HWA FLASHBACK 1965: Lola Falana vs Ann-MargretJoey Heatherton had warned her, "Detroit is rough!"
Ann hadn't fully appreciated what that meant until her match began. The sound within Detroit's Cobo Hall was deafening, as 12,000 fans roared their throats raw. But the redhead...one of the biggest stars in the HWA, indisputably...was used to being cheered by everyone. Yet here, tonight, at least half of the crowd...and maybe even a bit more than that...were cheering for her opponent. What was confounding was that Lola is an unabashed heel.
But Detroit was a territory that loves its bad girls, and Falana had been the dominant bad girl here for months. Ann, making her Detroit debut, was the intruder here. The fans were backing their girl tonight, even if next week they'll be right back to jeering her as she takes on another local wrestler.
As a result, the redhead's nerves were a bit rattled, and she reasoned that's why she was having such trouble putting her opponent away. She wasn't quite ready to admit the possibility that Falana was just too damned good to be beaten quite so easily. However, whatever the reason, Lola was more than adept enough to take advantage of it. For instance, Ann had attempted to Irish Whip her opponent into the corner, but Falana had managed to reverse it, so that it was the Swede's spine that took the impact into the thinly-padded turnbuckles. Lola followed up within moments with a charging kneelift into her adversary's abs.
Falana then pulled the redhead from the corner and pressed her face to the top rope, dragging it along the steel cable as Ann shrieked. The referee ordered an immediate break and Falana complied...but only so that she could snare her opponent in a side headlock. Ann grunted as her opponent tightened her grasp...and adding to her victim's torment by grinding a knuckle into the yowling redhead's eye (out of the view of the ref, of course).
Concluding from the redhead's squawks of protest that something illegal was occurring, the official order Lola to release her, and after a few extra heartbeats, she did so. Now fully confident that control of the match was in her hands, Falana didn't immediately press her advantage with a new hold. Unfortunately for her, that gave Ann the precious seconds she needed to strike back.
Lola's eyes widened with surprise as her seemingly hapless opponent suddenly roared to life, and those eyes then squinted hard from the pain as the redhead landed a cracking chop across Falana's chest. She followed it up with another chop, and then another, and then turned away from her rival; the fans didn't have to be told what was coming next; the trio of chops were the set-up for the redhead's Running Lariat. Ann began to dash toward the ropes, intending to rebound off of them for added momentum as she rushed back to deliver her blow.
But she only got two steps before she suddenly felt a pair of hands grasping her long fiery mane. Her momentum instantly halted, Ann felt her feet fly out from under her, and she crashed to the canvas on her back, a burst of air expelled from her lungs by the heavy landing.
This time, Lola wasn't wasting so much as an instant. She dropped to the mat, drilling her elbow into her adversary's forehead, further stunning the redhead. Falana then scrambled atop Ann for the pin; the referee slapped the canvas for ONE...TWO...but then with a snarl Ann managed to kick out.
On her knees, Lola now took a few moments to rub her hand across her still-aching chest, courtesy of Ann's stinging chops. She then pushed herself up to her feet, bent down to grab her opponent by her fiery mane, and began pulling Ann up as well. But the redhead suddenly sprung back to life, delivering an uppercut to Falana's chin that snapped her head back sharply, and left her stumbling backward.
Shaking her head to clear the fog in her skull, Ann moved with surprising swiftness, throwing Lola to the mat with a hip toss. Falana sat up, moaning from the pain to her back, as the redhead sat on the canvas behind her, and then snaked her legs around the startled brunette's waist. Ann's stems were widely considered perhaps the most powerful in the HWA, and no one who ever found themselves caught between them ever wanted a return visit. Locking her ankles, Ann poured on the pressure as Lola yowled in anguish.
Now, grabbing her rival's hair, Ann grunted as she displayed tremendous raw power, actually lifting Lola up off of the mat, only to deposit her back there a moment later with a Keister Bump. The impact sent a jolt of pain from Falana's tailbone up through her spine, paralyzing her. Ann repeated the bump a second time, and then a third.
