Post by hawkeye on Jan 9, 2023 0:52:41 GMT
DINGDINGDING!!“The following match is scheduled for one fall,” the ring announcer bellows, “with a twenty minute time limit!” With that, the unmistakable sound of Hank Williams the Third comes on over the loudspeakers.
THREE SHADES OF BLACK: youtu.be/oRidagsQAFw
TAFFY BLACK:
The FAWN Faithful boo loudly as they see the Mississippi Mauler strut out onto the stage. Wearing her now familiar ring gear of a black leather jacket, a black lycra bra, black booty shorts, black leather biker gloves, and dingy old Chuck Taylors, she gives the fans a disdainful sneer, followed by a smug smirk as she makes her way to the ring, flipping off random hecklers as she goes.
“Introducing first, from Leland, Mississippi…She stands five feet, eleven inches tall, and weighs in tonight at one hundred forty-eight pounds…This is TAFFY BLACK!!!”
Her introduction concluded just as she reaches the foot of the ramp, Black again smirks, no doubt reveling inside her own head in the punishment she was self-assured to deliver to her hated opponent. After the inconclusive countout loss to Kanako Akiyama and Trixie Decker, it was assumed that a rematch between the Backwoods Brawler and her partner, Kate Grimm versus Kanako and Trixie was next on the docket. So, it came as a mild surprise when it was announced that Kanako had demanded a one-on-one match with Black. Allusions had been made to an unseen backstage incident that left the Tokyo Tiger on the shelf for over a month, but nobody was forthcoming with the specifics.
Chasing stray thoughts away and forcing herself to focus on the task at hand, the Amazonian brawler reaches up and grabs the middle rope and pulls herself up onto the ring apron. She then vaults over the top rope, showing off surprising athleticism for someone of Taffy’s stature. She makes no play to the crowd that she hates anyway, choosing only to back up to the far ropes, keeping her eyes fixed on the stage with a steely glare as the referee pats her down.
And then the lights go out.
An excited murmur rolls through the crowd, which swells to a crescendo when the sound of air raid sirens fills the Arena and red searchlights scan the crowd. The cheers morph into confused chatter when, after the sirens die down, there is no petite figure at the top of the stage. After a few more moments, and confused looks from both Taffy and referee Merle, the sirens fire up again. When the same result occurs, and the lights subsequently come back up, a gleeful grin crosses Taffy’s lips. “HA!” the Mississippi Mauler shouts triumphantly as she leans forward on the ropes, “I KNEW that little runt would lose her nerve when the time came to look me in the eye!” The fans then shower Taffy with a chorus of boos, which Black practically bathes in, taking in all of the vitriol with her arms spread wide. “Hey! It’s okay!” Taffy taunts the FAWN Faithful, “It just proves that Akiyama’s got some common sense!” The boos grow louder and louder.
And then the lights go out.
A single white spotlight shines on the stage, where it has taken on the appearance of a stone bridge. From the FAWNTron, the flame from a single candle flickers as a familiar voice rings out over the PA system.
“I must not fear
Fear is the mind-killer
Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration
I will face my fear
I will permit it to pass over me and through me
And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path
Where the fear has been, there will be nothing
Only I will remain”
The sound of blowing breath follows, and the lights go out once more as the candle’s flame on the FAWNTron is extinguished. After a few beats, a jangling chime can be heard in the darkness, and a white light pulses from the ring outward in all directions. This repeats itself in a steady rhythm several times as the spotlight returns to show that snow is falling from the ceiling in the path of the bridge. The drums and strings of Tool’s “Fear Inoculum” then begin.
FEAR INOCULUM: youtu.be/q7DfQMPmJRI
Slowly, a petite figure walks onto the stage, ringed staff in hand, and dressed in traditional monk’s garb, complete with an oversized, wide-brimmed hat that obscures the person’s face. She pauses just before the threshold of the bridge as the music continues to build. Then, as Maynard James Keenan’s vocals begin, she resumes her slow march to the ring.
“And her opponent…From Los Angeles, California…She stands five feet, two inches tall, and weighs in tonight at one hundred twenty pounds…She is the Modern Day Ronin….This is KANAKO AKIYAMA!!!”
KANAKO AKIYAMA:
While a smattering of raucous cheers can be heard, most of the fans in attendance are silent, transfixed by the scene laid out before them. Taffy, for her part, couldn’t look less impressed by the diminutive Japanese girl’s theatrics. Slumped back in the corner, her arms draped lazily over the sides, the Mississippi Mauler rolls her eyes and looks at an imaginary watch on her wrist, making an impatient motion with her other hand for her opponent to hurry up.
Arriving at the ring steps, Kanako raises the staff. As Maynard’s vocals reach a crescendo with the words, “Exhale, expel,” she brings the staff down on the bottom step, sending a wave of white light pulsing through the Arena, bringing the house lights up in its wake. Monk Kanako then ascends the steps, and sets her staff against the ringpost before climbing into the ring. She takes off her monk’s robes, revealing a curve hugging blue and red one-piece, with black lines running throughout, with her trademark black mma-style gloves and red wrestling shoes completing the outfit. She then slowly , takes her hat off to reveal that she’s painted her face white, with a golden phoenix dead center, eliciting another scoff and a roll of the eyes from Black.
After Merle finishes inspecting Kanako’s ring gear, not bothering to engage in any small talk, having noticed the look of determination on the Ronin’s painted face, he signals for the opening bell to start the match. A low buzz raises amongst the FAWN Faithful as the hated rivals meet in the center of the ring, facing off, with Kanako’s expression one of barely contained rage, while Taffy wears a mask of smug cockiness.
Taffy, a full three-quarters of a foot taller than Kanako, looks down at her foe condescendingly, crossing her arms across her large chest. Her lip then curling from a smirk to a snarl, she growls, “I can’t believe so many bitches back there are actually intimidated by your fun-sized ass!” she then palms Kanako’s face and shoves her away from her, drawing a gasp from the crowd at this blatant show of disrespect. Taffy wasn’t done, though, for as soon as Kanako predictably snapped back into place, Taffy was waiting for her with an outstretched hand, keeping her at arm’s length and out of reach of any sort of retaliation, “I mean, c’mon,” she continues as Kanako flails at her, “that fancy entrance? That stupid getup? The goofy geisha paint? Didja really think that was gonna impress me?”
“Honestly? No,” Kanako answers as she stops her swinging. Instead, she lashes out with one of her stems, stomping on Taffy’s foot, “But then again, you’re not the sharpest knife in the drawer, are you?” she adds as Taffy releases Kanako, letting out a surprised yelp of pain above the amused laughter of the audience. Freed from her foe’s grip, Kanako commences to wailing on the Mississippi native, swinging wildly with rights and lefts. Once she’s gathered her wits once more amidst the barrage of fists to whatever part of her person Kanako could reach, Taffy tries to get herself some breathing room by shoving Kanako away. That buys her only a few seconds, the time it takes for Kanako to rebound and resume her furious assault.
After another attempt to swat the pest away yields similar results, Taffy retreats to the safety of the ropes, “C’mon, ref! Quit gawking and do your damn job!” she barks at Merle, who does indeed begin to try and separate the two women.
“Alright, Kanako, back off!” Merle says as he tries to step in between them. Hearing his voice snaps Kanako out of her semi-fugue, and she willingly follows his instructions, throwing her hands up and stepping back a couple steps. Unfortunately, that proves to be too few steps back, as Taffy takes advantage of the break in the action by reaching around Merle and delivering a sledgehammer blow of a sucker punch that spins Kanako around a full one-eighty.
Ignoring Merle’s exasperated admonishment, Taffy’s smug smirk returns as she steps around the zebra, grabs Kanako around the waist, and hefts the lightweight up and over, tossing her towards the corner with a nasty-looking release German suplex. She then kips up and does a most muscular pose for the crowd, a cheesy smile on her face. Meanwhile, Kanako, physically rattled by the crash landing, is crawling to the ropes to pull herself up. “Ah ah ah!” Taffy chides as she grabs the back of Kanako’s one-piece, hoists her back up, and grabs her around her waist from the side. “At Black Airlines, you get two rides for the price of one!” she chirps before popping her hips and tossing Kanako again with ease, this time with a bone-rattling Saito suplex.
SAITO SUPLEX: youtu.be/g7frnk2_RD8
Upon impact, she rolls away from her prone victim, clambers to her feet, and showboats for the fans again, striking another bodybuilding pose before leaning on the ropes, hovering above Kanako and soaking up the fans’ raucous jeers, “So this is it, huh?” she gloats, planting a foot on Kanako’s back, which only riles the fans up even more, “This all ya got, you little runt?” She leans down and picks her victim up from around her neck, “And Kate was worried you were gonna be a problem!” she added with a scoff before shooting Kanako into the ropes. Upon releasing her target, Taffy goes down into a three-point stance and as soon as Kanako hits the opposite ropes, she springs into action, leveling her with a shoulderblock that looks more brutal than a shoulderblock should. Kanako hits the mat hard, and Taffy turns back towards the crowd, showboating some more by throwing her arms out wide, inviting the vitriol that’s been raining down on her practically from the start of this match. “Alright, up we go!” Taffy says as she picks Kanako off the mat again and pushes her into the ropes, “Boy, if this’s all ya got, you’re in for a long night, ‘cuz I can do this all night!”
