Rose Gold (c) vs Astrid Ostberg (c) - Champion vs Champion

[CaptainL]

The force with which Rose's kick had met Astrid's head was enough to take the Norsewoman down, and the crack that rang out from the impact left more than a few fans wincing at the thought of how much that had to hurt. But what was perhaps the even greater danger was that the blow had taken Astrid to the ground - and when the Lightweight Champion saw that she had a ripe opportunity to go for a pin, she wasn't going to pass it up! She dropped on top of Astrid, hooking her leg and bringing her shoulders down against the mat. The ref looked back at her in stunned silence at first - with how close the timekeeper had come to taking a nasty fall, and with how Rose seemed so intent on keeping her opponent outside the ring, the officials couldn't help but view her with suspicion, and they didn't now how to proceed. But the fury in her voice as she made her demands was more than adequate of a threat, and the ref girl didn't want to try her patience. With a nod, she dropped down, lifting a hand to start counting the pin. "One! Two!!"

The ref had stalled for a few seconds before beginning the count - but those few seconds were all Astrid needed. Right as the third count was being raised, Astrid shook herself back to reality, and she kicked her leg free of Rose's grip, swinging it straight up into the air to break out of her clutches. As the Norsewoman propped herself up on her elbows, she glanced down at Rose, and she recalled how Rose needed to use two hands to secure her grip. Now Astrid would put the size of her legs to good use - she brought her leg back down, going to slam her shin against Rose's skull! If that worked, she would proceed to throw her legs around her head and squeeze, transitioning into a headscissor!

"You've had your fun!" she shouted. "But sooner or later...that will run out!"

[SuckerPunch]

'Heavy. She's so heavy!' She thought as her knuckles turned white with effort. "COUNT ALREADY!!!" She screamed!

Astrid was about a foot larger than her... But nearly twice her weight. And that weight was almost entirely muscle. She was just as athletic as any lightweight, but more than twice as strong. The longer the bout went on, the more danger that Rose Gold would be in... And so Rose Gold closed her eyes and grit her teeth as she pulled tightly upon Astrid's leg. She just needed to hang on for three seconds!

The first one was easy. And the second made her heart lighten with hope.

But her grip came loose the literal moment that Astrid moved. The difference in their size and strength was so great that even a second was too much to ask! Rose Gold was knocked up into the air from the kick out. She fell back down with a shocked expression on her face. One that turned immediately to the referee!

"THREE!!!" She put up three fingers, as surely the incompetent referee wouldn't understand her without a visual aide! "THRE-GCK!"

Astrid's shin didn't so much as bounce off of Rose Gold's skull as it did drive her head down into the mat. It hit her like a falling tree! And pinned her to the earth with the same unassailable force!

Her eyes met Astrid's. And those brilliant golden orbs were filled with undeniable fear and panic! They screamed for her, because the leglock about her kept her voice muffled!

[CaptainL]

The force with which Astrid kicked out was strong enough to send Rose's hips rising from the mat, a sight that caused a few of the fans to cheer. Not only from the amount of power that was evident in the Norsewoman's moves, but from how she was taking the momentum back from Rose Gold, after all the dirty tricks the lightweight had resorted to in order to even her odds against Astrid - now, it was time for Astrid to set the matter straight, and it was time for Rose to pay!

Rose was quick to turn to the referee, berating her for letting the pin slip through her fingers. Astrid rolled her eyes at the thought - but it wouldn't slow her down for long. She threw herself into motion, spinning herself around in place - and knocking Rose down with a blow from her leg! From there, the larger woman was easily able to roll herself over and bring her other leg around to match its mate, compressing Rose's head between her thighs! The muscles in her legs rippled as she clamped down as much force as she could against Rose's temples, her shin crossing over her opponent's mouth - and Astrid wouldn't stop there. She propped herself up on the palms of her hands, lifting herself off the mat to apply even more pressure on Rose's skull!

"You seem to have a thing for pushing around those weaker than you," Astrid said - not only calling back to Meiyun, but to what she'd done to the timekeeper and the referee, too. "And yet, you still think you can match me? I'm...disappointed, really!" She scoffed, shaking her head. "If you really want to prove you're worthy of my time...try getting yourself out of this!" Her fingers dug deeper into the canvas, as she focused her efforts on keeping herself upright - no small task, given her great size!

