Fiona started the match focused and patient, trying to put the strategy she and Kendra came up with into action. Her quickness was her biggest advantage over Tanya, and in this early stage before any weapons or furniture got involved, it was her best way to gain an advantage. She avoided a few of Tanya's lunges, almost committing to a counter-attack, but she was wary of picking the wrong moment to strike. Tanya wasn't masking her emotions, and Fiona could tell her defensive approach was frustrating her. Maybe she'd been expecting the same fearless, and ill-advised, approach Fiona took to fighting her before.

Getting as close to a corner as she dared, Fiona was able to bait Tanya into another lunge, thinking she had the younger wrestler trapped. Fiona sidestepped, landing a hard kick to the back of Tanya's leg and bringing her down to a knee. Fiona threw her own knee forward, slamming it into the side of Tanya's head and bowling her over onto her back.

"A strong opening hit in the match by Fiona!" Dan Rich commented. "She waited for her moment, and then pounced on it."

"Yeah, Dan," Rhonda agreed excitedly, "that was great patience from Fiona, seems like she's keeping a cool head despite everything that's on the line here tonight."

Fiona moved to press her advantage, stomping on the left leg, trying to repeatedly target near the knee. She stayed one stomp too long, giving Tanya time to rise enough to shove her back hard and create space. Fiona stumbled back into a corner, eyes wide as Tanya surged up and charged at her, looking to squish her into the turnbuckles.

She reacted quickly, grabbing the ropes and lifting both legs up, bending and twisting to slip through the ropes out onto the apron while Tanya whiffed on her charge into the corner. Fiona kept her hold on the top rope, nailing a high kick that [i]cracked[/i] against the other side of Tanya's head, sending her stumbling out a few steps towards the ring's center. Feeling like she had a chance to go big early, Fiona vaulted up onto the top rope and springboarded into the air, soaring into a heavy dropkick that Tanya turned around just in time to get flattened by. Both wrestlers crashed to the mat on their backs, but Fiona quickly performed a kip-up to her feet, getting raucous cheers of approval from her fans.

"I think Tanya's been caught off guard here a little," Brent called out, before shaking his head, "and who can blame her? That was about as flawless an opening as Fiona could've hoped for."

Indeed, Fiona was feeling good about her start, but if there was one quality that defined Tanya Redd, it was toughness. She went right back to work, grabbing Tanya's left foot before driving her knee down into her opponent's leg. Staying on her knees, she lifted up the foot, bending Tanya's leg at a painful angle and continuing to work on sabotaging her base of power. The more damage she could inflict, the bigger her speed and quickness advantage would get, as long as Fiona could keep Tanya from exhausting her stamina.

She stayed out of Tanya's reach, leaning back on her knees away from her opponent's outstretched hands. It was difficult for Tanya to sit up at all with the angle her leg was held at.

"What a controlling start from Fiona," said Rhonda, clearly impressed. "Confident and decisive. I love it!"

"She had a plan, clearly, and she's executing it well so far," Brent admitted. "But we're in extreme rules here. Let's see if she can adapt when Tanya finds a way to throw a wrench in the plan."

Feeling like she'd used up her welcome on the wear-down hold, Fiona slammed Tanya's leg down and rolled away, back to her feet, while her opponent seethed and tried to push through the pain to get up. Backing off again, Fiona resumed her defensive strategy, looking to dodge more strikes or grab attempts so she could keep kicking at that left leg, and build her offense from there.