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.”

[Liesmith]

If there was any consolation for Spencer’s choice of move, it was that a leg trap suplex like that didn’t drop Samiya square on her head. On the other hand, it wasn’t like being slammed down on her upper back and shoulders was exactly a picnic, especially when the woman doing the slamming knew her trade as well as Muriel Spencer.

Hence the brief pause before she went to kick out, that little struggle between wanting to lie there a moment and let the stinging fire in her spine die out versus that part of her which hated giving an opponent one single inch so early in the match.

It wasn’t a surprise that she was able to get her shoulder up without much trouble; Samiya had the power and bridging pins had their weaknesses. The unpleasant surprise came when she found herself being helped along her way, until she was flipped all the way over onto her front – by itself not the most comfortable of positions for a woman as well-endowed as Samiya.

The arm snaking around her skull and drawing tight, that was more of a problem.

Samiya winced, hissed in discomfort, but otherwise kept silent as she begrudgingly followed Spencer’s lead in standing, the grinding pressure around her temples almost as painful as the little jab about her opening.

“Yeah?” She threw back, the snap in her tone giving voice to the discomfort she felt as the teacher worked the hold like the pro she was, “Try it on someone who cares, Teach.”

The other half of her answer arrived as a clubbing blow to the midsection, aimed for the spots she’d been working over with her knees. Should still be tender, shouldn’t be too hard to convince Spencer to let her go or at least weaken things enough for a more decisive counter.

[BlackAkuma]

Muriel stayed close to her opponent as they rose, keeping the pressure tight and not giving her any real space to escape. Though the match was young, she felt this was the best way to approach things - the less room Samiya had to maneuver, the better. Chain wrestling was her expertise, giving her an advantage over less experienced opponents who didn’t know how to deal with it.

The hiss in Samiya’s voice was telling, and the words she spoke were even more so. This was not a young lady who was accustomed to being on the backfoot so early, she suspected.

Retaliation came soon enough as her foe lashed out and shot her in the stomach with a stiff strike that knocked the wind out of Muriel and forced her grip to loosen. A problem, indeed, as she suspected Samiya would quickly take advantage of her stunned state, but the veteran had another trick up her puffy sleeves.

Instead of merely letting go of the hold, Muriel brought her leg up and hooked it around Samiya’s calf. She slipped out of the hold, grabbed her foe by the chin, then threw her body backwards, attempting to bring her opponent to the floor with another wrestling classic - the Russian Legsweep: a rather basic move, but an effective way to target the upper back and neck early on.