“You know what, you dumb bitch?” Kanako asks rhetorically through gritted teeth as Taffy launches her across the ring once more. She ducks her tormentor’s clothesline attempt, then on the rebound, she staggers the larger brunette with a running dropkick, shouting, “I CAN TOO!!!” Seeing that her foe had been stunned but not dropped, Kanako scrambles to her feet and delivers another dropkick, to the cheers of the crowd. Again, Taffy is knocked back, this time up against the ropes, but not down. Kanako, figuring third time’s the charm, dashes across the ring, looking like her aim is to knock Taffy out of the ring, either with a clothesline or another running dropkick.Whatever her plan, it winds up being cut off when a gloved hand shoots out and catches Kanako around the throat. Kanako’s hands scrabble at Taffy’s wrists, trying to free herself as the brutish brunette drives her down to the mat by her throat, throttling her with both hands, her eyes wild with hatred.
“So I’m a stupid bitch, huh?” Taffy growls, “Let’s see how stupid I am when I send you back to the damn hospital again!” Taffy’s words seem to flip a switch inside Kanako, as she stops struggling, looking up at her attacker with a wild look of her own in her eyes. Taffy’s expression shifts from one of pure hatred to one of shock, as she finds a pair of gloved hands around her throat as well. From underneath, Kanako manages to roll onto her side, getting Taffy off of her and giving her better leverage to choke her hated foe. In the meantime, Merle has been trying unsuccessfully to pull Taffy off of Kanako, and now he was in the unenviable task of trying to pry both women from each other’s throats. Knowing that he was getting nowhere, he gives up and uses the only tool he has left.
“ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!”
Both women almost simultaneously snap out of it and release each other from the mutual chokehold at about 4.5, and they roll away from each other, coughing and trying to get their wind back. Despite the abuse she’s absorbed early on in this match, Kanako is the first to her feet, and she seizes on this opportunity by trying to take the larger brunette’s head off while she’s still on all fours with a perfectly aimed buzzsaw kick.
BUZZSAW KICK: youtu.be/j15oRXUIjYo?t=46
A grunt falls from Taffy’s mouth, followed by a groan as she slumps back down to the mat. Kanako grins with grim satisfaction before laying in a series of stomps to her foe’s back and shoulders. Then, in a somewhat uncharacteristic display of sadism on Kanako’s part, the Modern Day Ronin plants a foot on the side of Taffy’s head and begins grinding down on her.
“How’s that feel, Black?!” Kanako taunts her, shouting above Black’s pained groans, “How do you like this “little twerp” now, bitch?! Fun-sized, my ass!” She then punctuates her mini-tirade with a final stomp to the side of Taffy’s head. “Get your punk ass up!” Kanako barks at her as she drags her up by her hair and pushes her back into the nearest corner. After lighting Taffy’s prominent chest up with a pair of vicious knife-edge chops, the Tokyo Tiger plants her feet to Irish whip Taffy out of the corner, only to have it reversed on her, Taffy shooting Kanako across the ring with such force that she doesn’t have time to turn around, and so she hits the turnbuckles chest-first so hard that it rattles the ring itself, leaving fans to wonder how the ropes are still intact!
A split second after Kanako hits the corner, she’s hit the mat,flat-backed with almost as much force as she’d hit the turnbuckles with. She clutches her chest with both hands and rolls around on the mat in agony. A sadistic, satisfied smirk stretches across Black’s lips as she eyes her prey from across the ring. She then slowly, deliberately makes her way over to Kanako as the Modern Day Ronin is languidly crawling to the ropes to help her get back to her feet. That becomes less of an issue, as Taffy hauls her up to her feet against her will, with two tight handfuls of the Japanese girl’s hair, now a bit longer than it was when the FAWN faithful last saw her. “This is what ya wanted, you little runt!” she growls at her, “And I’m just getting started!” WIth that, she hefts the lightweight onto her shoulders. From there, she lifts Kanako high above her head. She then parades her around the ring like that before bringing her to a corner and unceremoniously dumping her onto the top turnbuckle with a gorilla press slam.
youtu.be/WqO_uFlnPx0
Kanako doesn’t even have time to yell out in pain before Taffy is on her again, hammering her over and over again with clubbing blows to Kanako’s back, ribs, and neck.
“THREE!!! FOUR!!!”
Taffy smirks when the sound of Merle’s voice counting her down breaks through, and she backs away at 4.5, only to immediately resume her attack as soon as the referee halted his count. Again, the Mississippi Mauler lives up to her nickname, smothering the smaller Japanese girl with hammering blows, adding a disrespectful clap to Kanako’s toned backside as she backs off again before the ref’s count gets to five. This time, however, she finds a red-hot Merle getting right in her face as she retreats.
“You do that again, Black, and I’ll disqualify you on the spot!!” A red-faced Merle screams in Taffy’s face, with such intensity that she actually backs up an additional step, hands raised in a placating gesture, “Now get it out of the damn corner!!”
“Alright, alright…” Taffy says dismissively, “Jesus, settle down, toothpick! You can look after yer little crush in the infirmary later.” she advances on Kanako, referencing the tension between Kanako and Merle early on in the Tokyo Tiger’s career, before adding with a smirk, “I’d think you gotta clear that with…y’know…her wife first, though!” She then grabs Kanako by the back of her one-piece, and unceremoniously dumps her off of the turnbuckle and sends her crashing down to the mat. She then drags Kanako by the hair, dog-walking the diminutive fighter, to the center of the ring. “Ya brought this on yourself, you little psycho!” she barks at her as she drags her to her feet, “Ya just couldn’t just stay down, could you?!” Kanako offers a retort by way of spitting in the larger woman’s face to a sustained “OOOOOOHHHH!!” from the crowd, her eyes conveying the rage and contempt for her foe. Wiping the spittle from her face, Taffy looked down at Kanako with disdain before scooping her up and setting her down roughly over her knee in a brutal backbreaker.
“Y’know, Akiyama…” she says to her captive audience as she groans in pain through gritted teeth, Black’s hands pushing down on her by her chin and her thigh to ratchet up the pain, “...this submission shit ain’t really my bag. Sure, it’s satisfyin’ to hear some weak cunt screaming in pain. But I prefer to just knock the bitch out, y’know? Sure you do. I’ve seen your matches. But you know what? In your case, I’ll make an exception!” She then uses her considerable muscle to push down even harder, which finally gets that cry of pain from Kanako that Taffy had been referring to. Grinning wide with satisfaction, Black continues her diatribe, “Making you hurt, making you suffer…that’s even better to me than just beating you! But still…” She takes her hand away from Kanako’s thigh and begins laying into her prey with heavy rights to her face and tummy, “...I gotta be true to myself, right?” After a solid minute of Taffy abusing Kanako, Taffy lets the Tokyo Tiger roll off her knee and hit the mat with a slight thud, seemingly growing bored with beating on her.
“I’m gonna be honest with ya, Akiyama,” she continues as she hauls Kanako up to her feet again and bullies the smaller girl into the nearest corner with a series of well-placed rights, “I’m a little disappointed here. I thought you were gonna give me more of a fight than this! Fun as it is to beat the shit out of ya, I thought even a runt like you’d give me a little bit of a fight!” She then braces Kanako, preparing an Irish whip for her captive audience, “Oh, well...If you’re not gonna fight back, I guess I better end this and go celebrate with Kate!” With that, she shoots Kanako across the ring into the opposite corner. She grunts as her back hits the turnbuckles, but she shakes the cobwebs loose just in time to see Taffy beginning to charge towards her like a rampaging bull. The larger brunette lashes out with her right leg as soon as she gets within striking distance, looking to take Kanako’s head off her shoulders with a running big boot.
…Only to come into contact with nothing but air, as Kanako deftly drops down and shifts away from the corner, leaving Taffy to awkwardly catch her leg over the top rope and yell out in a mix of surprise and pain. And this is the opening that Kanako has been waiting for. “Be careful what you wish for, bitch!” Kanako growls as she dashes towards the opposite ropes and fires off a shotgun dropkick to Taffy’s still outstretched stem on the return trip. The pained yelps and cursing from the brunette told Kanako that she had hit paydirt and she doubles down on her efforts to press her advantage. Grabbing Taffy’s right leg by the ankle and pulling it tight around the middle rope, then begins kicking at the knee like a woman possessed, eyes wild with rage-fueled focus, almost to the point of not hearing Merle’s five count. She finally snaps out of her fugue when she hears Merle start his count for a second time, and she reluctantly backs away.
“What the fuck was that?!” Taffy demands, grabbing the referee by the collar, “I go to town in the corner and you get in my face, screaming bloody murder! But your little sweetheart tries to break my leg and you just calmly count her down, and then instead of disqualifying the bitch, you TRY AGAIN??!! What kind of biased bullshit is that?!”
