Annie Clark(c) vs Noelle Silva → Ironwoman Submission Match for the Lightweight Championship

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Annie was trapped here, on her back, her strength would not do her any good against Noelle’s technical excellence, and her leg being wrapped up the way it was, Annie could not force herself out through sheer will if she wanted to.

Therefore her only option was to use her free limbs and attempt to push herself backwards towards the ropes, and hopefully force a rope break.

If it was not for those ropes, Annie would probably have no way of getting out of this submission.

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A small part of Noelle was hoping that Annie would hard commit to trying to brute force her way out with power until her knee was damaged enough that the challenger will all have but won the title. Unfortunately, it didn't take too long for the American to realize that she'd need to find freedom another way. But the larger part of Noelle's mind understood this was the likely outcome. No matter how strong you were, you didn't become champion if you were an idiot who had brute force as plans A, B, and C.

This left Noelle with a choice as Annie crawled her way to the ropes, dragging the Spaniard along with her. Would Noelle accept that she would have to give up her hold to a rope break, and get as much damage as possible out of her Kneebar until then? Or would she try to cut off the champion's reach for the ropes and try to end the round by transitioning to a different hold.

There was risk to both sides. There was the obvious danger in trying to switch holds in that Noelle could get countered and reversed into a submission by Annie. But even the seemingly safe option of just getting what damage she could and allowing the rope break still meant that she was sacrificing a huge opportunity. Noelle would be risking that she might not get another chance to win the first round like this before Annie managed to get her.

Noelle knew that she had to be safe against Annie, but she also knew that she couldn't let that scare her into fighting passively. Noelle would be holding down Annie's closer arm against the mat even before letting go of her knee. Then once the princess did let go, she would try to roll over on top of the farm girl to get her other arm down. Then of course, the submission would need to follow.

Noelle would pull her legs forward to wrap them around Annie's throat, attempting to lock the champion in a Headscissor as she sat on her chest. If Noelle succeeded, she would then lean forward until her chest was parallel to the floor. Firstly to make sure that Annie couldn't swing her legs up to catch the challenger from behind, and secondly to bring her belly down on top of Annie's face in order to restrict her breather even further with a stomach smother.

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Annie inched closer and closer towards the ropes, knowing that she was closer and closer to the ropes, knowing that was just a few seconds away from breaking the painful hold she was in.

But then before Annie knew it, Noelle started adjusting, letting go of her leg and then wrapping her arms before Annie could even do a thing about it, its like she was getting completely outclassed right now by Noelle.

And now she was being smothered in Noelle’s stomach, feeling like she was being completely trapped in Noelle’s tangle of limbs.

She knew she needed to get out of this and fast, so she attempt to quickly shove her head into Noelle’s stomach, in an attempt to force Noelle off with blunt force.

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There was something of a dynamic that often came up when two wrestlers of a similar level were as stylistically different as Noelle and Annie were. When you had a technical, precise, strategic fighter like Noelle up against somebody who fought on physicality, grit, and instinct like Annie, openings could very easily become absolutely devastating for both sides. When one side took the edge, they would likely do so in a way that their opponent wasn't nearly as well equipped to handle as they themselves were, so the disadvantaged wrestler would be even more hard pressed to find their way through than normal.

As a direct consequence of this dynamic, fights with a matchup like this often come down to who can ride their big chances for the most value. Who only needs even one opportunity with their opponent in a bad spot and win off of it. That was why Noelle had opted for her aggressive path, she knew that and wanted this Headscissor Stomach Smother to be the round ender.

Annie tried to power her way out of Noelle's hold, turning her head into a battering ram to run through the silver haired wrestler's belly. But Noelle kept her legs tight around Annie's neck as her stomach push down against the farmgirl's face. The powerhouse champ needed at least her neck muscles to make this plan work, but Noelle just wasn't giving them to her. The princess was demanding a submission from the peasant. And if Annie's stubborn grit refused that? Well, there was a reason that the standard KO check was to drop the victim's hand against the mat three times.

[Epicsnivy]

Annie keep fighting and fighting against the stomach smother from Noelle, she was doing everything in her power to try to get out, but seemingly Noelle had an eternal grip on the powerhouse’s body.