[SuckerPunch]

The time it had taken to glance at Astrid was all the larger wrestler needed to ensnare her with her massive legs! Her mouth was muffled by the bare skin of her shin and what could be seen of her pretty face turned red as soon as Astrid began to squeeze... An act that occurred almost immediately!

"Mnnnf!!!!" Her eyes went wide as she let out a muffled grunt of pain.

And that grunt turned into a shrill, ear-piercing shriek as Astrid pushed herself off the canvas to apply all of her weight to cracking Rose Gold's skull like a walnut! Astrid could feel the wetness of her lips and tongue as her mouth was forced open against her leg by the intensity of her wailing!

"MMMMMMMMNNNNNNMNN~~!!!!!!" Her feet kicked rapidly against the canvas! Her arms grasped and clawed at Astrid's leg in an attempt to move them! But there was no way she had the strength to part the vice of Astrid's head scissors! And she doubted a little scratch would dissuade the representative of the Heavyweight division!

Toughness was something every wrestler in LAW had a dependence on. It wasn't just the ability to endure suffering. But also the willingness to risk ongoing injury. To ignore both the logic of the rational mind and the survival instincts of one's lizard brain for the sake of something entirely immaterial. Glory. Or in Rose Gold's case, spiteful hatred!

Her hips twisted and her eyes rolled up into her head! And her legs kept kicking! And her vocal chords strained with her screaming! But her hands stayed upon Astrid's legs... Their work was fruitless, but it kept them from tapping!

She writhed like a mouse within the jaws of a snake! Desperate and with a steady decrease in presence. The fangs were in and the mouse was already food, even if it didn't know it yet. No amount of clawing or squeaking could convince the snake to cede it's meal. But then... There were no referees in the animal kingdom.

And when the kicking stopped... It was because the heel of Rose Gold's boot rested upon the bottom rope. An escape that wouldn't have been afforded in a real fight... But the screaming didn't stop, the pain, didn't stop.

[CaptainL]

With Astrid locking her legs into place around either side of Rose's head, many in the crowd gasped. Even if the Norsewoman was a natural fan-favorite, they could only imagine the compressive force that Rose's skull had to bear, and a fair few were concerned for her safety - especially as her muffled cries grew louder, with no sign that Astrid was going to let up on her any time soon! The heavyweight had herself lifted off the mat, her thighs firmly pressed together as she concentrated all the power she could bring to bear against Rose. Her teeth clenched, her brow furrowed; her face was growing red from the strain she was putting on herself to keep up. With how she had forced herself to bear all her weight on the palms of her hands, she was beginning to teeter - but she didn't let go. She couldn't! She knew that Rose couldn't last forever against such a hold; it would only be a matter of time before she had no choice but to submit! As her fingers grasped at the canvas to anchor herself, Astrid just had to wait for the promised moment...

"ROPE BREAK!"

"Ah..?" As the ref called out to her, Astrid eased up on her hold. She looked back over her shoulder toward the official, and then back at her opponent. But her eyes widened when she saw it. Sure enough, Rose had gotten her foot on the ropes, and Astrid would have no choice to let go! As she looked back to the ref, Astrid could see the timid look on the girl's face - she clearly wanted Astrid to choke Rose out, but she knew that she had to bow to her whims. Either way, though, it was clear that Rose had the break, fair and square. The referee had no choice but to enforce it - and Astrid, too, would have to comply.

She let go of Rose, scooting back on her knees before pushing herself to her feet. Even if she had less than pleasant things to say about Rose, she believed in her integrity as an athlete, and her feelings weren't going to bring her to compromise that. However, that didn't mean she was going to go easy on her. As she dusted herself off, Astrid looked down at the fallen lightweight, tensing up the muscles in her arms as she bent in lower toward her.

"You might've gotten away," she said, "but this isn't over." She leaned further still to grab Rose around the waist, where she would pull her back up - and then fall to her back to take both of them down in a gutwrench suplex!

