[Drako Damone] vs Hiro Shin-Mozas

[HiroShinMozas]

Hiro was figuring that a whip of some kind was probably coming, so at least he still had the ability to predict things even when going through the non-stop stinging pressure he was feeling across his chest. Drako sends Hiro across the ring to the ropes, and naturally the Ethnic Enigma would rebound, but the back body drop wouldn't be exactly the outcome Drako was looking for. Hiro shifted his hips and bent his legs slightly as he ran into Drako, and used his own momentum combined with Drako's attempt to flip over the champion and land feet first behind him -- with the counter successful, Hiro would quickly shift part of his standing body and try to grab a hold of Drako's neck and rip him down to the ground with a neckbreaker!

The fans were almost in disbelief at the fact that Hiro was nimble enough in the moment to actually do a flip in such a way. It wasn't something he often did earlier in his career, but it looked like in the years of down time since his retirement paired up with the lost weight he had some better control of his core and a different kind of center of gravity -- it certainly looked impressive, but just how many more times could he do something like that?  

[Drako Damone]

Drako had things well in hand. Things were going smoothly. Hiro went up and over as planned.....except the part where the champion crashes backwards to the mat courtesy of a neckbreaker. A simple yet effective maneuver that leaves the champion clutching his head on the mat  

[HiroShinMozas]

Hiro's counter did what it had to -- he managed to bring down the champ and left both men, if just for a moment, downed in the ring. Hiro was given his few moments to let his chest heal, but figured before the ref would start getting antsy and counting both men as down, he should get moving. Hiro dragged himself over to the ropes pretty quickly and used them to get back to his feet -- wanting to keep the offense rolling, he made his way towards Drako and tried to take him by the arm, lifting him back to his feet but attempting to hook his arm as he did so, attempting to a crossface chicken wing out of NO WHERE! This wasn't in Hiro's moveset normally, what the hell was he trying to pull here? Was this something else he picked up on during his down time? The Ethnic Enigma wasn't trying to lock this move in to defeat Drako, he knew better than that -- he merely wanted to wear the champion down a little bit so he could keep dictating the pace for a little while longer!  

[Drako Damone]

clearly Hiro had remembered a few things, like wearing down a champion when he gets the chance. As such, Drako finds himself locked in a crossface chickenwing, a submission hold. The Harbinger has no intention on tapping out here, though escaping the hold at the moment is another matter  

[HiroShinMozas]

The submission maneuver brought the fans to their feet, cheering wildly as Hiro pulled out a classic from back in the day and made it look pretty damn good. He held Drako's face in one hand and his arm back with the other, torqueing away at the hold until suddenly, he lost his grasp on Drako's face! He couldn't keep the hold locked in forever, this was a move he only just started working on recently so he was by no means a master. As his grip loosened he tried to shove Drako forward and run behind him with an attempted clubbing lariat to the back of the World Champion. Though...could things truly go that easily? We'll find out.  

[Drako Damone]

Drako is released from the hold far sooner than he expected. Moments later, a lariat knocks the champion face first to the mat. That's mildly annoying, as the champion pulls himself towards the ropes and rolls to the outside  

[HiroShinMozas]

As it turned out, things in fact wouldn't be that easy just from the move connecting. Hiro had gotten in his fair-share of offense now, but Drako created the much needed separation and rolled from the ring. Hiro was left in a unique situation: he could either give chase and continue taking the fight to Drako...or remain in the ring and wait for him to get back, providing ample time to recover from earlier. He chose the latter, but not without responding to a raucous crowd that was again firmly behind him. "I still got it, eh?!" Hiro would shout out to a crowd that responded with something of an ovation as many got up to clap, hoot, and holler. Hiro leaned on the ropes adjacent from where Drako rolled out and merely shrugged in the direction of the World Champ, as if to signal that he had in fact arrived once more as a threat in the squared circle.  

