit suited her, being a mix between her more traditional wrestling attire and the street clothes she’d worn as the 24/7 Champion. Physically, she was in good shape, if you didn’t count the bald head. Even though she hadn’t been in the ring for a while, her training schedule hadn’t changed. She was just as strong as ever, just as fast, just as deadly.

Mentally, though...that was a different story.

She could still remember the match where she’d lost the 24/7 Title, see it all so clear in her head. She should’ve had it. Should’ve been able to beat Soledad...but no. The younger wrestler outmaneuvered and turn her own body against her. She didn’t cheat, not really, she’d just been better than Carmen. She’d earned the belt, and that was what stung the most.

Carmen had taken months to get her head right after that loss, and she still had a ways to go before she could wash the taste out and move forward with her career. Until that time, though, she had bills to pay, and that meant she had matches to fight. So, here she was.

One of the stagehands popped her head out and gave her the signal, getting a nod back from Carmen in response. Sure enough, her music began to play, and she could feel all the familiar feelings flow through her. The hype. The energy. The urge.

It was time to fight.

vengo con el mundo y vengo con los pájaros,
vengo con las flores y los árboles sus cantos.
Vengo con el cielo y sus constelaciones,
vengo con el mundo y todas sus estaciones.

She emerged from the curtain to mild applause, which wasn’t that unexpected. She’d been a big name while she had the belt, and was one of the most recognized names on the roster, but the crowd had gone cold in the past few months. Getting them heated up again was going to be her job, and it was going to start tonight. One match, then another, then another...until she got back into title contention. Until she showed she was ready.

For now, though, she honed her mind and focused on the fight at hand, sliding in under the bottom rope and bouncing to her feet. Carmen made her way over to her corner and warmed up as her theme music died down, doing a quick stretches with the ropes to stay limber.

While waiting backstage William folded his glasses and put them down on a table. In just a pair of black trunks he looked himself over to make sure he looked alright. Seeing no problems the bartender would just wait his turn to make an entrance. "Ok, let's make this one better than the last." He said to himself, hoping this match went ok for him. He was still a bit nervous before matches and would need to take a deep breath before getting ready to go out. It wasn't that he was afraid of losing, he'd already gotten over that. The bartender just still needed to work on confidently putting on a show for the crowd. That's what he was really here for anyway.

Finally he would here the music stop and "Welcome to the Jungle" begin to play in the loudspeakers. It was his tern to make an appearance. He emerged from backstage and quickly waved to some of the crowd before slowly making his way up to the ring and through the ropes. Although most of them had yet to recognize his name, Will was still met with some cheers which would be encouraging.

The bartender made his way through the ropes before laying eyes on his opponent. As soon as he saw Carmen he knew this match wasn't going to be a walk in the park. "Oh wow. You're a lot..." Will looked his opponent over again before continuing. "...tougher looking than I expected." He didn't expect his opponent to be much taller than him but it was the shaved head that really came as a surprise to him.

Deciding it best to not spend too much time thinking about Carmen's appearance any longer Will would quickly change his own subject. "Well anyway I'd wish you luck, but I'm afraid if I do I'm not gonna be on the right end of this beatdown." He commented with a chuckle before heading towards the corner. At this point he was looking forward to the start of the match. He'd find it much easier than talking.

Carmen wasn’t sure if she was relieved or annoyed by what ended up coming out of the curtains.

On one hand, William seemed like a nice enough guy. Polite, amicable, a little shy. Definitely not like the jerkish jocks that Tension sometimes attracted, and he wasn’t quite like the weaklings wimps, either. Decently built. Fair body.

On the other hand, she could tell right away that he was lacking a certain intensity, a kind of agressiveness he really should’ve been bringing to the ring. She wanted a win, here, but she didn’t want to steamroll him, either. A squash was the last thing she wanted on her resume.

Regardless, the bell rang. She was locked in and she was moving forward.

Deciding to start this one off slow, Carmen came out of the corner with her fists raised, not saying a word in response to him just yet. She didn’t attack, but instead started to circle William, getting into his range and practically daring him to make the first move.

It was immediately apparent that Carmen was in no mood to talk. She was going to get straight down to business. That was fine with Will who would mostly do the same. While he didn't mind a little banter, sometimes it was nice to not have to listen to the other wrestler chatter on about how good they thought they were.

As soon as the bell rang, Carmen was off. Will watched as she started to circle him but refused to make the first move. If she wasn't going to start things off Will would gladly get the party started. Will wanted to go in for a lock up but decided against it as his opponent looked ready to throw a quick jab at his face if he went in carelessly.