Spoiler

[SuckerPunch]

The break came, eventually. But it did so without relief. Rose Gold fell out from between Astrid's legs gasping and sputtering. Red faced, she clutched her throat and hadn't stopped kicking her boots, even with one still on the ropes.

There was no denying the difference in power. Astrid was much larger and stronger than Rose Gold. And with the diminutive blonde in such a piteous state, she looked practically titanic. She was Goliath. And Rose Gold was David.

Astrid didn't so much as grab Rose Gold by the waist as she did peel her ragged husk off of the canvas! The Lightweight let a whimper escape as the powerful arms about her belly squeezed the air out of her like a chew toy.

Astrid couldn't see her because of the position. However, the hard camera got a clear view of Rose's expression as she was bent over and womanhandled with ease. Panic. Defenseless, desperate panic. An expression that Rose Gold had put on the face of many Lightweight hopefuls in the past two years.

"AAAHN!" She hit the canvas with a deafening crash!

The impact sent her tumbling and rolling towards the corner as if Astrid had slammed her onto a landmine! Head over heels she spun until she came to a stop upside down against the bottom turnbuckle!

Her eyes were glazed over and her jaw slack. She was upside-down. Her scantily clad lower half in the air with her thighs spread and toes by her head. Her mind was scrambled by the repeated attacks to her head.

Astrid throws were devastating. And Rose Gold was... well... devastated!

[CaptainL]

If the contrasts in size between the two champions weren't evident enough from when the two stared each other down, Astrid was really showing it off now - it seemed as though she didn't need to exert any effort at all to hoist Rose off the mat, tossing the lightweight aside like she was a wet towel. And, as she hit the mat, Rose continued to roll off the momentum of her landing, tumbling over to the corner where she landed upside-down against the ropes. Astrid huffed, placing her hands on her hips as she rolled her shoulders and shook out her hair, before she let her eyes settle on the fallen Rose. Her fellow champion had taken quite a beating, and the impact with the mat had clearly left her stunned. But when she thought back to what Rose had put Meiyun through, and all the other ways she had tormented those weaker than her, her teeth clenched with a snarl, and she began to tremble with pent-up anger. She knew this would be too easy for Rose. She needed to be put through much more before she learned her lesson.

Storming closer to Rose while she was caught in an impromptu tree of woe, Astrid began to smack her head back and forth with her foot, landing blows against one cheek and then the other to lay into her with a fast-paced facewash! Every passing second knocked Rose a different way; Astrid's strikes came faster than many would be led to anticipate from her size - but the glare she showed Rose as she glowered down at her upside-down face from above told everything there was to know about how much Astrid was committed to her purpose. "Every one of those is for one of the hopefuls you crushed," she hissed under her breath.

Then, Astrid stuck her foot out further once again, pressing the sole of her boot against Rose's throat to try and choke her out! Her teeth were clenched, and her eyes were full of fire as she let her weight sink into her foot to exert more and more pressure against the lightweight. She didn't even give any heed to the fact that Rose should've had the rope break. She wanted her to pay!

[SuckerPunch]

Rose Gold winced as she hung in the corner. She could feel the blood rushing to her head, but didn't understand how to stop it in her dazed state. Her arms hung slackly overhead even as Astrid approached. The crowd cheered as the triumphant hero approached the fallen villain. But the sound of Astrid's boots on the canvas and the roar of the crowd melded together in her head, unidentifiable static.

"Ahn!" She let out an instinctual yelp as the first kick reddened her cheek! "Ah!" And then another came! And another! And another! Rose Gold's upside-down body was knocked from side to side as Astrid rapidly crushed her face with a series of kicks! Each one buried itself in her cheek, and each cheek was given equal share of the assault!

The crowd counted off as Astrid did it! And the referee watched and couldn't help but allow for the slightest smile to perk up on her lips. She'd been in the ring for things that Rose had done. She'd watched her put the timekeeper at risk in just this match. She should have intervened. But she was happy to be just a little slow today.

When Astrid's flurry of kicks finally fell, Rose Gold was left dangling and slack-jawed. A thin line of drool ran from the corner of her lips and upwards past her eye. Her chest rose and fell with an eerie slowness. Both sides of her face were scuffed and red, a bruise would form on at least one of them, indicative of Astrid's favored angle. She was quiet but for her soft, labored exhales. She was still rocked.

