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It was the main event of the night.
Previously there had been two other matches. Ardata Carmia had just been made number one contender for Nihkee Moolah’s SNW World Championship a couple weeks ago. Karkat Vantas however, thought that Equius Zahhak deserved the number one contender spot more, so he challenged Ardata to a match.
It did not go well for him.
It wasn’t his fault; Ardata was just plain devious. Karkat tried to find his footing early on in the match with a strong set of clotheslines. Ardata slowly rose from the mat as Karkat set up for Homes Smell Ya Later, his discus clothesline.
But just as soon as she’d risen, Ardata slipped out of the ring in between the ropes.
Maybe Karkat got mad. He had to have known going into the match that Ardata liked playing mind games with her opponents before trapping them and beating them. But his anger got the better of him, and he charged the ropes.
Then, just as he exited the ring, Ardata jumped up and slipped back into the ring.
So, predictably, Karkat followed. He climbed up onto the ring apron, stepped one foot into the ring…
That’s when she caught him.
She grabbed his head as he was off balance in between the ropes and fell back toward the center of the ring, slamming Karkat’s neck against the ring ropes and knocking the air out of his throat.
She followed up, grabbing Karkat’s head again. This time instead of hotshotting his neck against the ropes she held it, choking the life out of Karkat.
Now this was against the rules. Any wrestler has five seconds as counted by the referee to let go of their opponent if contact is made with the ring ropes. So Ardata waited until the referee had counted to four before releasing Karkat, who fell back into the ring gasping for breath.
Not that he would be getting it anytime soon. Ardata went about stomping Karkat, waiting until he tried to rise from the mat and stomping on his hands or his feet. Eventually she let him get up. He clawed his way off the mat, and tried to rise to his full height so he could show Ardata he meant business.
Really, it was obvious how this was alway going to go.
Karkat went for a clothesline, but Ardata ducked it and grabbed his arm. She spun him around and slipped behind him, cranking her arm under his neck before falling back and slamming all of Karkat’s weight onto his neck with her finishing move, the Spinal Tap.
She let him flop to the mat and she pinned him. Equius came in short order to tend to his fallen companion, but he still kept his guard up against the number one contender.
She gave Equius a wicked grin before laughing and exiting the arena.
Next up was a quick one. Daraya Jonjet versus some nobody fuschia, Blight Sappel. Daraya had been itching for more fights lately, and more fights are what they were getting.
Both of them entered the ring and the bell had barely rang before Daraya had hit Blight with a Cherry Bomb, a running knee strike. They picked Blight off the mat before dropping them in short order with a snap piledriver.
They pinned Blight and left the ring, their music playing to a cheering crowd. Daraya was hungry, and their victory against the newcomer wasn’t going to be enough to sate their appetite. They didn’t even need to use their finisher, the gotch-style variant of the piledriver they called the Blackheart Piledriver. People in the crowd couldn’t wait to see who Daraya brutalized next.
Then, was the main event. It had been set up the week prior, and was the main selling point of the night. Zebruh Coddak was going to put his SNW Technical Championship on the line against Tagora Gorjek.
First to enter was the challenger.
Tagora came out wearing what looked to be a very expensive teal bathrobe. It looked as soft as Tagora looked smug. As the cameras looked at Tagora he motioned to his waist, drawing attention to where the SNW Technical Title would sit if he managed to win it off of Zebruh.
When he came to the ring he took off the robe. Under it was a stylized full singlet. His tights had teal and black vertical stripes, whereas the rest of his singlet on his torso was teal. His hair was styled to perfection, which seemed to goad members of the crowd into making fun of it. Whenever a fan insulted his hair Tagora would shout at them, inviting boos.
Next was the champion. He entered on a two-wheeled scooter from the crowd, with security guards having to keep fans back from attacking the prick on sight. He had an air of unearned confidence to him, like he was sure the crowd was cheering him despite all evidence to the contrary. He also had a full singlet on, with designs of indigo fire with black backgrounds on his tights and that same indigo on his singlet. The SNW Techincal Title of course hung from his hips, evidence of what a cruel joke the show was.
