Chika Igarashi vs. Valley Doll III - Hardcore Matches For Dummies

[BlackAkuma]

Match Type: Hardcore
Victory Conditions: Pinfall, Submission, or Knockout. No Disqualifications or Countouts.

***

Valerie had been dreading this for a while. She knew she’d have to face it one day, but she’d been putting it off and putting it off, hoping against hope that she could ignore it. Yes, it was an inevitability of being a pro wrestler, but that didn’t mean she had to like it. Regardless, the time had come, and she had to rip off the band-aid.

It was time for Valerie to have a hardcore match.

Valerie had trained hard to wrestle, both as an amateur in school and as a professional with her parents, but there was nothing they could do to really school her on this. How do you teach your daughter the best way to bash someone’s head in with a chair? The best way to set up a table and light it on fire? The quickest way to take the padding off a turnbuckle? None of it had ever really come up, but she was starting to wish it had, because here, right now, standing in the middle of the gorilla position minutes before what was essentially a street fight, she was starting to feel a wee bit pressured.

Management had ambushed her with this at the last moment - apparently, they had a slot set up for a hardcore match, but one of the competitors had called in sick with COVID, and since she was on site and dressed for training, she was thrown into the mix. They framed it more charitably than that, saying they wanted to see how well she would do in a high pressure situation, but she saw through it. This felt more like a sacrifice than anything.

But she had options. While her parents had no real authority in LAW, their names still carried some weight. If she made a call, then maybe…

No.

Valerie took her hands off the cell phone and set it aside on a nearby table, cutting herself off from the easy way out. She’d promised to get into wrestling the right way, the straight and narrow, which meant not calling in favors with her parents when she found herself in uncomfortable situations. This was her career, life, and time, and she’d deal with it appropriately, like the adult she was supposed to be becoming.

Besides, it wasn’t like this was all that complicated. Yes, there were no rules, but if she stayed on her opponent and kept her in the ring, it wouldn’t be a problem. She could do this. Yeah.

The crew gave her the signal, her

played, and Valerie came out through the curtains a moment later, making her way down the ramp with her head held high and her back straight. The crowd was firmly behind her, but she did her best to zone them all out and focus on the task, not needing any more stress than she already had to deal with.

Valerie hopped up the stairs, dusted her feet off on the apron, and promptly slipped through the ropes. After a quick nod to the referee, she made her way over to the over to her corner, turned towards the ramps, and proceeded to dip up and down, getting in some last minute squats to get her legs powered up. She’d be needing them at their best soon enough, she was sure of it.

[Vc0m]

"<Piece of crap...little asshole...gremlin...>"

Chika continued finding new insult towards her original opponent - Lucy Lincoln, for this match, when she looked at the message on her phone about Lucy being taken off their encounter. She still haven't forgiven Lucy for jumping her last year, usurping her spot in the Outmatched in Oil tourney, and ultimately losing. The Raven Knight believed the pinkette squandered the opportunity meant for her...even if as several of her friends pointed out, she was completely squashed in a similar match against Persephone.

Regardless, Chika wanted revenge, and Lucy kept ducking her, having convinient excuses about avoiding matches with her, being out of the country one week, having a dentist appointment another.

Finally, this week was when she was supposed to get her hands on Lucy...

...right up until she came down with COVID, conviniently right before the match announcement.

Chika didn't believe that one bit, and through a friend, discovered that the woman was still streaming, healthy as can be. The bookers just shrugged their shoulders, and told her the match, with it's original stipulation in place, was still on, even with a different opponent.

Once the match was announced the next day, Chika's anger at Lucy got channeled into intrigue towards Valley Doll. A 3rd generation lady trying to find her way in LAW, with two loving parents encouraging their's and now their daughter's passion for the sport, now fighting in her first ever hardcore match. Chika's first one was also against an experienced opponent, in her case that was Alice Gaster, though compared to her friend, the Raven Knight didn't style herself as primarily a hardcore wrestler. Despite that, she was determined to test Valley Doll. The next generation of wrestlers was coming up, and the Raven Knight was determined to shape it to be tougher and better than the women that came before. She felt this was her duty of care to the business and the new talent as a veteran of the industry.

