Samiya Pedroza vs. Muriel Spencer - A Is For Assassin

[BlackAkuma]

Call Muriel a traditionalist - or an ‘old fogey’, as Ms. Welsh often did - but she liked to start matches off traditionally, always favoring the collar-and-elbow, even when the outcome was an obvious one. It was a good way to kick things off, with so many ways the match could be turned in her favor, and it gave her a chance to rely on her technical skills, which so many modern wrestlers eschewed.

In this case, it had the dual purpose of putting Samiya at a range where her kicks were less effective. While Muriel enjoyed the height advantage, she wasn’t a striker, and didn’t like the idea of trading blows even with a smaller foe, if she could get away with it. Like this, she could exert greater control of the match and dictate the pace.

Samiya’s knees put a stop to those notions. One shot up, slicing into her stomach with a powerful knee strike, one that cut deep into her core. Another followed after it, drawing out a gust of stale air from her lungs.

But a third? No, Muriel would not suffer a third.

The knee landed, but this time, Samiya wasn’t allowed to take it back. Muriel wrapped her arm around it, reached over to capture her opponent’s head with her other arm, then arched her back, brought the woman down, and slammed her with a Fisherman’s Suplex, making sure to bridge out after the impact to pin her foe’s shoulders. She strongly doubted she would get more than a one-count this early in the match, if that much, but that wasn’t the point - she wanted to put a little fear into Samiya.

[Liesmith]

The thing Samiya enjoyed about a collar-and-elbow was pretty simple. It wasn’t all that far removed from a nice, simple Muay Thai clinch. And that made it satisfyingly straightforward to twist it until she could start throwing knees, particularly when most wrestlers defaulted to that silly push-and-shove nonsense.

Not that it wasn’t fun to bully her opponents around; the idiots she called fans loved it.

But, right now, Samiya was thinking that Spencer – who she knew to be a suplex specialist – was going to find it a whole lot harder to throw her around the ring once her midsection had been tenderised a little bit.

Both because she’d need to breathe but also because that core did a whole lot of the work when it came to lifting and throwing. Weaken that, her opponent’s options would start to shrink nicely.

Which could explain why she stuck around for a third knee when common sense really ought to be telling her that she was seriously pushing her luck against a vet like Spencer. Maybe it was telling her but, if so, Samiya ignored that little voice in the back of her head in favour of resetting and repeating.

Stupid choice.

She got the knee in but Spencer twisted, taking it as a graze rather than a solid hit, Samiya’s dark eyes widening appreciably even before the blonde’s solidly toned arm snagged it tight. They widened still more as she was wrenched off her feet, sent for a rapid ride that ended with her back slamming against the canvas.

Taking the impact on her upper spine and across her shoulders, Samiya instinctively arched up – tried to arch up, only to find she couldn’t. Spencer still had her, the blonde’s body curved over the Schoolgirl Assassin, keeping her pinned to the canvas as the referee came sliding in.

”ONE” boomed the crowd as hand met mat.

Samiya shook the cobwebs from her purple-haired head and twisted, thrusting her free arm off the mat with all the considerable power at her disposal.

[BlackAkuma]

It might not have seemed like it, but Muriel had already gleamed important knowledge from her little exchange with Samiya. Tidbits that she could build on as things progressed.

First and foremost, she noted that the woman wasn’t a traditionalist. Whoever had trained her, they either hadn't taught her to begin matches the old-fashioned way, or she hadn't cared to take their heed. Judging from Samiya’s attitude, she would wager either possibility was equally probable, and she wouldn’t hazard a guess.

All well and good, Muriel was nothing if not adaptable. On the second point, those knees were nothing to sneeze at, landing with powerful purpose. Mixed Martial Arts? Most likely. Not something she had dealt with often firsthand, but she was confident she could find a way to handle it, here.

So far, she was doing a good job. It was hard to be sure from her vantage point; she couldn't see her opponent’s face, but she had to wager that Samiya wasn’t used to someone picking her up and dumping her square on her shoulder, especially when she was in the middle of unleashing hell with her knees.

Muriel managed to get a single count, which was rather encouraging this early on in the bout, before Samiya thrust arm up and broke free of the hold. Instead resisting her escape, Muriel aided her, pushing the woman further along as she lifted her way until she was on her chest. From there, she slid over, secured a tight side headlock, and stood up while she poured pressure on her opponent’s head, trying to keep her in control as she rose. ”A shoddy opener, Ms. Pedroza.” She chided her foe with a tsk of the tongue. ”This will cost you points, I’m afraid.”