“First off,” Merle begins as he extracates himself from Taffy’s grasp, surprisingly standing his ground, “you better remember who you’re talking to! I’m the official here, and you WILL NOT THREATEN ME!!” Taffy’s jaw drops as she looks at Merle in amazement, wondering what’s gotten into him to find so much of a spine. “And second, well…never mind, it’s too late.”
“Too late? The fuck are you talking abOOOUUT?” Unseen by Taffy while she and Merle were having their little tete a tete, Kanako was not just standing idly by. After briefly contemplating her next move, she quietly slid out of the ring. Waiting for the perfect moment to strike, Kanako finally grabs Taffy’s legs and trips the Backwater Brawler up and drags her backwards, pulling her into the ringpost, crotch-first. She then grabs the brunette’s hurting stem and begins slamming it around the ringpost, over and over again. After a fifth time, Kanako finally slides back into the ring and drags her foe away from the ropes to make a cover.
ONE!
TWO!!
Taffy kicks out strong right at two. Kanako’s expression betrays neither disappointment nor disbelief at the kickout. Rather, she simply resumes her single-minded attack, rolling Taffy onto her stomach and grabbing her injured wheel and lifting it up in almost a single-leg Boston crab position. She then threads her left leg underneath Taffy’s, then up and over across her ankle, and then puts her right leg across her left ankle in a figure four position and locking in a wicked leglock submission hold.
youtu.be/ZJ0RNH2D8Io?t=524
“AAAAAAAHHHHH!!!” Taffy screams in agony amid a chorus of “OOOOOH!” from the crowd, impressed at the intricate hold, “Just you wait you little shit! When I get out of this, I’m gonna - AAARRRGH, FUCK!!!” Her threats are cut short by Kanako lifting herself up into a picture perfect bridge, pouring on the pressure exponentially.
“Sorry, what was that?” Kanako growls maliciously, “It sounded like you said something, but I couldn’t hear it over the sound of you crying like a little bitch!”
“Fuck you, Akiyama!!” Taffy spits back as she claws at her face to try and take her mind off the overwhelming pain shooting through her body, “Ahhhh, shit!! Y-you’re gonna break my leg, you spiteful bitch!!”
“You tried to cripple me!” Kanako retorted through gritted teeth, her eyes wild with hatred, “You could’ve killed me!! So, excuse fucking me if I don’t give a flying fuck about your goddamn leg!! Matter of fact…” she then redoubles her efforts, pushing the bridge even higher, ripping another agonized scream from her tormentor’s lips, “HAVE SOME MORE!!!”
“AAAAARRRGH!!!” Black’s howls of torment echo throughout the Arena ans the claws at the mat, trying to pull herself and Akiyama to the ropes, recognizing that the only way out of this torture was to force a rope break. It’s slow going, and Kanako gets tantalizingly close to getting the bully to tap, but instead she gives one final surge forward and just manages to hook two fingers on the bottom strand. Upon hearing Merle start his five count, Kanako untangles herself from Taffy. However, she doesn’t back off for a second, for as soon as Merle halts his count, she lunges at a still-struggling on her hands and knees Black, lighting her up with a series of vicious knee strikes to the bigger brunette’s ribs and hammering elbows to the back of her neck. Caught off-guard by the little pipsqueak’s relentless assault, Taffy does little to protect herself, only offering pained grunts and shouts before she finally clears the cobwebs and rolls under the ropes to the outside apron. “Get her back! Get her back!” Taffy barks at Merle as she tries to get to her feet on the ring apron, looking to use the rules to get herself some breathing room.
Recognizing Taffy’s position, Kanako dutifully gets to her feet and backs up a couple steps. The Mississippi Bully only buys herself a brief reprieve however, as no sooner than she’s gotten to her feet on the ring apron does Akiyama sprint to the opposite side of the ropes. On the rebound, she leaps into the air as she approaches Taffy, flipping in midair, she grabs her around her neck almost like a reverse cutter. Her momentum carries both of them down to the floor, delivering one of the newest moves in her repertoire - so new that she hasn’t even thought up a name for it - a running blockbuster to the outside!
youtu.be/izEPX13-P_A
Taffy groans as her back hits the floor, arching her back to try and alleviate some of the pain. Normally, the same could be said for Kanako, too, but the Modern Day Ronin is running on such an adrenaline rush that she lets out an involuntary grunt upon impact, and then immediately kips up to the roar of the crowd. Kanako lets out a battle cry of her own as well, and then marches over to Taffy. She grabs the guardrail for stability and begins stomping a mudhole into her tormentor. “Get up!” she growls at her, hauling her up to her feet roughly by her hair. She then proceeds to bounce Taffy’s skull off the ring apron, again and again, with the FAWNatics enthusiastically counting along with the thumps of skull to canvas. Finally stopping at six, the Tokyo Tiger pulls Black back from the apron and Irish whips her into the nearest ringpost.
Taffy again groans in pain and slumps down to the floor. Kanako gives her no room to breathe, as she runs at her bitter rival, nailing her with a brutal running knee that connects with the back of her skull and bounces her head from her knee into the ringpost again. Kanako then shoves Taffy down to the floor, mounts her, and begins teeing off on the Backwater Brawler with stiff punches. Her blows to the ringpost have busted her open with a gash dead center on her forehead. Kanako smirks with grim satisfaction as she continually punches Taffy in the mouth, causing a trickle of blood to start to flow from the corner of her lips.
“EIGHT!!!”
Merle has been very accommodating, as he doesn’t want to be the cause of an unsatisfying ending to this intense, heated match. But he’s still a referee, and he can’t just not count them out when they’re brawling outside of the ring. Kanako halts her assault to look up at Merle. Understanding the situation, she quickly rolls into the ring to break up the count, then immediately rolls back out, much to Merle’s consternation. Satisfied with her work thus far, Kanako pulls Taffy to her feet with two handfuls of her brown locks, and hurls her back into the ring. Hopping up onto the ring apron, Kanako then ascends to the top turnbuckle, with Black firmly in her crosshairs. She then takes to flight, leaping off the top and delivering a picture perfect Shooting Star Press. Immediately upon splashdown, she grabs and hooks Taffy’s far leg for a pin.
youtu.be/Khzttlri9HA
ONE!!
TWO!!!
THR-NOOO!!!
Taffy’s shoulder jerks off the mat at 2.8 to a disappointed groan from the crowd. Just as with her previous pin attempt, Kanako doesn’t waste any time displaying disappointment or arguing the count. Instead, she clambers to her feet and grabs Taffy to pull her back to her feet as well, delivering a sneaky knee to the temple as she does so for good measure. Grabbing a handful of the Mississippi Mauler’s shorts and throwing one of her arms behind her head, Kanako then bears down and hoists Taffy up in a vertical suplex position. In an impressive display of Kanako’s deceptive strength, the lightweight Japanese girl holds the heavyweight Black up for an extended period of time, letting the FAWN Faithful count as she holds her up. Once they reach ten, Kanako drops Taffy straight down, delivering a skull-rattling brainbuster.
youtu.be/5RHyINWnm48
ONE!!
TWO!!
THRE-NOOOO!!!
This time, Taffy just barely manages to kick out just before Merle’s hand slaps the mat for a third time. This time, Kanako’s face flashes a look of annoyance for a brief moment, looking up at Merle and holding up three fingers. While Merle shakes his head and holds up two, mouthing, “Almost,” Taffy rolls to the outside, leaning against the ring apron to try and get a breather. That breather would be short lived, though, because as soon as Kanako saw her prey starting to get up, she dashes across the ring, hitting the ropes and becoming a red and blue blur on the return trip, she begins to leap through the top and middle ropes, targeting a suicide dive straight at the brunette’s chest…
youtu.be/YAs4e1mhD9g
…only to be intercepted by a leaping knockout punch from her target, leaving Kanako draped over the middle rope, halfway inside the ring and halfway out. Seeing an opportunity, and finally recognizing that she didn’t have time to taunt or otherwise mouth off, she backs up until she was up against the guardrail. She then takes off into a spirited jog, zeroing in on the dazed Japanese girl. Once she was within striking distance, she launched herself, feet-first, at the Modern Day Ronin.
youtu.be/9oZ0trwkvJI?t=18
The brutal dropkick causes Kanako to slowly drop from the middle rope, to the ring apron, down to the floor. The confident smirk that Taffy had worn earlier has disappeared and is now replaced with a hateful snarl. “Get up!” she barks before helping her prey do just that, hauling her up to her feet, and then over her right shoulder, like a sack of potatoes. She carries Kanako around the ringside area, parading her around to the jeers of the fans. She finally stops in the general vicinity of the announcer’s table. Adjusting her grip, Black then hurls Kanako at the nearest ringpost as if she were a lawn dart!