Annie was running out of options on what to do, and she hated tapping out, she hated the idea of giving up, she would rather die then give up, but her giving up would be the only way of saving this match, does she swallow her pride?

With only one option left, Annie decided to swallow the pride she had, knowing that this match would still go on, she lightly tapped her hand on Noelle’s side, signaling an early submission.

As much as she hated doing that, it was the only thing the orange haired Lightweight Champion could do, She just had to make an internal vow to never let that happen again.

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Noelle knew that Annie was as stubborn as the farm animals that she grew up with. The Spaniard had been fully expecting that actually ending rounds in her favor would be that hardest part of her path to victory. But as Noelle felt Annie's hand hitting against her side, she breathed a sigh of relief that she had successfully managed to do so once.

"And now, I suddenly wish that this was a single round match," Noelle said after letting Annie go. The challenger took stock of the situation as she went back to her corner for the next round. As hard fought as it was, the first round has really only been a single neutral and advantage state, so it hadn't taken that much time. Even a 3-0 lead wouldn't be very safe with how much time was left in this Ironwoman bout, so there was no reason for Noelle to start getting defensive or trying to stall the clock. It wasn't time for any change in strategy yet. Noelle just had a little more margin for error now was all.

Score

Noelle: 1

Annie: 0

[Epicsnivy]

Annie hated having to tap out at the moment, it felt like every tap she did took an ounce of her southern pride away from her, but it was her only way out of the stomach smother and she had to find a way out, or else that training session with Tiki would had been for not.

Annie needed to take a couple of deep breaths before rolling over to her corner, and using the ropes to pick herself up to her feet. She stared at Noelle with a pissed off looking glare, wanting to get her revenge on her opponent as soon as possible.

She was waited for the match to get started once again, and see what Noelle’s next move must be, she cannot allow herself to be caught like that ever again.

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It seemed that the banter Noelle and Annie had shared before was off the table now, as the Spaniard's words were met with obvious frustration from the farmgirl, and no words in return. This was an obvious shift in Annie. Noelle didn't expect the champion to start fighting harder, per se, since she sincerely doubted she was ever holding back. But Noelle was looking out for Annie to fight differently, in one way or another.

When the bell rang, Noelle would charge in. She knew that Annie wanted to hit her really hard, even more than normal. So the princess would try to make the champion think that she would have the chance to do exactly that. Once Noelle had run in close enough that Annie would be able to move in to try and hit, grab, or collide with the Spaniard, she would drop low to try and sweep Annie's legs out from under her.

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Annie was staring straight into Noelle, almost as though it was right into her silver haired opponent’s soul. She was determined to get some revenge after having to submit, the one thing she never wanted to do once in her wrestling career.

When Noelle approached, Annie brought both her hands together and up looking to slam her opponent either on the back of her head or back with a Double Axe Handle.

And she swung and missed as Noelle swept her, causing the Lightweight Champion to land flat on her back. “AGH!”

Annie held her back in pain, Noelle managed to get her again.

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Noelle hadn't been planning on dodging a strike from Annie with her crouching sweep, she certainly wasn't going to complain about it. It was a near repeat of how the Spaniard had gotten the champ in the first round to set up her first win. And now that Noelle had the edge again, she would look to end the second round just as efficiently as she had managed to end the first.

Noelle would try to pull Annie's legs up over her shoulders and lift her upside down. Anybody watching could tell that the princess was setting up for a Piledriver, and anybody who knew Noelle would also know what she was going to go for after that. But even if everybody in the building knew what was coming, it was still an incredibly difficult task to stop it. A task which now fell onto Annie's shoulders.

Noelle would waste no time in dropping the hammer with the Piledriver. If it connected, Noelle would grab Annie's arms and stand back up to an air sit, pulling the farmgirl's arms against her legs as Annie's own legs hung loosely over the champion's upside down figure. It was Noelle's most powerful submission, and one she hoped to be able to lock in multiple times over the course of this match: Sea Dragon's Roar.

Sea Dragon's Roar