AV 17 Tag Title: Imperial Order (c) vs. Masuyo & Valley Doll

This was going to be a tough one. Valley could feel it already. It might’ve seemed a weird thing to think when all she was doing was getting the woman into an arm wringer, doing a little chain wrestling. But, regardless, she was starting to understand why Gwen had been such a threat before. She’d seen the matches, but it was something she could only really notice up close.

Getting Gwen snared was easy. Keeping her snared was a different matter. The wily heiress showed why in short order, as she reversed the arm wringer yet again and brought Valley to that mat with a powerful snap. One that left her arm numb.

”Okay…” Valley smacked her fist on the mat and glared back up at her haughty foe. ”Action, then.”

Valley rolled forward, plopped to her back, raised her legs like she was attempting a kip up, then shifted about and threw her foot up with an overhead kick, attempting to hit Gwendolyn square in the middle of her perfect forehead.

Sprightly gymnastics and a keen instinct for turning any disadvantageous situation back in her favor both helped the heiress play her part in what had been an impressive display of technical wrestling from the both of them. One that Gwen put an end to by jamming Valley's shoulder socket into the ring canvas, an impact that was almost as satisfying as winning their little war of words that ultimately ended with a temporary ceasefire.

Gwen noticed the spiteful reaction her snap arm wringer had brought out of Valley. Which was rather difficult to miss what with the clenched fist slamming into the canvas and the emboldened anger in her glaring eyes. That fair bit of warning was all Gwen needed to narrowly avoid a rocketing kick upward that would have Gwen seeing resplendent stars had it connected...instead Gwen would dodge and ensnare the offending leg under the crook of her armpit.

With the leg still tucked under her arm and a haughty smirk directed down at Valley, Gwen would turn in place and by extension flip Valley onto her stomach. Gwen's intentions perhaps being crystal clear by the time she sat her posh backside on Valley's lower back. With one of her own legs bent and her other knee pressing against the canvas, Gwen would continue their rather traditional opening exchange with an even more traditional single leg boston crab attempt.

The kick was a risk, but then, everything was a risk with an opponent like this. Gwen was already proving to be one of the rare opponents Valley had to face, one that could keep up with her, stride for stride. It was a class that only the likes of Julia and Silver Ace had fit well into, and she wasn’t surprised that the heiress could make the cut, too.

For example, her overhead kick would’ve caught most opponents - say, nine out of ten - off guard. Of the one out of ten who could’ve avoided it, only nine out of ten could be swift enough to turn it into something useable. Gwen was in that lucky 99%.

The second her foe started to turn her over, she started making a break for the ropes, knowing what was coming and that her chances of countering would be minimal. Sure enough, Gwen plopped down and locked in the hold, going for the single-leg. Maybe Valley could’ve reversed it, maybe she couldn’t, but it wasn’t worth the trouble of finding out.

No, instead, she made a hard push to the ropes, hoping to reach it and get a clean break.

Taunting and goading her opponent's always did wonders for making their maneuvers that much more telegraphed. Gwendolyn would most assuredly have not have seen the springing overhead kick coming had she not noticed the spiteful wrath in Valley's eyes, which clued her in before she risked having her hour long beauty session be besmirched by a grimy boot to her regal visage.

Gwendolyn kept one arm snugly wrapped around Valley's angled leg, making sure to weigh herself as heavily as she could atop her opponent's curved spine. The preciseness with which she positioned herself and poured on the pressure was on glorious display as Valley continued her scrambling efforts. She acted as dead weight upon her back while even dragging her knee against the canvas until the telltale patting on her shoulder by the referee clued her in to Valley having reached her destination.

Four agonizing seconds later, Gwen shoved Valley's leg forward while on the cusp of suffering a disqualification. She arose from her seat with a pretentious smirk and twirled in place but remained close by until Valley could turn and see her. Gwen raised her hand and extended her index finger and thumb in front of Valley's face before she started backpedaling to the middle of the ring. A wordless taunt sending the message that you were this close to losing, and a split-second mistake is all Gwen needs.

Valley struggled and clawed and made her way to the ropes in record time, grasping on tight. She knew it was Gwen’s style to hold onto the attack and draw it out, make her hurt throughout for as long as she could, but for some reason she thought the heiress might show a little professional courtesy and not drag this out like that.

In hindsight, that was an utterly stupid thing of her to think.

Of course Gwen stretched out the count to the last possible second. Of course she was waiting there when Valley spun about, taking the opportunity to rub the moment in her face. She wouldn’t have been Gwendolyn if she didn’t do those things.