youtu.be/gdu__J8jTnI
The Modern Day Ronin may have scored first blood (and even second blood), but Taffy had just about evened out the score on that count. As Kanako meets the ringpost headfirst and drops to the floor a gash over her right eye, to match the swelling under it, opens as is often the case when flesh meets steel at high speeds. She groans and struggles to get to her feet, but now it’s Taffy’s turn to be relentless. Finally, the lessons that her partner in crime, Kate Grimm, had been trying to impart to her about how dangerous their target really was began to sink in. Not just because of her blinding speed and deceptive strength, but also her resilience and relentlessness. She now understood that she had to keep her foot on the gas until Kanako Akiyama was finished. With that in mind, Taffy picks Kanako up and thrusts he head between her legs. She then flips the diminutive Japanese girl up over her head, holding her arms out in a crucifix position. Pivoting to face the announce table, Taffy launches Kanako into the air.
youtu.be/seZhGwlvzeM
As Kanako crashes through the table, the fans collectively cry out in anguish for their heroine. Much as many would hate to admit it, it was starting to look less like a match and more like a massacre. Unfortunately for them, and particularly Kanako, Taffy wasn’t finished yet. Knowing that the count was still ongoing, she was quick to break said count up so she could continue brutalizing Kanako. Having done that, she returns to her work, picking Kanako up from the wreckage again. She stuffs her head between her thighs once more and lifts her up around the waist so that Kanako is upside down in her grip. A wave of panic rises over the FAWNatics, as it is obvious to all just what the Mississippi Mauler has in mind. Sure enough, Taffy jumps into the air with her legs out in a sitting position, driving her foe back down headfirst into the rubble, delivering a spine-rattling piledriver!
youtu.be/R9lPT6B4L64
Taffy’s face is a mask of euphoria as she soaks in the jeers and cries of the fans, a combination of outrage at the big bully and concern for Kanako. She then looks out among her “adoring” public and with an evil, sadistic grin, she holds up a single finger, mouthing “One more time!” Wasting no more time, she gets up, dragging a barely conscious, bruised, and bleeding Kanako up with her. She then walks her over to the nearby ring steps, leading to numerous shouts of “NO!!” coming from a crowd. Taffy pays them no heed, as she delivers another devastating jumping piledriver on the steel stairs. Taffy, clearly very pleased with herself, waves her arms in front of her, making the “safe” pantomime, signaling to the onlookers that she felt that this match was all but over.
She lifts the limp body of Kanako Akiyama up in a fireman’s carry position and deposits her onto the ring apron and rolls her into the ring. Now, after she thinks she’s annihilated her foe, doe she allow herself to showboat once more, doing muscle poses for the fans before she climbs back into the ring herself. In a show of disrespectful nonchalance, she lays back onto Kanako’s torso and spreads her arms out across her body, making one of the laziest pinfall attempts in recent memory. She even nods her head along with the academic three count.
ONE!!
TWO!!
TH-NOOOO!!!
Taffy’s eyes go wide with shock and she sits bolt upright. “Impossible! That bitch was limp as a dish rag!” She looks up and finds a target, someone to blame for her missed opportunity. “YOU!!” she shouts, pointing at Merle as she scrambles to her feet. She immediately invades the referee’s personal space, poking him in the chest threateningly. “What the hell was that slow count, huh? You’ve been screwing me over from the opening bell, you little toothpick!”
“Back off, Black!” Merle shouts back, even daring to slap the bully’s hand away, “Touch me again, and not only will I disqualify you, but I’ll make sure that you’re fined and suspended. Again! And that wasn’t a slow count! You made a lazy pin, and before that, you spent a good minute posing out there like you were in a Ms. Olympia competition! That’s on you, not me.”
“Bullshit!” the fuming brunette spits out, “You’ve been trying to protect that pathetic little psycho from the start! You’ve been blatantly biased against me all along! What? You think that sticking up for Akiyama might give you another shot at her?” She ends the last part with a derisive laugh.
Now it’s Merle’s turn to fume, “I’ve done nothing of the sort!” he answers through gritted teeth, “You’re welcome to file a complaint if you want, but the evidence will show that I’ve been even-handed throughout this match, despite your attempts to intimidate me!”
“Whatever, nerd,” Taffy waves her hand dismissively, “Out of my way,” she continues as she starts to turn back around, “I’ve got a little mouse to put - “
CRACK!
While Taffy had been wasting time arguing with the referee, Kanako had the time to recover and get to her feet. So, by the time Taffy finally returned her attention to the task at hand, Kanako is already waiting for her, and as she turns towards her, she levels her with her devastating Bankai Kick!
youtu.be/_L3P1mFM1ek
The crowd erupts in cheers as Taffy’s eyes roll to the back of her head as Kanako’s heel connects solidly with her jaw and she drops like a falling tree in the woods.A wild-eyed Akiyama looks down at the object of her hatred, waiting to see her stir. In anticipation for this, she reflexively pulls her right glove tight, sending another roar of approval through the assembled masses, as they recognize this motion as Kanako’s signal that she’s about to uncork her Uraken spinning back fist, usually the precursor to the Modern Day Ronin bringing her match to its climax.
However, seeing little to no movement from her target, Kanako stops, scowling as she lowers her gloved fist. After another moment of consideration, Kanako purposefully steps to the corner, stepping on Taffy’s prone body as she does so. In one leap, she ascends to the top as a buzz of anticipation rolls over the FAWN Faithful. After a moment of steadying herself, the Tokyo Tiger rises on her perch and launches herself into the air, turning over in midair and driving both feet into Taffy’s midsection, delivering her graceful but brutal Run Her Through finishing maneuver.
youtu.be/znoumHUMspQ
If Kanako’s Bankai Kick put Taffy’s lights out, those same two feet woke her back up with extreme rudeness. Her eyes go wide and a guttural groan escapes her lips as Kanako lands on her stomach and hops off. Normally, this would lead to a cover from the Japanese warrior, but she stops. With a sadistic smirk eerily reminiscent of her rival’s, she holds up a finger, mimicking Taffy’s own actions mere minutes ago even mouthing “One more”. Again she ascends to the top rope as Black is writhing on the mat in agony. Again she takes flight. Again she stabs downward with her feet, Running Her Through a second time, immediately dropping down upon impact to pin Black, hooking the far leg for good measure.
ONE!
TWO!!
…THREE!!!
DINGDINGDING!!!
“Ladies and gentlemen! Time of the match sixteen minutes, forty-nine seconds…Your winner, via pinfall…KANAKOOOOO AKIYAAAAAMAAAAA!!!!”
The ringing of the bell and the ring announcer’s subsequent official announcement can barely be heard over the jubilant eruption of the crowd. Kanako lays back for a few moments to gather her strength, but is unwilling to give Taffy the satisfaction of showing her weariness. She then kips up and lets out a victorious cry as Merle raises her hand. The battered and bloodied Ronin goes to the corner and hops up to the second turn over, throwing up an arm in celebratory victory…
…Only to feel a pair of heavy forearms at her back.
A seemingly rejuvenated Taffy Black, none too pleased about being embarrassed by the lightweight, puts another forearm to the Tokyo Tiger’s back and turns around so that her back is to Kanako. Grabbing both of Kanako’s arms and holding her in a crucifix position, Taffy hurls the diminutive Japanese girl across the ring to a chorus of boos from the fans.
“HEY!!” Merle screams, getting in Taffy’s face, “What the hell is your problem?! The match is over, you lost! Get out of here!!” Taffy casts her eyes aside and lets out a slow huff. She then palms the referee’s face, finally fed up with his interference, and forcefully shoves him away, sending him tumbling out of the ring under the bottom rope. Taffy then closes in on Kanako and hauls her up to her feet, going nose to nose, her eyes wild with hatred.
“You think you’re better than me, you little twerp?!” she yells in her face, “You think you’re real cute, huh?”
“Bitch,” Kanako answers with a smirk, “I’m adorable!”
“We’ll see,” Taffy growls menacingly, “We’ll see how cute you are, you little shit!” She then takes down the straps of Kanako’s one-piece, exposing the Japanese daredevil’s 32C breasts, much to the delight of a…certain section of FAWN’s fanbase. While the humiliation of rendering Kanako topless is a nice bonus, in truth, Taffy’s aim is to expose her bare back. She ties Kanako up in the ropes, with her facing outside the ring. Then, she undoes her belt and begins to mercilessly whip her over and over again, each cry of pain widening the sadistic smile on the Mississippi Mauler’s lips.
After eight such lashes, security finally decides to rush down to the ring, with Kanako’s wife, Trixie Decker following close after, berating the “rent-a-cops” the whole way down.
TRIXIE DECKER:
Taffy gets in three more lashes before she’s tackled to the ground by one security officer, then swarmed by three others, struggling to drag the crazed woman away. Meanwhile, Trixie frees her wife from her bondage and helps put the straps of her one-piece back up.
“Here you go, Songbird.” She says soothingly as she helps Kanako out of the ring, “We need to get you looked at.” If Kanako hears Trixie, she makes no attempt to acknowledge her. Her steely gaze is fixed on Taffy Black as she is finally dragged out of sight, kicking and screaming. Both women exchange glances, silently communicating that they know that this war is far from over.
