October 1, 2023,
A match between two wrestlers who know one another well can be fairly predictable in terms of the outcome.
Here, in this historic San Francisco matchup, Ariel and Bella Rossi know one another very well.
They have competed at the San Francisco armory, Academy in San Jose and with a private company FCI met in the Oakland, San Francisco Bay Area region.
What is predictable is that the champion Ariel is going to win. By how much?
Not sure.
The pertinent question here is, how badly will she dominate Bella Rossi?
Fortunately, the company they are competing with produces fully competitive matches otherwise between two Fem Competitors, who know one another well, the match could turn into a talk fest and sparring session.
As far as Bella goes, we have worked with her and much of her success seems to depend upon her weight. Bella’s weight can really fluctuate. When she wrestles at a light weight, despite her very good skill level, she tends to lose. The day we worked with her, she even lost to a newer wrestler she had defeated before.
If she wrestles at her heaviest weight, she tends to have very solid outcomes.
Today, she is in between. She is at a solid weight. Very good.
It’s time to go ringside.
ARIEL VS BELLA ROSSI
grapplingstars.com, femcompetitor.com fciwomenswrestling.com Female Wrestling Zone photo credit, screen shot, Editorial use, Fair use
The two legends begin on their knees.
They start with hand fighting and upper head and neck area struggle. Ariel gets the best of it as Bella gives up her back. Other wrestlers may allow you to get away with that, but not Ariel. Bella is countering by posting her legs in between Ariel’s to prevent a full scissor or mount and she is fighting off Ariel at the wrist. The question is, how long can she stay on the defensive and fend Ariel off?
Not for long.
Ariel breaks the wrist stalemate and squeezes Bella hard in a fierce headlock.
Bella taps out.
1-0 for Ariel (1:24).
Time to start again.
They engage in slow hand fighting, Ariel goes for a left arm headlock, misses and surprisingly gives up her back to Bella. This presents a unique opportunity for Bella. The shapely brunette is experienced enough, what will she do with it?
She is riding Ariel’s back.
Ariel engages her in a wrist struggle. That is to her advantage. The champion uses that to tie up Bella’s arms and wrists, so she cannot use them for the top. Ariel maneuvers Bella off of her back.
As Bella falls, she is quick to still be on top but attacks Ariel from the side.
The San Francisco star is wise enough to keep moderate control of Ariel’s head area but she is making the mistake of trying to mount her. Bella is persistent into trying to perform a frontal on Ariel and the champion is using her strong legs to prevent it. Bella should use all of her energy to secure a headlock choke on Ariel.
She unwisely does not.
Ariel manages to push Bella backwards and capture the shapely feminine long haired brunette with her legs, pulling her off and Bella’s great advantage is lost.
They struggle for a bit and Ariel seizes Bella in a floor to sitting body scissor, more for control than to extract a submission. She does indeed begin to control Bella and now Ariel is on top. For pressure, Ariel firmly places her left knee on Bella’s stomach, straps in a forceful headlock of her own and Bella taps out.
2-0 for Ariel (4:12).
The question we have at this point is, not if Bella is going to lose. The question, without humor is, will she be skilled enough to gain one submission? Some girls will ease up and give you one submission after it is clear they have run away with the match. Ariel will make you earn it. Recently we reviewed a match between Ariel and Suzie of Hungary where Ariel ran away with it and refused to give Suzie one submission. That just might happen here.
Time to see.
Ariel reaches with a right arm headlock attempt, misses and once again Bella is on top of her. That doesn’t last long but Bella does capture a floor to sitting body scissor. We see the veins protruding in Ariel’s forehead in anguish, but we sense Bella will need a combination hold to submit Ariel.
Bella is persistent. Give her that. Too, from all of that wrestling at the Armory, which had their own format, still, she gained some skillsets.
The Armory star now traps Ariel behind the back and does what she should have done the first time. Apply a combination hold. She has Ariel trapped in a behind the back body scissor and an upper rear naked choke that she is cranking on.
Will Ariel tap out?
In this situation, a star wrestler makes a decision which lock she is going to pick. She can try and break the ankles apart or try and pull the arms apart. Which one will Ariel choose?
She chooses the upper hold and skillfully breaks it.
Bella tries to hold on to the floor to sitting body scissor but Ariel breaks that as well.
Now the industry leader is taking control.
She snaps Bella into a right arm side headlock as we now see the veins protruding out of Bella’s forehead. Ariel continues to apply the pressure. Bella makes another mistake and does not scissor one of Ariel’s legs. As a result, Ariel is free to flatten Bella out and apply a full mount. She then applies more pressure on that upper headlock choke and Bella taps out.
Ariel leads 3-0 (8:40).
A pattern emerges.
Bella gets off to a good start, captures Ariel from behind but can’t close the deal.
She does it again.
Bella has Ariel captured from behind, applies a behind the back body scissor but once again, Ariel appears to be controlling the wrist area. Bella taps and says, “I see my mistake”.
4-0 for Ariel (9:48).
The match now takes a U-Turn.
An exit off of the main highway. Going down the back roads to nowhere.
The challenge we have when two female wrestlers know one another too well is that they might go easy on one another.
Bella and Ariel know each other very well.
It is as though someone unexpectedly opens a window and all of the air of intensity swishes right out the room. This now turns into a company fight in a private setting as opposed to say, if Ariel faced Bella at one of the great Femwrestle events in Germany in front of a large audience of strangers. Or, like she thrashed Suzie of Hungary 11-0, in London, in front of a large audience.
We know it is hard to see it from the chair we are sitting in, but it is impossible to do a real match review when the women seem to be sparring with one another. Could we be wrong?
We do this all of the time.
Over a thousand times.
So, in the next 6 minutes, there are Monkey flips and all kinds of back and forth struggle, lacking in purpose, void of intensity, until Ariel puts Bella away with a left side body scissor.
5-0 for Ariel (15:18).
They grapple for about a minute more and the match ends.
All said and done, it is always great to go down memory lane and see legendary San Francisco stars like Bella Rossi and Ariel.
And meet them in person.
~ ~ ~
OPENING PHOTO grapplingstars.com, femcompetitor.com fciwomenswrestling.com -Pixabay.com-photo
