Passion and Fury: Cleo Hulbury vs Aaliyah Jackson

[Bare]

Cleo had been in a dangerous spot earlier on in the bout, but she was quick to manage getting back into this. Literally reversing the Aaliyah's hold onto her while simultaneously managing to limit the woman's mobility. Something Cleo would take immediate advantage of with her modified 619, swerving outside the ring before getting back in to bash her legs into the backs of her opponent's knees, dropping her down to the mat!

Pivoting around to push up to a kneeling position Cleo would look down at the clearly hurting Aaliyah, smelling blood in the water and eager to strike. Moving in quickly she would reach down to grab the woman's arm, spinning and twisting the limb around her leg before diving forward, pulling Aaliyah's body along with Cleo as she roll the two away from the ropes until Aaliayh's shoulders were on the mat with a la magistral pin!

[BlackAkuma]

This was going downhill in a hurry, and the worst part of it was that Aaliyah couldn't even be all that mad at Cleo. She was doing everything right - her moves were on point, the timing was good, fighting a little dirty but not outright cheating. She was just making all the right plays at the right times.

What Aaliyah needed to do was make some space and get outside the ring, where she could catch her breath and recover, but Cleo was wise to that tactic, giving her no space to breath. She was on her before she could escape, pulling her off the ground and wrapping her up with a La Magistral cradle - slick move, she’d give her credit.

”1…!”

Aaliyah gathered her wits and thrust upwards just before the second count fell, but it was a close thing, far closer than she would’ve liked. She bucked Cleo off and tried to roll for the ropes, hoping she could get away to the outside of the ring.

[Bare]

Cleo was on quite the roll right now, literally at the moment with the use of her la magistral pin. Catching her opponent and leaving her in a tight pinfall position that would be more than a little difficult to get free of. Though that being said Aaliyah was definitely capable of finding a way out, kicking out with enough force that she could force the British woman away. Turning over as she did so Cleo would watch as her opponent rolled out of the ring and to the floor below.

Taking she would push herself to her feet, throwing her hair back as she did so before bending over in preparation. "You're not going to get away from..." Cleo hissed out under her breath before breaking out into a run, dashing at the ropes and dropping down into a slide, hoping to try and catch with still rising Aaliyah with a baseball slide dropkick right as she exited the ring!

[BlackAkuma]

As much as Aaliyah hated running away - really and truly - she wasn’t left with much choice at the moment. Cleo was simply taking too much effort to keep up with at the moment, putting on too much pressure. It was a strategy that she had employed countless times, which meant she knew where things would likely end up if she didn’t stop it.

Luckily, an opportunity was coming her way, and at high speed. She looked up just in time to see Cleo coming her way, flying out of the ring with a basement dropkick. She didn’t have the energy to dodge it, but that didn’t mean she was out of options - in fact, she had a nasty one.

Aaliyah braced her feet, planted down hard and took the blow on her chest. It sucked, majorly, but she was able to stay standing, grab hold of Cleo’s ankles and pull her out of the ring. With a mighty twist, she spun about and attempted to swing her hard into the barricade.

[Bare]

In total control of the match and its pace at the moment Cleo was looking to further this by continuing to push Aaliyah back and beat her down before going for the win. The fact that Aaliyah had taken herself to the outside was all the more motivation that Cleo needed to decide what to do next as she took to the ropes, rebounding off them and flying through the ropes to try and crash into Aaliyah's body with a baseball slide dropkick!

Unfortunately however Aaliyah seemed prepared. Despite the fact that Cleo's feet made impact with her foe's chest Cleo could feel her ankles being grabbed. 'Shit.' Cleo thought to herself as she was then pulled out of the ring and swung through the air to crash hard into the barricade! "Ugh!" Cleo cried out in pain, going slack and laying on the floor, assuming that Aaliyah released her legs at least.

[BlackAkuma]

”Gotcha, bitch!”

That little catchphrase likely would’ve come off a lot cooler if she hadn't immediately flopped to the floor after executing the move, but fuck it, she was too spent for much of anything else. Cleo wasn’t all that heavy, but after the battering she’d just taken, she was at the end of her rope. Her legs gave way and she fell flat on her ass, the exertion taking a lot out of her.

But she still had enough, just enough, to finish this.

With Cleo on the floor, she was in the perfect position for Aaliyah’s bread-and-butter. Gritting her teeth, she gripped the apron for support, stood up, and approached the steel steps. She scaled them, got up on the apron, looked behind her and-

”Yo-Yo, what the fuck?!”