THREE SHADES OF BLACK: youtu.be/oRidagsQAFw
TAFFY BLACK:
The FAWN Faithful boo loudly as they see the Mississippi Mauler strut out onto the stage. Wearing her now familiar ring gear of a black leather jacket, a black lycra bra, black booty shorts, black leather biker gloves, and dingy old Chuck Taylors, she gives the fans a disdainful sneer, followed by a smug smirk as she makes her way to the ring, flipping off random hecklers as she goes.
“Introducing first, from Leland, Mississippi…She stands five feet, eleven inches tall, and weighs in tonight at one hundred forty-eight pounds…This is TAFFY BLACK!!!”
Her introduction concluded just as she reaches the foot of the ramp, Black again smirks, no doubt reveling inside her own head in the punishment she was self-assured to deliver to her hated opponent. After the inconclusive countout loss to Kanako Akiyama and Trixie Decker, it was assumed that a rematch between the Backwoods Brawler and her partner, Kate Grimm versus Kanako and Trixie was next on the docket. So, it came as a mild surprise when it was announced that Kanako had demanded a one-on-one match with Black. Allusions had been made to an unseen backstage incident that left the Tokyo Tiger on the shelf for over a month, but nobody was forthcoming with the specifics.
Chasing stray thoughts away and forcing herself to focus on the task at hand, the Amazonian brawler reaches up and grabs the middle rope and pulls herself up onto the ring apron. She then vaults over the top rope, showing off surprising athleticism for someone of Taffy’s stature. She makes no play to the crowd that she hates anyway, choosing only to back up to the far ropes, keeping her eyes fixed on the stage with a steely glare as the referee pats her down.
And then the lights go out.
An excited murmur rolls through the crowd, which swells to a crescendo when the sound of air raid sirens fills the Arena and red searchlights scan the crowd. The cheers morph into confused chatter when, after the sirens die down, there is no petite figure at the top of the stage. After a few more moments, and confused looks from both Taffy and referee Merle, the sirens fire up again. When the same result occurs, and the lights subsequently come back up, a gleeful grin crosses Taffy’s lips. “HA!” the Mississippi Mauler shouts triumphantly as she leans forward on the ropes, “I KNEW that little runt would lose her nerve when the time came to look me in the eye!” The fans then shower Taffy with a chorus of boos, which Black practically bathes in, taking in all of the vitriol with her arms spread wide. “Hey! It’s okay!” Taffy taunts the FAWN Faithful, “It just proves that Akiyama’s got some common sense!” The boos grow louder and louder.
And then the lights go out.
A single white spotlight shines on the stage, where it has taken on the appearance of a stone bridge. From the FAWNTron, the flame from a single candle flickers as a familiar voice rings out over the PA system.
“I must not fear
Fear is the mind-killer
Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration
I will face my fear
I will permit it to pass over me and through me
And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path
Where the fear has been, there will be nothing
Only I will remain”
The sound of blowing breath follows, and the lights go out once more as the candle’s flame on the FAWNTron is extinguished. After a few beats, a jangling chime can be heard in the darkness, and a white light pulses from the ring outward in all directions. This repeats itself in a steady rhythm several times as the spotlight returns to show that snow is falling from the ceiling in the path of the bridge. The drums and strings of Tool’s “Fear Inoculum” then begin.
FEAR INOCULUM: youtu.be/q7DfQMPmJRI
Slowly, a petite figure walks onto the stage, ringed staff in hand, and dressed in traditional monk’s garb, complete with an oversized, wide-brimmed hat that obscures the person’s face. She pauses just before the threshold of the bridge as the music continues to build. Then, as Maynard James Keenan’s vocals begin, she resumes her slow march to the ring.
“And her opponent…From Los Angeles, California…She stands five feet, two inches tall, and weighs in tonight at one hundred twenty pounds…She is the Modern Day Ronin….This is KANAKO AKIYAMA!!!”
KANAKO AKIYAMA:
While a smattering of raucous cheers can be heard, most of the fans in attendance are silent, transfixed by the scene laid out before them. Taffy, for her part, couldn’t look less impressed by the diminutive Japanese girl’s theatrics. Slumped back in the corner, her arms draped lazily over the sides, the Mississippi Mauler rolls her eyes and looks at an imaginary watch on her wrist, making an impatient motion with her other hand for her opponent to hurry up.
Arriving at the ring steps, Kanako raises the staff. As Maynard’s vocals reach a crescendo with the words, “Exhale, expel,” she brings the staff down on the bottom step, sending a wave of white light pulsing through the Arena, bringing the house lights up in its wake. Monk Kanako then ascends the steps, and sets her staff against the ringpost before climbing into the ring. She takes off her monk’s robes, revealing a curve hugging blue and red one-piece, with black lines running throughout, with her trademark black mma-style gloves and red wrestling shoes completing the outfit. She then slowly , takes her hat off to reveal that she’s painted her face white, with a golden phoenix dead center, eliciting another scoff and a roll of the eyes from Black.
After Merle finishes inspecting Kanako’s ring gear, not bothering to engage in any small talk, having noticed the look of determination on the Ronin’s painted face, he signals for the opening bell to start the match. A low buzz raises amongst the FAWN Faithful as the hated rivals meet in the center of the ring, facing off, with Kanako’s expression one of barely contained rage, while Taffy wears a mask of smug cockiness.
Taffy, a full three-quarters of a foot taller than Kanako, looks down at her foe condescendingly, crossing her arms across her large chest. Her lip then curling from a smirk to a snarl, she growls, “I can’t believe so many bitches back there are actually intimidated by your fun-sized ass!” she then palms Kanako’s face and shoves her away from her, drawing a gasp from the crowd at this blatant show of disrespect. Taffy wasn’t done, though, for as soon as Kanako predictably snapped back into place, Taffy was waiting for her with an outstretched hand, keeping her at arm’s length and out of reach of any sort of retaliation, “I mean, c’mon,” she continues as Kanako flails at her, “that fancy entrance? That stupid getup? The goofy geisha paint? Didja really think that was gonna impress me?”
“Honestly? No,” Kanako answers as she stops her swinging. Instead, she lashes out with one of her stems, stomping on Taffy’s foot, “But then again, you’re not the sharpest knife in the drawer, are you?” she adds as Taffy releases Kanako, letting out a surprised yelp of pain above the amused laughter of the audience. Freed from her foe’s grip, Kanako commences to wailing on the Mississippi native, swinging wildly with rights and lefts. Once she’s gathered her wits once more amidst the barrage of fists to whatever part of her person Kanako could reach, Taffy tries to get herself some breathing room by shoving Kanako away. That buys her only a few seconds, the time it takes for Kanako to rebound and resume her furious assault.
After another attempt to swat the pest away yields similar results, Taffy retreats to the safety of the ropes, “C’mon, ref! Quit gawking and do your damn job!” she barks at Merle, who does indeed begin to try and separate the two women.
“Alright, Kanako, back off!” Merle says as he tries to step in between them. Hearing his voice snaps Kanako out of her semi-fugue, and she willingly follows his instructions, throwing her hands up and stepping back a couple steps. Unfortunately, that proves to be too few steps back, as Taffy takes advantage of the break in the action by reaching around Merle and delivering a sledgehammer blow of a sucker punch that spins Kanako around a full one-eighty.
Ignoring Merle’s exasperated admonishment, Taffy’s smug smirk returns as she steps around the zebra, grabs Kanako around the waist, and hefts the lightweight up and over, tossing her towards the corner with a nasty-looking release German suplex. She then kips up and does a most muscular pose for the crowd, a cheesy smile on her face. Meanwhile, Kanako, physically rattled by the crash landing, is crawling to the ropes to pull herself up. “Ah ah ah!” Taffy chides as she grabs the back of Kanako’s one-piece, hoists her back up, and grabs her around her waist from the side. “At Black Airlines, you get two rides for the price of one!” she chirps before popping her hips and tossing Kanako again with ease, this time with a bone-rattling Saito suplex.
SAITO SUPLEX: youtu.be/g7frnk2_RD8
Upon impact, she rolls away from her prone victim, clambers to her feet, and showboats for the fans again, striking another bodybuilding pose before leaning on the ropes, hovering above Kanako and soaking up the fans’ raucous jeers, “So this is it, huh?” she gloats, planting a foot on Kanako’s back, which only riles the fans up even more, “This all ya got, you little runt?” She leans down and picks her victim up from around her neck, “And Kate was worried you were gonna be a problem!” she added with a scoff before shooting Kanako into the ropes. Upon releasing her target, Taffy goes down into a three-point stance and as soon as Kanako hits the opposite ropes, she springs into action, leveling her with a shoulderblock that looks more brutal than a shoulderblock should. Kanako hits the mat hard, and Taffy turns back towards the crowd, showboating some more by throwing her arms out wide, inviting the vitriol that’s been raining down on her practically from the start of this match. “Alright, up we go!” Taffy says as she picks Kanako off the mat again and pushes her into the ropes, “Boy, if this’s all ya got, you’re in for a long night, ‘cuz I can do this all night!”