Spoiler

Spoiler

Like a true warrior, Chika walked proudly in her armor towards the soon-to-be battlefield, which was already filled with weapons for the two warrior to fight against each other with. The Raven Knight maintained a cold demeanor as she entered the ring, taking off her armor as she raised it high overhead, signalling her readiness for the battle ahead!

Spoiler

Turning to face Valley Doll, she approached the middle of the ring, outstretching her hand to her soon-to-be foe in respect:

"Fight well", Chika would tell her.

[BlackAkuma]

Despite her misgivings about the match type, Valerie had no such qualms about the woman she was facing: Chika Igarashi.

She was well-versed in the woman’s history, having stumbled on more than a few matches when she was training. A disciple of the Scorpion Sting dojo, she’d had quite the career over the past decade, making a name for herself in rings all over Japan. She’d acquired a profile that Valerie could only dream of catching up to one day, and she wasn’t foolhardy enough to let the woman’s small stature throw her off - pound for pound, she might’ve been the stronger woman between them. With kicks for days and stamina for months, she wasn’t one to be underestimated, and Valerie wouldn’t make that mistake.

She came towards the center of the ring to meet her head on, and extended her hand, tapping fists and returning the gesture. She gave one of her own, too, when she bowed and showed her foe proper respect. ”I intend to. And you as well, Igarashi-san.”

With that done, Valerie moved back, waited for the referee to ring the bell, and immediately started moving, circling around the ring. She didn’t want to dive in straightaway, knowing that speed would firmly be in her opponent’s favor. No, best to tease this out a little, feel it out, see if she could bait Chika and get an opening.

[Vc0m]

With the two fighters respectfully tapping fists, the audience let out an applause at the showcase. No matter what happened in this match, the two women respected each other, even if things were to get brutal between them.

With both competitors ready, they took their respective corners, the ref nodding, and calling for the bell!

"DING DING DING!"

Chika proceeded to circle the ring with Valley, carefully closing the distance. Due to being smaller, she felt like she could set the pace for the match...but trying to go too fast might lead Valley to easily counter her, opening an opportunity for the blonde to attack.

As such, for now, Chika decided to go for a small attack, carefully closing the distance on Valley, as she tried to swipe at her feet with a low kick!

[BlackAkuma]

A tap, a bell, and they were off to the races. Valerie came out of her corner with her arms up and eyes focused, already asking herself the critical question - how would she play this?

The size difference between them was obvious, with Chika giving up about fifty pounds, at least, but Valerie reminded herself not to let that sort of thing frame her expectations - after all, it hadn't been that long ago since she defeated El Rey de Cielo, a man who had a similar weight advantage on her. Chika was clearly a striker, her gear made that clear, specializing in an area where Valerie was average at best…but her height advantage might help to even the odds in that department.

More than anything, though, she wanted to keep this fight in the ring, keep it close, and keep it away from the myriad of items festooned about the ring. The crowd might hate her for having a weaponless hardcore match, but she wasn’t here to make them happy, at the end of the day. Especially if that happiness involved her losing blood.

Chika decided to take the initiative, moving in fast and shooting out with a low kick, one that Valerie couldn't hope to dodge. It cracked her in the calf and made her wince, but it wasn’t anything that would slow her down. She fought past the pain and reached out, trying to force her way into a collar-and-elbow tie up with the smaller woman.

[Vc0m]

Chika was going to go all out on this match. Even against a relatively fresh wrestler, it made no sense for her to hold back in a hardcore match, even if she wasn’t as aggressive as she would’ve been had her original opponent for this match was standing across the ring from her. Still, even if she wasn’t thinking about using weapons now, if the going got tough, she would pull all the stops she could to win this.

Chika started with her swift, low kick, trying to discourage Valley from approaching her further. Despite the pain in her leg, it only served to pause the blonde, as she made a step forward towards Chika, grappling with her!

The Raven Knight engaged in the Collar-and-Elbow, but she wanted to avoid grappling with the bigger woman, knowing the size disparity put her at a disadvantage. She tried to resist Valley, but she was successfully overpowering the Joshi, as she was pushed back towards the ropes!