In the time it had taken her to get up there, her cousin had made her way over, getting close - way too close - as she looked over the fallen Cleo like she was some little lost puppy she’d found. She looked up, wide-eyed, as she realized what Aaliyah was about to do, then scurried away as fast as she could. What the hell was that about?

Whatever, she’d wasted enough time. With a deep breath, Aaliyah threw herself backwards, flew through the air, and attempted to come down on the prone Cleo with a moonsault off the apron, attempting to drive all her weight into the woman’s chest.

[Bare]

Cleo's attempt at trying to quickly resize the advantage she had been enjoying over Aaliyah. Unfortunately however Aaliyah was quick and clever. Managing to grab hold of Cleo's legs as she tried to baseball slide dropkick the woman before getting spun around and slammed into the barricade as a result! "Ugh!" Cleo cried out in pain, falling down to the floor as a result, groaning softly and in pain, more than a little out of it.

Naturally in a less than ideal position for herself, but perfect for Aaliyah to take advantage of. Gasping and still and trying to sit up, Cleo would look up in time to see Aaliyah on the apron, no doubt about to come down on her and Cleo was in no position to dodge it, even if she was gradually getting back to her feet!

Thankfully however she had a saving grace in the form of Yo-Yo. The girl was apparently so taken with the Brit that she actually drew closer to check on her and as a result creating a block for her cousin! 'Hah yes!' Cleo thought to herself, urging her body to raise further up with the aid of the barricade.

The pause, however brief it may have been would end up being exactly what Cleo needed. Aaliyah proceeded with her plan, leaping backwards to go for a moonsault... But Cleo having the chance to get herself in a position would wait as Aaliyah neared her before pushing off the barricade, pivoting and swinging one of her legs up, trying to cut off Aaliyah's descent by driving her heel into the woman's gut to knock her out of the air!

[BlackAkuma]

What happened next was, well…confusing. At least from Aaliyah’s point of view.

She had been primed to do a moonsault, and even though she was cursing Yo-Yo under her breath, everything seemed set up well for it. She didn't know what was getting into her cousin’s head, but she hoped it wasn’t just because she had the hots for Cleo. The woman was hot, sure, but not enough to warrant all this mess.

She’d cast that thought aside as she took flight, soaring backwards for what she assumed would be a solid flight. Instead, she knocked out of her moonsault halfway with a stiff kick to the sternum, one that dropped her flat to the canvas, right on the back of her neck.

Aaliyah hit with a sickening splat and immediately rolled about, one hand clutching her chest while the other rubbed her head. She was dazed, but clear enough to know that she was in a hell of a lot of trouble - unfortunately, she didn’t have any good options on doing anything about that, not at the moment.

[Bare]

Cleo huffed a bit heavily as she stood back up straight after landing that kick against Aaliyah that knocked her out of the air. Thank goodness, had that landed she may very well have been koed or at least in a state that she may not have been able to come back from.

Looking down at the splattered Aaliayh Cleo couldn't help but smile sadistically even as the ref began the count for them to come back in. Walking over casually Cleo would bend down and grab a handful of her opponent's hair, yanking her up to a kneeling position and forcing her head back towards her.

"Hah.. who would have expected that huh?" Cleo asked mockingly before leaning in close towards her foe's ear. "You're cousin really screwed you eh? But hey... if you want some payback, lets make her jealous eh?" Cleo whispered out breathily before moving in and kissing Aaliyah full on the mouth, being sure to try and slide her tongue in if possible.

The moment that Aaliyah started to resist too much though Cleo would pull away and yank down on her foe's head to send her smacking down face first into the floor!

[BlackAkuma]

Aaliyah had to concede: This was not her best moment.

That was probably painfully obvious to anyone with eyes, or ears if they were listening to the commentators table. While she’d started out well in this match, things had steadily taken a turn for the worst in the past few minutes, and things didn’t look like they would be changing much after a nasty spill like that.

But that was okay. That was fine. She could hang, she could endure, she’d pushed through worse and come out on top. Maybe not much worse, but still.

She was just starting to rise up, too, when she saw Cleo moving with a wide smile. She braced herself, expecting an attack, and that was what she got - just not the sort of attack she’d expected. Her eyes widened and a muffled shriek echoed down Cleo’s neck as the woman pulled her in for a kiss, slamming their lips together and sending a fiery chill up Aaliyah’s spine. For a moment, her instincts got the better of her and she melted in the embrace, memories going back to a steamy prom night…

She regained her senses soon enough, but it was too late by then. Cleo yanked her forward and slammed her face into the canvas, Aaliyah in a stunned, groaning heap on the mats, the sense thoroughly knocked out of her.