I'm not a 1G guy, but those aren't front axles...

As stated many times above, your only option is to knock the *nub out from the driver side. There is no way you're going to overpower that c-clip with any other method. Judging by your pictures of the damage, it was a very clean cut.

Just suck it up and do the job correctly. Most of the time, while we look for short cuts we double the length of the job all because we don't want to remove a couple more bolts.

sh!t simple job, you've got this.

Pro tip: Properly drain and dispose of the used tranny fluid. Fewer things worse then tranny fluid soaking into your garage floor, nm the smell.....
Use the drain plug for a controlled flow. It'll go all over the place if you use the "auto drain" feature on these cars.