“You know what, you dumb bitch?” Kanako asks rhetorically through gritted teeth as Taffy launches her across the ring once more. She ducks her tormentor’s clothesline attempt, then on the rebound, she staggers the larger brunette with a running dropkick, shouting, “I CAN TOO!!!” Seeing that her foe had been stunned but not dropped, Kanako scrambles to her feet and delivers another dropkick, to the cheers of the crowd. Again, Taffy is knocked back, this time up against the ropes, but not down. Kanako, figuring third time’s the charm, dashes across the ring, looking like her aim is to knock Taffy out of the ring, either with a clothesline or another running dropkick.Whatever her plan, it winds up being cut off when a gloved hand shoots out and catches Kanako around the throat. Kanako’s hands scrabble at Taffy’s wrists, trying to free herself as the brutish brunette drives her down to the mat by her throat, throttling her with both hands, her eyes wild with hatred.
“So I’m a stupid bitch, huh?” Taffy growls, “Let’s see how stupid I am when I send you back to the damn hospital again!” Taffy’s words seem to flip a switch inside Kanako, as she stops struggling, looking up at her attacker with a wild look of her own in her eyes. Taffy’s expression shifts from one of pure hatred to one of shock, as she finds a pair of gloved hands around her throat as well. From underneath, Kanako manages to roll onto her side, getting Taffy off of her and giving her better leverage to choke her hated foe. In the meantime, Merle has been trying unsuccessfully to pull Taffy off of Kanako, and now he was in the unenviable task of trying to pry both women from each other’s throats. Knowing that he was getting nowhere, he gives up and uses the only tool he has left.
“ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!”
Both women almost simultaneously snap out of it and release each other from the mutual chokehold at about 4.5, and they roll away from each other, coughing and trying to get their wind back. Despite the abuse she’s absorbed early on in this match, Kanako is the first to her feet, and she seizes on this opportunity by trying to take the larger brunette’s head off while she’s still on all fours with a perfectly aimed buzzsaw kick.
BUZZSAW KICK: youtu.be/j15oRXUIjYo?t=46
A grunt falls from Taffy’s mouth, followed by a groan as she slumps back down to the mat. Kanako grins with grim satisfaction before laying in a series of stomps to her foe’s back and shoulders. Then, in a somewhat uncharacteristic display of sadism on Kanako’s part, the Modern Day Ronin plants a foot on the side of Taffy’s head and begins grinding down on her.
“How’s that feel, Black?!” Kanako taunts her, shouting above Black’s pained groans, “How do you like this “little twerp” now, bitch?! Fun-sized, my ass!” She then punctuates her mini-tirade with a final stomp to the side of Taffy’s head. “Get your punk ass up!” Kanako barks at her as she drags her up by her hair and pushes her back into the nearest corner. After lighting Taffy’s prominent chest up with a pair of vicious knife-edge chops, the Tokyo Tiger plants her feet to Irish whip Taffy out of the corner, only to have it reversed on her, Taffy shooting Kanako across the ring with such force that she doesn’t have time to turn around, and so she hits the turnbuckles chest-first so hard that it rattles the ring itself, leaving fans to wonder how the ropes are still intact!
A split second after Kanako hits the corner, she’s hit the mat,flat-backed with almost as much force as she’d hit the turnbuckles with. She clutches her chest with both hands and rolls around on the mat in agony. A sadistic, satisfied smirk stretches across Black’s lips as she eyes her prey from across the ring. She then slowly, deliberately makes her way over to Kanako as the Modern Day Ronin is languidly crawling to the ropes to help her get back to her feet. That becomes less of an issue, as Taffy hauls her up to her feet against her will, with two tight handfuls of the Japanese girl’s hair, now a bit longer than it was when the FAWN faithful last saw her. “This is what ya wanted, you little runt!” she growls at her, “And I’m just getting started!” WIth that, she hefts the lightweight onto her shoulders. From there, she lifts Kanako high above her head. She then parades her around the ring like that before bringing her to a corner and unceremoniously dumping her onto the top turnbuckle with a gorilla press slam.
youtu.be/WqO_uFlnPx0
Kanako doesn’t even have time to yell out in pain before Taffy is on her again, hammering her over and over again with clubbing blows to Kanako’s back, ribs, and neck.
“THREE!!! FOUR!!!”
Taffy smirks when the sound of Merle’s voice counting her down breaks through, and she backs away at 4.5, only to immediately resume her attack as soon as the referee halted his count. Again, the Mississippi Mauler lives up to her nickname, smothering the smaller Japanese girl with hammering blows, adding a disrespectful clap to Kanako’s toned backside as she backs off again before the ref’s count gets to five. This time, however, she finds a red-hot Merle getting right in her face as she retreats.
“You do that again, Black, and I’ll disqualify you on the spot!!” A red-faced Merle screams in Taffy’s face, with such intensity that she actually backs up an additional step, hands raised in a placating gesture, “Now get it out of the damn corner!!”
“Alright, alright…” Taffy says dismissively, “Jesus, settle down, toothpick! You can look after yer little crush in the infirmary later.” she advances on Kanako, referencing the tension between Kanako and Merle early on in the Tokyo Tiger’s career, before adding with a smirk, “I’d think you gotta clear that with…y’know…her wife first, though!” She then grabs Kanako by the back of her one-piece, and unceremoniously dumps her off of the turnbuckle and sends her crashing down to the mat. She then drags Kanako by the hair, dog-walking the diminutive fighter, to the center of the ring. “Ya brought this on yourself, you little psycho!” she barks at her as she drags her to her feet, “Ya just couldn’t just stay down, could you?!” Kanako offers a retort by way of spitting in the larger woman’s face to a sustained “OOOOOOHHHH!!” from the crowd, her eyes conveying the rage and contempt for her foe. Wiping the spittle from her face, Taffy looked down at Kanako with disdain before scooping her up and setting her down roughly over her knee in a brutal backbreaker.
“Y’know, Akiyama…” she says to her captive audience as she groans in pain through gritted teeth, Black’s hands pushing down on her by her chin and her thigh to ratchet up the pain, “...this submission shit ain’t really my bag. Sure, it’s satisfyin’ to hear some weak cunt screaming in pain. But I prefer to just knock the bitch out, y’know? Sure you do. I’ve seen your matches. But you know what? In your case, I’ll make an exception!” She then uses her considerable muscle to push down even harder, which finally gets that cry of pain from Kanako that Taffy had been referring to. Grinning wide with satisfaction, Black continues her diatribe, “Making you hurt, making you suffer…that’s even better to me than just beating you! But still…” She takes her hand away from Kanako’s thigh and begins laying into her prey with heavy rights to her face and tummy, “...I gotta be true to myself, right?” After a solid minute of Taffy abusing Kanako, Taffy lets the Tokyo Tiger roll off her knee and hit the mat with a slight thud, seemingly growing bored with beating on her.
“I’m gonna be honest with ya, Akiyama,” she continues as she hauls Kanako up to her feet again and bullies the smaller girl into the nearest corner with a series of well-placed rights, “I’m a little disappointed here. I thought you were gonna give me more of a fight than this! Fun as it is to beat the shit out of ya, I thought even a runt like you’d give me a little bit of a fight!” She then braces Kanako, preparing an Irish whip for her captive audience, “Oh, well...If you’re not gonna fight back, I guess I better end this and go celebrate with Kate!” With that, she shoots Kanako across the ring into the opposite corner. She grunts as her back hits the turnbuckles, but she shakes the cobwebs loose just in time to see Taffy beginning to charge towards her like a rampaging bull. The larger brunette lashes out with her right leg as soon as she gets within striking distance, looking to take Kanako’s head off her shoulders with a running big boot.
…Only to come into contact with nothing but air, as Kanako deftly drops down and shifts away from the corner, leaving Taffy to awkwardly catch her leg over the top rope and yell out in a mix of surprise and pain. And this is the opening that Kanako has been waiting for. “Be careful what you wish for, bitch!” Kanako growls as she dashes towards the opposite ropes and fires off a shotgun dropkick to Taffy’s still outstretched stem on the return trip. The pained yelps and cursing from the brunette told Kanako that she had hit paydirt and she doubles down on her efforts to press her advantage. Grabbing Taffy’s right leg by the ankle and pulling it tight around the middle rope, then begins kicking at the knee like a woman possessed, eyes wild with rage-fueled focus, almost to the point of not hearing Merle’s five count. She finally snaps out of her fugue when she hears Merle start his count for a second time, and she reluctantly backs away.
“What the fuck was that?!” Taffy demands, grabbing the referee by the collar, “I go to town in the corner and you get in my face, screaming bloody murder! But your little sweetheart tries to break my leg and you just calmly count her down, and then instead of disqualifying the bitch, you TRY AGAIN??!! What kind of biased bullshit is that?!”