But that still silence was broken the moment Astrid's boot fell heavily on the center of Rose Gold's neck!

"GCK!!!! GHHHGLL!!" Gargling, choking screams came from her as the sudden deprivation of air woke her in a panic! She flailed! Her hands came to Astrid's ankle as the weight of her boot bent her back like the body of a bow! She was clearly choking! All of her kicking, struggling, and screaming did nothing to free her! But it was also constant. The desperate rebellion of piteously trapped opponent!

"A-astrid?" The referee spoke up meekly. She waited... She waited far too long and she knew that now... And it was becoming clear that Astrid had no intention to yield to the rope break as Rose Gold's eyes began to roll into her head and her drool became more of a foam!

"B-BREAK!" She called out, fruitlessly!

"B-BREAK! 1! 2!" She began to count as she tried to get between them. She'd been too indulgent!

[winner3]

"Astrid Ostberg! Did your father not explain the rules of pro wrestling to you?! Do you need to be taught how to break an illegal choke?!?" Lexy Alan had climbed up onto the ring apron and accosted Astrid, pointing at the heavyweight champion and crying out to her with audible high-pitched vitriol in her tone of voice!

During the time that the lights went out during Rose's entrance, Lexy had taken her place at ringside at the timekeeper's table. Having wrestled twice already earlier that night during the PPV event, she had gone on record stating she was in no shape to do commentary. And yet, when Rose Gold was on the verge of passing out, she had raced to the apron with enough speed and urgency to make fans and staff alike wonder if a fan had hopped the barricade and intruded!

"Do I need to show you and this incompetent referee how rope breaks work?! Referee do your job and keep counting!" Alan barked with a hateful authority while motioning at the ref!

Lexy aimed to provoke the heavyweight champion with any comment she could think of! Anything to buy her lover the reprieve she needed! Anything to prevent the match from ending here via knockout! Even if it means suffering retaliation from the indignant heavyweight, Lexy would gladly suffer being knocked down from the apron if it helped the lightweight champion even slightly!

[CaptainL]

Astrid's eyes were burning with a vengeful hatred as she leaned in closer to Rose, pressing the sole of her foot firmly against her throat. Her hands rest on her hips, coiled into fists, and she grit her teeth, watching the strength drain away from the smaller blonde's body the more her air supply dwindled. There was no sympathy or goodwill left in Astrid - there was only a desire to punish Rose for being a cheat, a bully, and a coward, who only cared to prey on those weaker than her and had no shame for her own ill deeds. Just thinking about her, and what she'd done to Meiyun and to everyone else who she felt would serve as an example, made Astrid sick. All she wanted to do was to squash her now - it would halt her reign of terror in its tracks, and prove to everyone that her tricks wouldn't be tolerated. It was her turn to make an example out of Rose - but more than that, Astrid needed this for her own conscience. She'd gone on for too long letting Rose get away with her deeds; it was time to put a stop to them!

She was so absorbed in the thought of dishing out a long-overdue punishment that Astrid didn't even realize she was ignoring the girl's rope break. Not until she heard the cries of the referee coming from behind her. It took until the ref began to count for Astrid to pay attention to her surroundings - but when she did, she froze, the color draining away from her face. She took a step back, where she lingered in the middle of the ring, staring back over her shoulder and straight into Lexy's face. At once, Astrid gasped. "You..!" she hissed under her breath, her eyes settling on the green-haired girl. Turning around, she took one step forward, lifting her foot off the ground...

But then, she stopped in mid-step. As much as Astrid wanted to believe that Rose had set this all up - it fit with everything she knew about her, after all; she had no doubts the Lightweight Champion would be this petty and would stoop this low - she realized that the referee wasn't exactly wrong. Astrid really had ignored the rope break, and that was what made the realization sting even deeper. She had set out to be the shining champion of justice and righteousness and punish the evildoer...but in doing so, she had stooped to her own tactics. She froze in place, staring blankly back at Lexy, with nothing she could even think of to say in her defense - she knew it was no use. And all the while, her back was turned to Rose...