Zebruh had defended his title many times, because he was an opportunist. He was always ready to pounce when he saw weakness, having several victories made off of surprise roll-up pinfalls to unsuspecting opponents. He was a strong technical wrestler, but his personality as an utter asshole always managed to show through his proficiencies.
The two trolls stood opposite each other. Zebruh seemed to regard Tagora for the first time here, sizing him up as a threat to his championship reign. Tagora had a very flexible moveset, with several counters ready to shift the flow of the match in his favor.
In the moments before the match began, the two of them looked ready for battle. Both men were known for tricks, and it was anyone’s game.
The bell rings; the match begins.
The two square off with a technical showing. Zerbuh leads first with a headlock takeover, before Tagora reverses with a headscissor takeover in kind. Zebruh escapes and they break before they do the same sequence again, this time with Tagora initiating the headlock takeover and Zebruh reversing. After they break away they both stand up take a moment watching each other.
Then, Tagora offers a hand. He’s wanting to do a Greco-Roman knuckle lock, a move which would seem to favor him given his slight size advantage over Zebruh. Zebruh thinks it over, before reaching a hand out to accept the lock. Just as he does though, he wrenches Tagora’s hand to the mat and steps on it, pinning it to the ground.
Tagora reaches for his trapped hand with his free one, but Zebruh takes the opportunity and grabs his down-turned head and slams it back into the mat.
Tagora reels from the hit, and Zebruh raises his hand in victory to the crowd. Their hissing intensifies as he does so.
After that, Zebruh has control of the match for a bit. He would start with a hold, like a headlock or a chinlock, and hold Tagora for a while. Maybe showboating a bit as he did. Then, right as Tagora would maybe be getting out of the hold with a reversal, Zebruh would strike at Tagora with a punch or a kick, and Tagora would be down again.
This went on until Zebruh stood Tagora up and hit him with an open hand across the chest, a knife-edge chop. Tagora took the blow, but as Zebruh would wind up for another Tagora would answer back with one of his own. Zebruh took the hit, crying like a baby as he did, but would try again with another chop. Here Tagora answered him again, hitting him back with a harder chop.
At this point the crowd had figured out that Tagora was a bit better at striking than Zebruh was. They wondered if he could turn this advantage into a victory, and then they wouldn’t have to see Zebruh strutting out there every week.
Zebruh would not hit again with a chop. Instead, he would hit Tagora in the chin with a forearm strike. Then again. Then again, seeming to stop Tagora’s momentum.
Zebruh then grabbed Tagora’s hand and braced him against the ropes before bouncing him off of them and sending him running in the opposite direction, an irish whip. As Tagora returned from the ropes, Zerbuh tried to hit him with something, but Tagora came at him with a hard clothesline, knocking the champion down and reclaiming his momentum. Zebruh rose from the mat, and Tagora hit a second clothesline. Then a third. Then he circled Zebruh’s fallen form as the crowd cheered, hoping to see a title change.
He waited for Zebruh to get up, and as Zebruh did Tagora hoisted him up onto his shoulders in a fireman’s carry, likely looking for one of his signature moves, the Caegar Salad.
Alas, Zebruh was ready, he wriggled off of Tagora’s shoulders and slipped behind him. Zebruh then spun him around, grabbed Tagora’s chin with a cravate hold, and dropped his face down to the mat. Tagora’s face bounced off the canvas, having been hit by one of Zebruh’s signature moves: the Diamond Cutter.
Zebruh tried for a cover, but Tagora kicked out quickly at two. The match was back in Zebruh’s control now, and it was more holds like before. Now he was hitting bigger moves, instead of transitioning into punches or kicks he would pick Tagora up and slam him onto the mat.
Then he tried to set up for his finisher.
He knocked Tagora down in the middle of the ring with a jumping enzuigiri kick to the head, then turned to climb the turnbuckle in the corner. He stood on the top rope, raised his hands in anticipation of his sure victory, then leapt off the ropes with a High Spades Elbow Drop.
Then Tagora rolled out of the way at the last second and Zebruh ate shit on the mat.