Knowing she couldn't endure this punishment much longer, Lola grasped at the insides of her tormentor's legs, trying to pry them apart. Ann gave a half-smile; she had seen this countless times, when her victims tried...and failed...to break her scissors. She knew it was only a matter of time now before Falana submitted in agony.
But the redhead's smirk swiftly melted away into a look of shock, as Lola steadily achieved the seeming impossible, prying the powerful limbs of her tormentor apart! Finally, the hold broken, Falana continued pushing Ann's legs apart, spreading them as now her opponent howled in anguish, her thighs stretched to their limits. Fearful of having a muscle torn, Ann began to furiously slam her right arm down across the back of her rival, until finally Lola released her and rolled away to escape the hammering blows.
Both beauties were hurt and exhausted, and neither rushed to regain their feet, instead taking as much time as they could to recover and catch their second wind. Finally, with the referee threatening to declare a double count-out unless they resumed the match, the pair struggled back up. They cautiously approached one another, and then went into a lock-up, each trying to muscle the other backward, the rippling muscles of their lush bodies glistening as sweat soaked them. However, they remained locked in stalemate, with neither able to push the other back for more than a step or two before the lost ground was regained.
But then came a sudden shift of tactics, as Lola tilted her head back, and then threw it forward, slamming a headbutt to Ann's forehead that turned her emerald eyes glassy. That allowed Falana to push her opponent back into the corner; there, she returned the 'favor' of the chops she had received by laying a flurry of stinging chop's to the redhead's chest, and leaving Ann gasping for breath.
Lola finally halted her assault and allowed herself a smile of satisfaction...but that smile turned into a pained grimace as, with a roar, Ann swung her arms up and slammed her palms into her adversary's ears. The raven-haired beauty let out an agonized shriek and stumbled backward, which allowed Ann to throw a punt of her boot into Lola's belly, doubling her over.
Pushing herself out of the corner, Ann threw a quick uppercut to Lola's jaw, snapping her upright. She then took her opponent by the arm and Irish Whipped her to the ropes.
It's impossible to say just how and why Lola's battle instincts pierced through the dazed fog in her brain at that exact moment, but some inner voice commanded her to wrap her arm around the top rope as she hit it, holding her in place and preventing her from ricocheting back toward her opponent. And unfortunately for her opponent, who was in the midst of executing a standing dropkick on the target she expected to be there, Ann's boots hit only empty air, and she crashed hard to the canvas, laying there in a groaning heap.
Calling upon whatever last dregs of strength she had left, Falana limped over to the redhead and hair hauled her back up to her feet. She then scooped her rival up in her arms, holding her aloft. But rather than administer a bodyslam, Lola slowly rotated, showing off her hapless adversary to all fours sides of the arena. The fans were howling and baying for the finish now...even those who had been cheering Ann were calling for her devastation.
The subsequent slam shook the ring...but Lola did not go for the pin. No, she was going to win this in a more spectacular fashion. Climbing back up to her feet, she went to a corner and began to scale up the turnbuckles, until she was unsteadily balancing herself atop the ropes. Falana then leapt into the air, her body a glorious missile of destruction, and she landed upon the prone redhead with the impact of an A Bomb!
There was no doubt that Ann was finished, but Lola wasn't about to let this interloper come into HER house without paying a cost. So Falana got up to her knees and then sat on the redhead's chest, pinning her arms to the mat for a Schoolgirl Pin.
"Make it to ten!" she rasped to the referee, prolonging Ann's humiliation as the crowd gave a deafening roar of approval.
"Come to my town again, bitch," Lola hissed to her dazed and helpless opponent, "and next time they'll be taking you out on a stretcher!"
Ann didn't reply, she merely blinked back the tears in her eyes. But silently she swore that next time, this bitch was going to
pay!
