Behind Closed Doors: 7

STRIFE Nation, you are in The Foundry. We are on the air. Welcome to Behind Closed Doors Seven.

For the first time in this federation's young life, the words "the ramp to NO ESCAPE" can be spoken on the broadcast record — and I am speaking them. Tonight is the first show on that ramp. Tonight is where the road to our first pay-per-view begins, and tonight is where the contender for one of this federation's championships is going to be decided in the cage at the end of this very night.

Static. Nkosi Dlamini. The first New Wave Championship Contender Match in STRIFE history. The winner walks out of this building with a guaranteed match against Desmond Pryce at NO ESCAPE. The loser walks out with the cost of having lost it. Reginald — I do not believe I have ever been more excited to introduce a main event.

Ms. Quinn. You have been more excited to introduce many things. It is one of the lovely qualities of your profession.

But I will grant you that the magnitude is real. Two competitors at meaningfully different stages of their careers — Mr. Braddock at thirty-eight, Mr. Dlamini at twenty-four — and the federation has placed the right to challenge a sitting champion on the result. The hierarchy will, by the end of tonight, have moved. The audience should attend to it.

It is going to move all evening, Reggie. We are not waiting for the main event to start the moving.

Behind me — I trust the cameras are on him — Hideo Kuramoto sat at the broadcast desk one week ago and asked a question of one of his fellow competitors, on the federation's record, in the federation's own voice. The man he asked is, as the federation's site has been showing for forty-eight hours now, prepared to reply. Wone has been silent for the better part of two months. Wone is, in our very next segment, no longer going to be silent.

He may be no longer silent, Ms. Quinn. Whether he is going to be substantive is a separate matter entirely. The man's published framework is fifteen pages of conditional language and refusal-as-data. I would not lean forward in your seat just yet.

Reggie — speak for yourself. I am already leaning forward. I have been leaning forward since the announcement.

Beyond Wone — STRIFE Nation, what a card we have for you. The office is going to be in this cage tonight. Mr. Barr is going to deliver on a promise he made on broadcast two weeks ago, and the entire federation is going to learn the name of the first opponent the office has selected for "Simply" Shawn Cortez. We have been reading Mr. Cortez on the federation site for weeks. We are about to find out who answers him.

A second man who has been doing rather a lot of writing about the federation's processes lately. The office is, in my view, finally going to give him the courtesy of an answer he cannot rewrite.

Whether Reggie likes it or not, the office is honouring its word.

We have a women's division that has not stopped working since Ignition. Sera Voss is here tonight against "Voltage" Nia Adeyemi — the federation's social media has been on fire all week, Reggie, you may not have noticed —

I do not, in fact, have an Instagram account, Ms. Quinn. I will live without it.

— Saoirse Fallon is in The Crucible against Marisol Reyes in a styles clash that has been four shows in the making. And — STRIFE Nation, I want you to hear me on this, I am being told the production team has confirmed it — Bríd Ó'Súilleabháin is in this building tonight. The veteran has not been at The Foundry since Ignition. She is here. We will see her tonight.

Ms. Quinn. Before we continue. I would like to address the broadcast record on a small matter of personal correspondence.

... go on, Reggie.

Mr. Callum McCready, who fights Cormac Healy on this very card, was good enough to file a voice memo to the federation's site on Wednesday in which he referred to me — and I am paraphrasing because the actual phrasing was vulgar — as "the auld cunt on commentary." He went on to quote my Behind Closed Doors Six broadcast remarks back to me, verbatim, three times listened, and then to inform the audience that he intends to demonstrate that he is not a soft opponent for Mr. Healy on this evening's card.

I will only say this: a man who quotes me three times has done more thinking about my broadcast than the man I was advocating for has done about his own preparation. I find this enormously satisfying. Mr. McCready may proceed.

[laughs] Reggie, that may be the most generous thing I have ever heard you say.

I am, Ms. Quinn, a generous man within the appropriate hierarchy.

STRIFE Nation — the night is in front of us. Wone is going to speak. The office is going to name. The women's division is going to keep building. The veteran is going to be in the building. And in our main event tonight, one of two competitors is going to earn the right to walk into a pay-per-view with a championship match in front of him.

This is Behind Closed Doors Seven. Let's get to it.

Wone. Thank you for taking the time. Behind Closed Doors Six, Hideo Kuramoto sat at the announcer's desk and addressed himself to you. He named, on the record, a question he stated he was owed an answer to in the professional sense. The question, as Mr. Kuramoto put it, was — where did you learn your work. He further noted he would accept refusal as data. The federation has waited two weeks for your reply. You are now on the record. Please respond.