[Drako Damone]

Drako is on his feet on the outside, moving his neck to make sure he has full range of motion. The champion brushes his hair out of his face again and takes a few more moments on the outside. He has a ten count to take advantage of after all and why not take a moment and let Hiro think about what happens next  

[HiroShinMozas]

Hiro wasn't trying to hurry back into the fight, but he definitely wasn't trying to let momentum fully get away -- so he kept playing the crowd, trying to continue to rally them behind him. Many fans would aim aggressive comments at Drako, some calling him a coward, others telling him not to 'be such a b***h'...wow, they really weren't appreciative of this heel turn, man. The majority of fans felt so betrayed by Drako's recent actions, it didn't take long for an arena of cheers for Hiro to turn into one of boos for Drako. Hiro would motion towards the champ to come join him, slapping his chest a few times to reignite that stinging sensation from the prior chops -- it would serve as great fuel for when Drako joined him again and the fight was back on.  

[Drako Damone]

Drako walks up the stairs and steps into the ring calmly. If there's one thing the champion is not, it's easily rattled. Now the count is broken and the champ is on the ring. Let's see if Hiro still has all that fire now  

[HiroShinMozas]

Hiro had decided the break had gone long enough, and lucky for him, Drako seemed to finally believe the same as he made his way to ring apron from the stairs. Hiro approached him, hoping to help expedite the process and yank him into the ring, but the ref got between the two and tried to back Hiro off as it was Drako's right to re-enter the ring through the ropes uninhibited. Hiro was within arm's length of Drako with the ref in-between them, which could result in two things -- Drako really leaning into his heel side with a classic eye poke to Hiro over the shoulder of the ref...or completely subverted expectations where Drako potentially does nothing at all! Which would he choose? Could there be a third option? Only the World Heavyweight Champion knew!  

[Drako Damone]

Drako merely smirks at Hiro again.

"Yeah, get him back ref."

The champion isn't going to do what's expected of him in this moment. Nah, he's going to come center of the ring, and do the honorable thing. He's going to offer a lock up to Hiro  

[HiroShinMozas]

Hiro was finally forced back by the ref as Drako's words were heeded -- the Ethnic Enigma backed off and complied with the rules, something he would always do if required. He was just such a good guy and upstanding gentlemen, he enjoyed a cold Arnold Palmer from time to time, usually room temperature honestly, but cold was alright too. It was the drink of gentlemen, after all.

Drako entered the ring once more, heading to the center and offering an odd lock up. Every brain cell that Hiro still had told him not to accept it, there was no way this would go in his favor given the way his momentum was just stopped -- but his muscle had already begun moving and excepted the lock up, leaving both men once more jockeying for position.  

[Drako Damone]

Well Hiro accepted the lock up. Interesting. Why he would do so is beyond anyone's thought process, but here they are, locked up again. What could go wrong?

The champ can answer that, as now he'd look to give him a nice old fashioned eye rake, but not to worry, he'd follow up with some wrestling in the form of a side headlock takedown, aiming to holding him on the mat in said side headlock  

[HiroShinMozas]

Drako quickly took over in the lock up, but it was due to a quick eye rack which caused Hiro to yank away from him. It didn't matter though, as Drako was fine with that -- it made it a t little easier to grab him into a headlock and bring him down to the mat back first. Hiro's back would soon pulsate from the shoulder plate, a dull aching pain popping off as his body tried to adjust to the harsh takedown. The ref would get down on a knee, checking on Hiro and asking him if he wanted to continue. Naturally Hiro wasn't going to quit from this, but if he wasn't careful...

1....

2....

Hiro pushed his shoulder up off the mat and remained in the headlock, remembering that he could just as easily be pinned in this situation if he stopped moving for long. He began kicking his legs on the ground, trying to pull himself and Drako with each step, wanting to either slide his head out of Drako's grip or at least get closer to the ropes in an attempt to make the pressure around his head and neck stop.