Misaki Toyoda vs. Tiki Lowell - Apex Qualifier Match

[PrinceArjuna332]

Iron Woman Match
Victory Conditions: Gained by getting the most pin, KO, or submission from the opponent within 10 minutes.
Normal rules apply.

Now this was a rather curious stipulation, though not something that Misaki was unfamiliar with. She had wrestled in many types of matches before, and she wasn't a stranger to an ironman match. For this match, she was slated to face someone named Tiki Lowell. She was looking forward to face her in the ring.

Clad in her signature pink leotard, Misaki made her way out to the ring, her music playing from the loudspeakers. The crowd cheered for the Ace of Berserk, and she energetically waved her hands as she moved her way down to the ring where she would be facing this Tiki. Soon, she arrived at the ring, and after posing for a bit, she entered the ring.

Misaki Toyoda

Leaning against the turnbuckle, Misaki looked at the direction of the entrance to see her opponent. She had seen her a few times before, but this would be her first time facing her in the ring. She was eager to test her strength against her, though she remembered that she needed to score as many falls as possible within 10 minutes, so she only had limited time to face this person.

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Tiki Lowell was probably the happiest that she had ever been in the build up to a match. For so long, LAW had just been matching her up with Lightweights and rookies. Usually both at once. None of them could touch her. To be fair, a couple were decent, and a couple more certainly showed promise, but it took a lot more than that to fight on even ground with Tiki. And when she tried to take matters into her own hands, Karla Reinhardt both made a weak showing in the ring yet still beat Tiki through cheating. Easily the veteran's worst in ring experience at LAW.

But Misaki Toyoda? Now that woman could wrestle. Younger than Tiki, but still a longtime veteran with belts to her name. For the first time since she had signed with LAW, Tiki had an opponent who could be earnestly argued to be a better wrestler than herself. And Tiki was thrilled for it. Of course she wanted to win, but beating up scrubs and Lightweights for those wins was boring. Tiki's music came on, and it was time for her entrance.

Theme

Tiki

Tiki's walk from backstage to the ring was usually one of grace and calm, but there was an extra jolt of energy in her step today. Nothing wild, but Tiki was clearly invested in this match. When she entered the ring, the veteran removed her pink cape and greeted her opponent with joy. "Misaki Toyoda, a sight for sore eyes," said Tiki. "I was almost starting to wonder if LAW had more to offer on its roster besides Lightweights and rookies. I can't wait to fight someone who's actually on my level again."

[PrinceArjuna332]

Now that her opponent had joined her in the ring, Misaki tried to size her up. Tilting her head, Misaki listened to Tiki's words. Smiling, Misaki said, "Well, the rookies certainly need some experience fighting in the ring. Can't exactly begrudge the management for setting up your matches like that." Rolling her shoulders, Misaki was getting herself ready for the clash with the other woman. "But now that you're going to be my opponent, let's see what you're made of..."

Stepping up to the center of the ring, Misaki continued sizing Tiki up. Hopping on the balls of her feet, she psyched herself up for the match. With the referee overseeing the match, Misaki would take her position before the bell was rung, signifying the start of the match. With them needing to get as many falls as possible within the span of ten minutes, Misaki would not hold back as she planned to lock up with Tiki to test her strength.

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"Yeah, I get that for a few opponents, but it feels like that was all I ever fought here," said Tiki. But now that Misaki was ready, and it was time to fight, any thoughts of past opponents promptly left Tiki's head. "Good. I trust that I won't disappoint you in that regard Misaki." Tiki settled into a stance as Misaki had, and like that, the fight was on.

With time a finite resource in this match, Misaki chose to come out of the gate aggressive, looking to score as early as possible. Tiki met up with her opponent in the middle of the ring, more than ready to fight hard herself, and matched up with the Berserk ace in her test of strength. The two's clash would come up even in the short term, but if it came down to it, Tiki was confident her muscles would outlast if the test of strength was prolonged for enough time.

[PrinceArjuna332]

Misaki liked to consider herself a complete package as a wrestler, having honed her body in a way that allowed her to become a fearsome opponent in the ring. Of course, she wasn't known for her raw strength, but rather her sublime skill in the ring. That wasn't to say she was weak, far from it. But against someone like Tiki, Misaki found herself slowly overwhelmed by her opponent's strength the longer the two of them were engaged in the test of strength.

Still, it wasn't like Misaki didn't get into this match-up without a plan. As her boots skidded against the canvas while she pushed against the other woman, Misaki would try to find the right time to change things up a little. Gritting her teeth, she would try to make her opponent think that she was gaining an upper hand over her so that when she finally sprung up her trap, her opponent might end up overexert herself. As she waited for the right moment, Misaki would then pull her right hand free before attempting to loop it around Tiki's head, pulling it down in order to put her into a side headlock.

Misaki was doing this so that if her effort to trap Tiki in the side headlock was successful, she would be left unprepared for it, which would allow her to gain an upper hand over her at the start of the match.