[BlackAkuma]

When it came to this match: Valerie had one strategy. A simple one, but in her eyes, quite effective, and it could be summed up in three words.

Just. Keep. Coming.

Chika was fast, experienced, and precise, but at the end of the day, Valerie was by far the bigger woman. She was close enough to the heavyweight class that she could’ve joined it just by changing her workout routine for a couple of days. With a power differential like that, there was precious little her opponent could do to stop her forward march, and that was made abundantly clear now, as she threw her weight into Chika and drove her towards the ropes with an inexorable march. Step after step, always moving forward, until her back was up against the ropes and she found herself pinned to them.

Valerie held her there, too, bracing her feet for a solid position as the referee came over and started up the count. She waited until three, then abruptly broke away with her hands raised. She moved back to the center of the ring and dropped back into her stance, effectively resetting the match from point zero.

Valerie held out her hand and motioned for Chika to come at her, the slightest hint of a cocky smirk working its way across her face. ”Try me again?”

[Vc0m]

For a moment, Chika thought to put her frame of mind towards employing similar tactics as in her spars with Clara Gaster. The Brit was primarily a power and technical wrestler, and although she didn't use all her tricks in spars with her, Chika has developed a good idea on how to fight against her style efficiently...

...all of that went out the window with every step back she took. With respect to Clara, Valley was physically stronger than she was, and by the time Chika even thought of another idea to counter, Valley would have her pinned against the ropes.

The ref arrived, encouraging the two women to break it off, and almost going on instinct for a count...before she caught herself, remembering that this was a hardcore match. Still, Valley Doll disengaged from the grapple.

Chika couldn't help but let out a cheeky smirk. The rookie swiftly showed the veteran that she could hang in the ring with her, but she also showed her main tactic for the match. It was up to Chika to adapt and fight back.

Chika carefully exit the ropes, trying to circle around Valley not to let her get a firm grapple on her now, knowing that direct confrontation would end up with her getting overpowered once more. Instead, she tried to circle around the ring, before baiting her to try and grapple with her again...except instead, Chika would slip behind Valley Doll, grabbing the blonde from the back with a quick waistlock! From there, Chika would try and sweep the feet from under her rival to topple her to the ground!

[BlackAkuma]

Valerie wanted to keep her head focused, not get too cocksure and let ego play a part in her matches…but wrestling was a game where style played a big part. She wasn’t above the occasional flourish, especially after managing to put the veteran up against the ropes like that, starting strong and showing her power. She knew that wouldn’t be enough to win the day all by itself, but it was a good start, and she wanted to revel in it.

It was just a good bit of fun, good natured, and it didn’t look like Chika took it too seriously. If she was bothered by the clear strength difference, she was wise enough not to show it, making her way away from the ropes with sure strides. Valerie joined her in the hunt, circling about the ring, keeping their eyes locked on their every movement. Step by step, closer and closer, and drawing nearer and nearer, and…

There.

Valerie saw an opening and went for it, trying to lock up with Chika again. The veteran showed her speed and whipped around behind her, leaving her to stumble forward with an awkward lunge. A pair of slender but strong arms wrapped around her waist and she was brought down with a skillful slip, flopping onto her front. Knowing that she couldn't cede control, she reached up and wrapped her arm around Chika’s head, trying to catch her with a side headlock as she pushed back up to her feet.

[Vc0m]

Right as Chika tripped Valerie up in her hold, she realized the weakpoint of her own move…but was too late to do anything about it. Valley Doll had quick wits about her as she wrapped her arm around the Raven Knight’s head, quickly trapping her in a headlock!

”Mhhh!”, Chika grunted, trying to slip her head away, but the blonde made sure to tighten the grip so that the smaller woman couldn’t slip away easily! Trying to get back to her feet quickly, Chika would maintain her hold on Valerie’s waist as she made 2 steps back, trying to hit her’s and her opponent’s backs against the ropes, releasing the waistlock just in time to try and shove Valley Doll away, hoping to break the headlock!