“First off,” Merle begins as he extracates himself from Taffy’s grasp, surprisingly standing his ground, “you better remember who you’re talking to! I’m the official here, and you WILL NOT THREATEN ME!!” Taffy’s jaw drops as she looks at Merle in amazement, wondering what’s gotten into him to find so much of a spine. “And second, well…never mind, it’s too late.”
“Too late? The fuck are you talking abOOOUUT?” Unseen by Taffy while she and Merle were having their little tete a tete, Kanako was not just standing idly by. After briefly contemplating her next move, she quietly slid out of the ring. Waiting for the perfect moment to strike, Kanako finally grabs Taffy’s legs and trips the Backwater Brawler up and drags her backwards, pulling her into the ringpost, crotch-first. She then grabs the brunette’s hurting stem and begins slamming it around the ringpost, over and over again. After a fifth time, Kanako finally slides back into the ring and drags her foe away from the ropes to make a cover.
ONE!
TWO!!
Taffy kicks out strong right at two. Kanako’s expression betrays neither disappointment nor disbelief at the kickout. Rather, she simply resumes her single-minded attack, rolling Taffy onto her stomach and grabbing her injured wheel and lifting it up in almost a single-leg Boston crab position. She then threads her left leg underneath Taffy’s, then up and over across her ankle, and then puts her right leg across her left ankle in a figure four position and locking in a wicked leglock submission hold.
youtu.be/ZJ0RNH2D8Io?t=524
“AAAAAAAHHHHH!!!” Taffy screams in agony amid a chorus of “OOOOOH!” from the crowd, impressed at the intricate hold, “Just you wait you little shit! When I get out of this, I’m gonna - AAARRRGH, FUCK!!!” Her threats are cut short by Kanako lifting herself up into a picture perfect bridge, pouring on the pressure exponentially.
“Sorry, what was that?” Kanako growls maliciously, “It sounded like you said something, but I couldn’t hear it over the sound of you crying like a little bitch!”
“Fuck you, Akiyama!!” Taffy spits back as she claws at her face to try and take her mind off the overwhelming pain shooting through her body, “Ahhhh, shit!! Y-you’re gonna break my leg, you spiteful bitch!!”
“You tried to cripple me!” Kanako retorted through gritted teeth, her eyes wild with hatred, “You could’ve killed me!! So, excuse fucking me if I don’t give a flying fuck about your goddamn leg!! Matter of fact…” she then redoubles her efforts, pushing the bridge even higher, ripping another agonized scream from her tormentor’s lips, “HAVE SOME MORE!!!”
“AAAAARRRGH!!!” Black’s howls of torment echo throughout the Arena ans the claws at the mat, trying to pull herself and Akiyama to the ropes, recognizing that the only way out of this torture was to force a rope break. It’s slow going, and Kanako gets tantalizingly close to getting the bully to tap, but instead she gives one final surge forward and just manages to hook two fingers on the bottom strand. Upon hearing Merle start his five count, Kanako untangles herself from Taffy. However, she doesn’t back off for a second, for as soon as Merle halts his count, she lunges at a still-struggling on her hands and knees Black, lighting her up with a series of vicious knee strikes to the bigger brunette’s ribs and hammering elbows to the back of her neck. Caught off-guard by the little pipsqueak’s relentless assault, Taffy does little to protect herself, only offering pained grunts and shouts before she finally clears the cobwebs and rolls under the ropes to the outside apron. “Get her back! Get her back!” Taffy barks at Merle as she tries to get to her feet on the ring apron, looking to use the rules to get herself some breathing room.
Recognizing Taffy’s position, Kanako dutifully gets to her feet and backs up a couple steps. The Mississippi Bully only buys herself a brief reprieve however, as no sooner than she’s gotten to her feet on the ring apron does Akiyama sprint to the opposite side of the ropes. On the rebound, she leaps into the air as she approaches Taffy, flipping in midair, she grabs her around her neck almost like a reverse cutter. Her momentum carries both of them down to the floor, delivering one of the newest moves in her repertoire - so new that she hasn’t even thought up a name for it - a running blockbuster to the outside!
youtu.be/izEPX13-P_A
Taffy groans as her back hits the floor, arching her back to try and alleviate some of the pain. Normally, the same could be said for Kanako, too, but the Modern Day Ronin is running on such an adrenaline rush that she lets out an involuntary grunt upon impact, and then immediately kips up to the roar of the crowd. Kanako lets out a battle cry of her own as well, and then marches over to Taffy. She grabs the guardrail for stability and begins stomping a mudhole into her tormentor. “Get up!” she growls at her, hauling her up to her feet roughly by her hair. She then proceeds to bounce Taffy’s skull off the ring apron, again and again, with the FAWNatics enthusiastically counting along with the thumps of skull to canvas. Finally stopping at six, the Tokyo Tiger pulls Black back from the apron and Irish whips her into the nearest ringpost.
Taffy again groans in pain and slumps down to the floor. Kanako gives her no room to breathe, as she runs at her bitter rival, nailing her with a brutal running knee that connects with the back of her skull and bounces her head from her knee into the ringpost again. Kanako then shoves Taffy down to the floor, mounts her, and begins teeing off on the Backwater Brawler with stiff punches. Her blows to the ringpost have busted her open with a gash dead center on her forehead. Kanako smirks with grim satisfaction as she continually punches Taffy in the mouth, causing a trickle of blood to start to flow from the corner of her lips.
“EIGHT!!!”
Merle has been very accommodating, as he doesn’t want to be the cause of an unsatisfying ending to this intense, heated match. But he’s still a referee, and he can’t just not count them out when they’re brawling outside of the ring. Kanako halts her assault to look up at Merle. Understanding the situation, she quickly rolls into the ring to break up the count, then immediately rolls back out, much to Merle’s consternation. Satisfied with her work thus far, Kanako pulls Taffy to her feet with two handfuls of her brown locks, and hurls her back into the ring. Hopping up onto the ring apron, Kanako then ascends to the top turnbuckle, with Black firmly in her crosshairs. She then takes to flight, leaping off the top and delivering a picture perfect Shooting Star Press. Immediately upon splashdown, she grabs and hooks Taffy’s far leg for a pin.
youtu.be/Khzttlri9HA
ONE!!
TWO!!!
THR-NOOO!!!
Taffy’s shoulder jerks off the mat at 2.8 to a disappointed groan from the crowd. Just as with her previous pin attempt, Kanako doesn’t waste any time displaying disappointment or arguing the count. Instead, she clambers to her feet and grabs Taffy to pull her back to her feet as well, delivering a sneaky knee to the temple as she does so for good measure. Grabbing a handful of the Mississippi Mauler’s shorts and throwing one of her arms behind her head, Kanako then bears down and hoists Taffy up in a vertical suplex position. In an impressive display of Kanako’s deceptive strength, the lightweight Japanese girl holds the heavyweight Black up for an extended period of time, letting the FAWN Faithful count as she holds her up. Once they reach ten, Kanako drops Taffy straight down, delivering a skull-rattling brainbuster.
youtu.be/5RHyINWnm48
ONE!!
TWO!!
THRE-NOOOO!!!
This time, Taffy just barely manages to kick out just before Merle’s hand slaps the mat for a third time. This time, Kanako’s face flashes a look of annoyance for a brief moment, looking up at Merle and holding up three fingers. While Merle shakes his head and holds up two, mouthing, “Almost,” Taffy rolls to the outside, leaning against the ring apron to try and get a breather. That breather would be short lived, though, because as soon as Kanako saw her prey starting to get up, she dashes across the ring, hitting the ropes and becoming a red and blue blur on the return trip, she begins to leap through the top and middle ropes, targeting a suicide dive straight at the brunette’s chest…
youtu.be/YAs4e1mhD9g
…only to be intercepted by a leaping knockout punch from her target, leaving Kanako draped over the middle rope, halfway inside the ring and halfway out. Seeing an opportunity, and finally recognizing that she didn’t have time to taunt or otherwise mouth off, she backs up until she was up against the guardrail. She then takes off into a spirited jog, zeroing in on the dazed Japanese girl. Once she was within striking distance, she launched herself, feet-first, at the Modern Day Ronin.
youtu.be/9oZ0trwkvJI?t=18
The brutal dropkick causes Kanako to slowly drop from the middle rope, to the ring apron, down to the floor. The confident smirk that Taffy had worn earlier has disappeared and is now replaced with a hateful snarl. “Get up!” she barks before helping her prey do just that, hauling her up to her feet, and then over her right shoulder, like a sack of potatoes. She carries Kanako around the ringside area, parading her around to the jeers of the fans. She finally stops in the general vicinity of the announcer’s table. Adjusting her grip, Black then hurls Kanako at the nearest ringpost as if she were a lawn dart!