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As Tiki expected, she slowly managed to push Misaki back the longer the test of strength dragged on. It wasn't that she was necessarily stronger than her opponent, both women had the above average strength required to be a serious threat as a wrestler, but neither of them would tout it as their signature trait. For Misaki, her specialty was technique and skill. And while Tiki possessed that in spades herself, the true crown jewel of her skillset was sheer endurance and stamina. And it showed here. Though their strength was roughly even, Misaki's muscles tired faster as they both pushed.

Then Misaki gave up a noticeably larger amount of ground, and Tiki tried to take that opportunity to push hard and strike. Key word being tried. The ground the Berserk wrestler gave up was booby trapped, literally, as Misaki started to pull Tiki's head up against her bountiful chest with a headlock. Traps like this weren't uncommon in tests of strength, but they were often far less subtle. With the weaker wrestler usually letting up entirely to completely throw off the opponent's balance. That more extreme version of the trap was frequently employed by younger, newer wrestlers. The exact kind Tiki had been conditioned to fight against over her LAW tenure.

"Gah!" Tiki spat in frustration, knowing she'd have to try to adjust on the spot to a much more skilled and experienced wrestler than she had grown used to. But Misaki had gotten the veteran quite yet. She still had to give up ground to lay the trap, and Tiki planned to use it. The greenette was able to respond quickly enough and with enough power to Misaki's trap that the pink spandex clad woman was unable to lock Tiki's head cleanly or deeply, and Tiki used the ground she had gained to get inside Misaki's hip and wrap her arms around the dark haired woman. So Misaki had a weak but established headlock on Tiki. While Tiki had her arms wrapped around Misaki's body, and was currently trying to drag her down.

[PrinceArjuna332]

Misaki managed to catch Tiki in the headlock, though her grip on her head was rather weak. And it seemed that Tiki was trying to drag her down with her so she had to think fast on what to do here. Rather than letting herself be dragged down by her opponent, she decided to get herself down on her own volition, looking to get herself grounded on the mat while still keeping her arm around Tiki's head in the side headlock.

Once she was on the mat, Misaki would try to tighten her hold around Tiki's head, hoping to keep her trapped. Subjecting her opponent to a grounded side headlock, Misaki would try to wrench her head in order to keep her under pressure.

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Tiki and Misaki were at a bit of an awkward impasse. Each had a minor advantage that they were trying to convert into a bigger advantage while simultaneously trying to prevent the other from making progress on their end. Misaki ended up being the one who shook things up. Willingly going down to the ground as Tiki desired. But in exchange for giving Tiki what she wanted, the Berserk Ace had control over how she went to the ground. Meaning Tiki didn't get any immediate openings.

But that just meant Tiki would have to create something. After all, now that they were on the ground, she no longer needed to keep her arms occupied around Misaki's body. As well as no longer needing to have her legs occupied with standing. The greenette had plenty of options with which to try to force something. First Tiki chose to take care of her defensive position. She would take one of her hands and jam it into a gap between her own head, and Misaki's body and arm. Then Tiki would grab her pink wearing opponent roughly where her arm met her shoulder, then start pushing it away to keep Misaki from better securing her headlock.

Next Tiki would try to generate some offense. The veteran would take her legs and try to wrap them around one of Misaki's own, and then start pulling it out to stretch and strain it. It wasn't too much, half of a leg split hold at best, but it would still work to create a position of discomfort for Misaki that she would have to deal with one way or another.

[PrinceArjuna332]

With the two of them on the mat, Misaki would continue wrenching Tiki's head in the side headlock, though Tiki wasn't going to let this continue any longer by jamming her own hand between her own head and Misaki's arm. Due to this, Misaki couldn't effectively wrench her head, and she knew that she might have to let go of her and think of another way of maintaining an upper hand over her opponent.

And then, Tiki decided to wrap her legs around one of Misaki's legs, pulling it to put some strain into it. Misaki winced, though she knew that she could escape this one. Considering that the two of them were currently tangling with each other on the mat, Misaki would try to roll their bodies over so that Tiki's shoulders were on the mat, with her being on top of her. That way, the referee would see that as a pinfall attempt and react accordingly by counting the pin.

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Tiki had gone for her little half leg split believing that it'd be something that Misaki would have to spend time and energy to deal with. However, the pink clad wrestler seemed intent on trying to disprove that idea. Misaki ended her headlock attempt and instead pulled Tiki's head underneath her chest, and started trying to roll over on top of the greenette for a surprise pin attempt.

Misaki got one of Tiki's shoulders down, as well as her head, which was pinned down to the mat by Misaki's open cleavage. But Tiki had kept a hand free when she had gone down to the floor in case she needed it to respond to something. So the veteran was able to use that hand to reach up and grab Misaki by her shoulder and push up to prevent her from rolling over all the way and starting a pinfall. This also stopped the Berserk Ace from dropping her chest onto Tiki's face completely for a smother since Misaki couldn't get fully down on top of her.

Tiki was being put on the backfoot by Misaki. First the headlock, and now the near breast smother pin. The greenette only able to defend against those maneuvers by the skin of her teeth. And she wasn't out of the woods on her current situation yet. However, with the leg stretch that Tiki still had locked in, she was the only one of the two wrestlers who had actually made a successful attack in this match. Minor though it may be.