Valley took it in stride, brushing it off with a huff and slap on the mat before she pushed up to her feet. She threw a quick glance Masuyo’s way and nodded - a silent ‘I got this’ - then refocused on the task at hand. Moving back into her stance, she started to move towards Gwen once more, arms raised for a lock-up, inching forward…

Leave it to the Imperial Noblewoman herself to somehow find a way to pompously gloat and belittle her opponent while still adhering to her agreed upon ceasefire from any more verbal berating. Her prolonged application of the Boston crab being as methodical as it was malicious, the heiress knowing full well that Valley's strength, much like Gwendolyn's, was in her legs. And the sooner she debilitated one of them, the sooner this match would have one less participant.

A stirring round of applause started sounding off from what was an exceptional bit of grappling prowess from both parties, be they maligned heiress or not. Gwendolyn adopted her own well-honed grappling stance with arms extended outward towards Valley’s and her confident smirk never shining brighter.

The buzzing show of approval resounding louder once it appeared that the two would go for the third attempted lock up of the match...which to everyone's surprise would go without a hitch, at least before Gwen transitioned it into a snug side-headlock. One that had her left leg positioned far behind her with Valley's head feeling the pressure from between her petite bicep and the side of her generous chest.

To an outside observer, this probably seemed like a bad idea. The first lockup with Gwen hadn’t happened. The second worked, but it ended up with Valley coming down in a particularly poor fashion, with her having to drag her opponents dead weight across the ring on her belly. Not the most auspicious start.

So, when they locked horns again, it seemed silly to expect for anything better. For a moment, that line of thinking had serious merit, too, because Gwen was quick to snag her with a tight side headlock. Not just a regular one, either, but one with good posture and leg placement. Too many women put their legs side by side, shortened their base. Spreading her legs like that made countering more difficult.

But not impossible.

Valley proved that when she abruptly moved forward, grabbed the arm that was wrapped her head tight, and arched her back, sending Gwendolyn flying up, over, and down with a Northern Lights Suplex - complete with a bridge, too, to add in some extra flourish.

Minor setbacks aside, Gwen found the previous lock-up attempts to have worked overwhelmingly in her illustrious favor. From a fakeout that led to some well-crafted mindgames, to a long string of reversals that ended with Gwendolyn working over and straining two of Valley's appendages. Given her past success, Gwen saw no reason why history simply wouldn't repeat itself once more~...

Gwen's seamless transition from a lockup into a headlock happening before Valley could even consider overpowering her, and was expertly applied as befitting someone of her refined wrestling expertise. The heiress hardly intended for this to be anything more than a way to stifle Valley before moving on to something more impactful...something that Valley herself seemed to be thinking of as well. Gwen felt a brief sense of elevation before being slammed back first to a crowd pleasing pop, the jolting slam knocking the wind out of her and leaving her in a briefly stunned state that she would be promptly woken from by the pin count sounding off beside her.

"1!"

Gwen grit her teeth and sharply kicked out before there was any chance of a two count, the rattled heiress spinning off and away while attempting to scramble back to her feet ASAP.

Valley hadn’t been planning to go for a pinfall with the Northern Lights - not entirely, anyway. Her plan, such as it was, involved doing a floatover after the first impact, lifting Gwen again, then hitting her with the double-tap. It probably wouldn’t have worked, either, but at least she could get some heavy damage done in the process.

Wasn’t happening, though, since the heiress proved to be a bit more spry and wily than had first been anticipated. Okay. This, she could work with. In fact, she had a nasty little idea.

As Gwendolyn hurriedly rushed to her feet, Valley was quick to move after her, scrambling right behind her, but without any recent pain to slow her down.

The first step in her idea was getting Gwen to stay flat for a few seconds. That was easy enough, in theory. So, Valley put her theory to the test: she leaped forward, kicked her legs out, and tried to drop an elbow right into the middle of the snooty brat’s spine, aiming to drive her hard into the canvas.

An audience devoid of much to cheer for suddenly found their voice after seeing Valley turn the tables on the pampered aristocrat, both figuratively and somewhat literally. An extra second spent wearing the Californian down in the headlock ended up being one second too many as Gwendolyn found herself flung overhead for what most everyone assumed was a pin attempt, including the overeager referee treating it as such.

Gwendolyn scoffing bitterly and jostling herself free before attempting to hurriedly scramble back to a vertical standing. A frantic movement that was stilted by the rattling suplex, and was immediately stifled by Valley's leaping elbow drop squarely pointed to the middle of her lower spine. The irate heiress collapsing from her hands and knees back to the canvas with a pained snarl and her limbs spread out, the crowd's swell of support amping up considerably...