As soon as Carmen was in range he would instead decide to throw out a quick kick towards her waist to test the waters. He was hoping to catch Carmen taking him a bit too lightly so he could get a chance to follow up if he hit.

Carmen waited, and to Will’s credit, he gave her a proper berth. He was smart enough to not just charge in and get wrecked by her immediately, instead coming at her with understandable caution. He knew, he had to know, that she was waiting to punish each and every little mistake he made.

That being said, if he didn’t do something, there wouldn’t be much of a match. He had to act, and act he did.

The kick he threw wasn’t the best she’d ever seen, but far from the worst, either. Too fast for her to dodge at close range, but she managed to get her arm down in time to block it with her elbow. The impact made her take a quick step to the side. Nice force. Not bad.

Now it was her turn.

Carmen stepped in fast and returned fire, throwing out two quick jabs towards his face, firing them off in rapid succession. Nothing too powerful, just testing his reflexes and getting a feel for him rhythm. For now.

William landed his kick but it was blocked fairly handily, becoming not much more than an annoyance to his opponent. He knew he'd have to do better than that if he wanted get anywhere. As expected Carmen would be a tough opponent to crack. Bringing his leg back, Will wanted to make sure he had time to get ready for anything Carmen might throw back at him. That wouldn't be happening though.

The bartender was barely ready for his opponent's quick jabs. By the time he instinctively moved out of the way of the first one, only just dodging, the second one came and hit him straight in the face. "Gugh, damn!" The bartender exclaimed as he was forced back a step or two. While the hit wasn't particularly damaging, it still stung and getting hit straight in the face was always frustrating.

After a quick shake of his head Will would come back with a punch of his own. He wasn't eager to let Carmen mount an offensive and would try to come back at her with a shot to the ribs.

Carmen wasn’t exactly expecting to hit with the jabs - they were fast, sure, but basic and predictable, with nothing to set them up. She thought William would block them, maybe get stunned for a moment, let her hit him with something substantial.

The dodge was an unexpected surprise. Well, the first dodge, anyway. Her second punch landed clean, right on the face, with the predictable effects.

She moved in a second later, thinking he’d be wide open, only to find out he could recover faster than she’d given him credit for. The price for her mistake? A punch in the ribs, surprisingly sharp, one that left her wincing. Tempting as it was to return fire, though, she decided on something a little more interesting.

This was a wrestling match, not a boxing bout, and Carmen had plenty of moves to choose from when she wanted to spice things up. Going for a simple start, she reached up, grabbed William by the head, then spun around and pulled him over her shoulder as she turned, trying to drop him flat on his back with a snapmare.

William connected with his counterattack and it seemed that he caused some pain. Now he just had to rinse and repeat a few times and progress would be made. At the very least it was reassuring to know that his opponent was indeed beatable if he was able to strike at the right moments.

The bartender wasn't given much of a moment though before he was grabbed by the taller woman and pulled down. There wasn't much William could do to prevent himself from being tossed over Carmen's shoulders and straight onto his back. He hit the ground with a thud which was met with cheers from the crowd as the action finally started to pick up.

"Ugh...that sucked." Will groaned from the floor and would slowly roll onto his stomach.  He would try to push himself up onto his knees and then feet but that would take him time he wasn't sure he had.

The snapmare was wrestling bread-and-butter, about as basic as basic attacks went, but it could throw an opponent for a loop if he was caught off guard. That seemed to be the case here. William landed rough and took a moment trying to get back up. A moment where Carmen was right behind him.

She wanted to ease up on him just a bit, but the fighter in her wanted to press the advantage, so she reached a compromise - ducking down, moved over him, wrapped an arm around his neck, and started to pull him up into a tight chinlock, forcing him up to his feet.

”Come on,” She roughly muttered into his ear. ”Try harder.”

William would have been glad to just lay back for a while but that was clearly not going to happen. Before he had a chance to do much else the bartender was roughly tugged up to his feet by Carmen who now had her arm uncomfortably tight around his neck. "Nnnngg...I AM trying." He mumbled back to his opponent, "Just easier said than done." Will had had rougher starts to matches before but that didn't mean that he could just sit back and let this happen. Will was trying to think of something quick before things got too out of hand for him.

The first thing that popped into William's head was to raise his elbow and slam it back into his opponent's gut. From there he wanted to drive the two of them backwards to slam Carmen's back into the corner. As far as he was concerned one of those things would be a quick way to get his foe to loosen her grip.