youtu.be/gdu__J8jTnI
The Modern Day Ronin may have scored first blood (and even second blood), but Taffy had just about evened out the score on that count. As Kanako meets the ringpost headfirst and drops to the floor a gash over her right eye, to match the swelling under it, opens as is often the case when flesh meets steel at high speeds. She groans and struggles to get to her feet, but now it’s Taffy’s turn to be relentless. Finally, the lessons that her partner in crime, Kate Grimm, had been trying to impart to her about how dangerous their target really was began to sink in. Not just because of her blinding speed and deceptive strength, but also her resilience and relentlessness. She now understood that she had to keep her foot on the gas until Kanako Akiyama was finished. With that in mind, Taffy picks Kanako up and thrusts he head between her legs. She then flips the diminutive Japanese girl up over her head, holding her arms out in a crucifix position. Pivoting to face the announce table, Taffy launches Kanako into the air.
youtu.be/seZhGwlvzeM
As Kanako crashes through the table, the fans collectively cry out in anguish for their heroine. Much as many would hate to admit it, it was starting to look less like a match and more like a massacre. Unfortunately for them, and particularly Kanako, Taffy wasn’t finished yet. Knowing that the count was still ongoing, she was quick to break said count up so she could continue brutalizing Kanako. Having done that, she returns to her work, picking Kanako up from the wreckage again. She stuffs her head between her thighs once more and lifts her up around the waist so that Kanako is upside down in her grip. A wave of panic rises over the FAWNatics, as it is obvious to all just what the Mississippi Mauler has in mind. Sure enough, Taffy jumps into the air with her legs out in a sitting position, driving her foe back down headfirst into the rubble, delivering a spine-rattling piledriver!
youtu.be/R9lPT6B4L64
Taffy’s face is a mask of euphoria as she soaks in the jeers and cries of the fans, a combination of outrage at the big bully and concern for Kanako. She then looks out among her “adoring” public and with an evil, sadistic grin, she holds up a single finger, mouthing “One more time!” Wasting no more time, she gets up, dragging a barely conscious, bruised, and bleeding Kanako up with her. She then walks her over to the nearby ring steps, leading to numerous shouts of “NO!!” coming from a crowd. Taffy pays them no heed, as she delivers another devastating jumping piledriver on the steel stairs. Taffy, clearly very pleased with herself, waves her arms in front of her, making the “safe” pantomime, signaling to the onlookers that she felt that this match was all but over.
She lifts the limp body of Kanako Akiyama up in a fireman’s carry position and deposits her onto the ring apron and rolls her into the ring. Now, after she thinks she’s annihilated her foe, doe she allow herself to showboat once more, doing muscle poses for the fans before she climbs back into the ring herself. In a show of disrespectful nonchalance, she lays back onto Kanako’s torso and spreads her arms out across her body, making one of the laziest pinfall attempts in recent memory. She even nods her head along with the academic three count.
ONE!!
TWO!!
TH-NOOOO!!!
Taffy’s eyes go wide with shock and she sits bolt upright. “Impossible! That bitch was limp as a dish rag!” She looks up and finds a target, someone to blame for her missed opportunity. “YOU!!” she shouts, pointing at Merle as she scrambles to her feet. She immediately invades the referee’s personal space, poking him in the chest threateningly. “What the hell was that slow count, huh? You’ve been screwing me over from the opening bell, you little toothpick!”
“Back off, Black!” Merle shouts back, even daring to slap the bully’s hand away, “Touch me again, and not only will I disqualify you, but I’ll make sure that you’re fined and suspended. Again! And that wasn’t a slow count! You made a lazy pin, and before that, you spent a good minute posing out there like you were in a Ms. Olympia competition! That’s on you, not me.”
“Bullshit!” the fuming brunette spits out, “You’ve been trying to protect that pathetic little psycho from the start! You’ve been blatantly biased against me all along! What? You think that sticking up for Akiyama might give you another shot at her?” She ends the last part with a derisive laugh.
Now it’s Merle’s turn to fume, “I’ve done nothing of the sort!” he answers through gritted teeth, “You’re welcome to file a complaint if you want, but the evidence will show that I’ve been even-handed throughout this match, despite your attempts to intimidate me!”
“Whatever, nerd,” Taffy waves her hand dismissively, “Out of my way,” she continues as she starts to turn back around, “I’ve got a little mouse to put - “
CRACK!
While Taffy had been wasting time arguing with the referee, Kanako had the time to recover and get to her feet. So, by the time Taffy finally returned her attention to the task at hand, Kanako is already waiting for her, and as she turns towards her, she levels her with her devastating Bankai Kick!
youtu.be/_L3P1mFM1ek
The crowd erupts in cheers as Taffy’s eyes roll to the back of her head as Kanako’s heel connects solidly with her jaw and she drops like a falling tree in the woods.A wild-eyed Akiyama looks down at the object of her hatred, waiting to see her stir. In anticipation for this, she reflexively pulls her right glove tight, sending another roar of approval through the assembled masses, as they recognize this motion as Kanako’s signal that she’s about to uncork her Uraken spinning back fist, usually the precursor to the Modern Day Ronin bringing her match to its climax.
However, seeing little to no movement from her target, Kanako stops, scowling as she lowers her gloved fist. After another moment of consideration, Kanako purposefully steps to the corner, stepping on Taffy’s prone body as she does so. In one leap, she ascends to the top as a buzz of anticipation rolls over the FAWN Faithful. After a moment of steadying herself, the Tokyo Tiger rises on her perch and launches herself into the air, turning over in midair and driving both feet into Taffy’s midsection, delivering her graceful but brutal Run Her Through finishing maneuver.
youtu.be/znoumHUMspQ
If Kanako’s Bankai Kick put Taffy’s lights out, those same two feet woke her back up with extreme rudeness. Her eyes go wide and a guttural groan escapes her lips as Kanako lands on her stomach and hops off. Normally, this would lead to a cover from the Japanese warrior, but she stops. With a sadistic smirk eerily reminiscent of her rival’s, she holds up a finger, mimicking Taffy’s own actions mere minutes ago even mouthing “One more”. Again she ascends to the top rope as Black is writhing on the mat in agony. Again she takes flight. Again she stabs downward with her feet, Running Her Through a second time, immediately dropping down upon impact to pin Black, hooking the far leg for good measure.
ONE!
TWO!!
…THREE!!!
DINGDINGDING!!!
“Ladies and gentlemen! Time of the match sixteen minutes, forty-nine seconds…Your winner, via pinfall…KANAKOOOOO AKIYAAAAAMAAAAA!!!!”
The ringing of the bell and the ring announcer’s subsequent official announcement can barely be heard over the jubilant eruption of the crowd. Kanako lays back for a few moments to gather her strength, but is unwilling to give Taffy the satisfaction of showing her weariness. She then kips up and lets out a victorious cry as Merle raises her hand. The battered and bloodied Ronin goes to the corner and hops up to the second turn over, throwing up an arm in celebratory victory…
…Only to feel a pair of heavy forearms at her back.
A seemingly rejuvenated Taffy Black, none too pleased about being embarrassed by the lightweight, puts another forearm to the Tokyo Tiger’s back and turns around so that her back is to Kanako. Grabbing both of Kanako’s arms and holding her in a crucifix position, Taffy hurls the diminutive Japanese girl across the ring to a chorus of boos from the fans.
“HEY!!” Merle screams, getting in Taffy’s face, “What the hell is your problem?! The match is over, you lost! Get out of here!!” Taffy casts her eyes aside and lets out a slow huff. She then palms the referee’s face, finally fed up with his interference, and forcefully shoves him away, sending him tumbling out of the ring under the bottom rope. Taffy then closes in on Kanako and hauls her up to her feet, going nose to nose, her eyes wild with hatred.
“You think you’re better than me, you little twerp?!” she yells in her face, “You think you’re real cute, huh?”
“Bitch,” Kanako answers with a smirk, “I’m adorable!”
“We’ll see,” Taffy growls menacingly, “We’ll see how cute you are, you little shit!” She then takes down the straps of Kanako’s one-piece, exposing the Japanese daredevil’s 32C breasts, much to the delight of a…certain section of FAWN’s fanbase. While the humiliation of rendering Kanako topless is a nice bonus, in truth, Taffy’s aim is to expose her bare back. She ties Kanako up in the ropes, with her facing outside the ring. Then, she undoes her belt and begins to mercilessly whip her over and over again, each cry of pain widening the sadistic smile on the Mississippi Mauler’s lips.
After eight such lashes, security finally decides to rush down to the ring, with Kanako’s wife, Trixie Decker following close after, berating the “rent-a-cops” the whole way down.
TRIXIE DECKER:
Taffy gets in three more lashes before she’s tackled to the ground by one security officer, then swarmed by three others, struggling to drag the crazed woman away. Meanwhile, Trixie frees her wife from her bondage and helps put the straps of her one-piece back up.
“Here you go, Songbird.” She says soothingly as she helps Kanako out of the ring, “We need to get you looked at.” If Kanako hears Trixie, she makes no attempt to acknowledge her. Her steely gaze is fixed on Taffy Black as she is finally dragged out of sight, kicking and screaming. Both women exchange glances, silently communicating that they know that this war is far from over.