Tagora got to his feet, but rested against one of the turnbuckle corners. Zebruh got up, then charged at Tagora. Instead of hitting Tagora with a move like he wanted, Tagora was ready. He caught Zerbuh on his shoulders again in a fireman’s carry, then dropped him on his head with a Caegar Salad.
He followed up with a cover, but Zebruh kicked out at two. Not wanting to throw away the opportunity, Tagora took control of the match. He brought Zebruh upright then battered him with elbows.
Eventually Zebruh ducked under one and tried kicking Tagora in the gut, but Tagora caught his leg. Zebruh pled with Tagora for a moment before Tagora hit Zebruh with a roundhouse kick to the head, taking him down to a knee.
Tagora kept up the pressure. He grabbed Zebruh and threw him into the corner, before stepping up onto the ropes and punching Zebruh in the head as the crowd chanted, counting his strikes. They counted to nine, then Tagora reeled back and dropped an elbow onto Zebruh’s head for a tenth strike.
Tagora could feel victory closing in. He raised his arm in the air as he waited for Zebruh to rise, before grabbing him in an Argentine Clutch, like the fireman’s carry before but with Zebruh’s back lying on Tagora’s shoulders instead of his front. Tagora was setting up for his finisher, Better Call Gor-Gor, and he was about to drop Zebruh on his face, but Zebruh grabbed Tagora’s face and raked at his eyes with his fingers.
Tagora howled in pain and dropped Zebruh, who wasted no time whirling Tagora around in what looked like a gutwrench suplex. Before he slammed Tagora on the mat however, he whipped him up onto his shoulders in a powerslam position.
He then dropped Tagora’s head onto the mat. This of course was his other signature move, the Drill Club.
Instead of covering, Zebruh got up and climbed the ropes again. He raised his arms once more, and hit a picture-perfect High Spades Elbow Drop, soaring through the air and crushing Tagora’s chest with his elbow.
This time he went for a cover.
One.
Two.
Kick out! Moments before the referee’s hand hit the mat for a third time, Tagora summoned one final burst of energy and got his shoulder up.
Zebruh couldn’t believe it. He started arguing with the referee, saying that it was three and he should have won. The referee called him a piece of shit, and he turned back to the match.
He started to pick Tagora up, and he motioned to the crowd with a thumbs-down, indicating he was looking for his Flush-Crusher finishing move. This was a belly-to-back piledriver where he intended to drop Tagora’s head onto the mat once again, with his arms and legs trapped so there would be no escape.
He stood Tagora up fully and dropped his head under Tagora’s legs, then rose to lift Tagora into the air. Normally, he would trap Tagora’s legs and hit his move, but Tagora over-rotated and flipped out of the move, jumping out of Zebruh’s grip and landing on his feet.
Both standing back to back now, Zebruh whipped around to meet his foe. But Tagora was quicker, moving to hit a thrust kick to Zebruh’s face, sending him to the opposite end of the ring. Then he fell back onto the ropes himself, to catch his breath after getting hit with that High Spades Zebruh had used on him.
They both took a breath, then Zebruh charged. Looking for a clothesline, he got a whole fist-full of nothing as Tagora picked him up by the torso and slammed him down to the mat with authority, hitting the spinebuster he called the Ambulance Chaser, another signature.
Instead of covering he picked up Zebruh as quickly as he could. He had a chance to win here, and he intended to take it. He picked up Zebruh in another Argentine Clutch, this time with no interruptions from clawing hands. He spun for a moment, before flipping Zebruh over and slamming him face-first into the mat with his finisher, Better Call Gor-Gor.
The crowd went wild. Finally, a new Technical Champion. Tagora grabbed Zebruh’s arm and flipped him onto his back before falling onto him for the pinfall.
One.
Two.
Suddenly, Zebruh grabbed Tagora’s arms with his hands and legs in a crucifix hold. He turned him over and reversed the pinfall at the very last moment, shocking both the crowd and Tagora.
One.
Two.
Three.
And just like that, it was over. The bell rang, and Zebruh launched out of the ring with the last of his energy to grab his belt. Tagora looked dumbfounded in the ring, he had practically won the match only to lose focus at the last second and pay for it.
The winner was Zebruh Coddak, via crucifix pin.