Mr. Kuramoto's question, as filed, contains two propositions and one presumption.

The first proposition is that I have learned my work. This is true.

The second proposition is that he is, in the professional sense, owed an account of how. This is, I will note, conditionally true. I will return to the condition.

The presumption embedded between the two propositions is that the answer to how takes the form of where. I will dispose of the presumption first, because the presumption is the framework's first error.

Mr. Kuramoto trained for twenty-three years in a system that produced him. He has named the system. His learning has a location, a lineage, named instructors, a verifiable paper trail. His question was constructed inside the framework his learning provides — which assumes that all learning has the same shape his did.

My learning does not have that shape.

I will not be supplying a location. There is no location to supply. The question, as asked, has no answer of the kind it was asking for. This is not refusal. This is the question's first error producing its own conclusion. If Mr. Kuramoto requires this to be entered as refusal-as-data, he may do so. The data is the same either way.

He is, however, conditionally owed an answer in the professional sense. I will provide it now, on the record, since I am at this microphone.

The Code, as previously filed, has been formally extended to a third category. The third category accommodates opponents whose framework is honest, publicly disclosed, and produces conduct in the cage that meets the framework's own definitions. Such opponents are met with submission that is not punitive. They leave my matches outworked. They will not leave them changed.

Mr. Reyes-Montoya is the first such opponent on record. Mr. Graves — Dorian, not the broadcaster — is the second. Mr. Kuramoto's published framework, as filed in his Volume Twenty-Four, qualifies him for third-category treatment. He should know this. The match he is asking me to share with him would be conducted within those parameters.

This is what professional means in the framework I bring to the cage. He is owed this disclosure in advance of the eventual match. He now has it.

There is one more matter on the broadcast record.

Mr. Kuramoto has filed a question. I will file one in return. He will not be expected to answer it tonight. He will not be expected to answer it this week. But the federation will, I think, find it useful to have his answer on file in advance of any cage we may eventually share.

Mr. Kuramoto — when an opponent of yours defeats you, what do you consider yourself to be owed by them? In the professional sense. I will accept refusal as data.

The question is filed.

... STRIFE Nation, that was Wone. Substantive, Reggie. Substantive.

Substantive in the man's particular way, Ms. Quinn. The federation should now expect Mr. Kuramoto to read that question before he goes to sleep tonight.

He just filed a question at the veteran. On the record. With the federation watching.

He did. And I would not, in Mr. Kuramoto's position, sleep especially well.

STRIFE Nation, we are going to keep moving. Up next — Sera Voss and "Voltage" Nia Adeyemi. The women's division opens our in-cage action tonight. We will be right back.

STRIFE Nation, we are back. Our opening contest of the evening is a women's division match that, on paper, asks a single question — what happens when the federation's most clinical technical fighter meets the federation's most aerial high-flyer in the room The Crucible has built itself to test?

We are about to find out, Ms. Quinn. And I will note for the broadcast record that both competitors filed reading material for the federation site in advance of this match. Ms. Voss wrote in writing. Ms. Adeyemi filmed her preparation on her telephone. The federation has its preferences. The cage has its own.

Let's go to entrances. Music check — here she comes.

"Voltage" Nia Adeyemi. Twenty-four years old, from Peckham, south London, by way of the British independent circuit and three million views on a single Birmingham clip. She is, STRIFE Nation, audibly having the time of her life.

A young woman who, as best I can determine, treats every match as a personal entertainment. We will see whether the entertainment holds up against work.

Sera Voss. Twenty-nine, from Hamburg, undefeated since Ignition's final. The federation's last published reading from her was — and I am paraphrasing — a nine-paragraph document on her scheduled approach to the match we are about to watch.

Ms. Quinn, Ms. Voss does not paraphrase. The document was, as she titled it, an "Assessment." It contained the words "sleep at twenty-two hundred hours" and "breakfast at six hundred hours." I read it cover to cover. I am told Ms. Adeyemi read excerpts on Instagram while drinking a Lucozade Sport.

[laughs] She did, Reggie. I watched the stream.

Of course you did.

Quick start for Adeyemi! She is not waiting!

She is taking the centre of the cage away from Ms. Voss, which is the correct opening play against a technical fighter. The question is whether she can hold it.

Quick exchange! Voss got hands on her once — Adeyemi got out.

Voss did not commit to the lock, Ms. Quinn. She tested its availability. She is collecting information.

Cover! One! And Voss is up.

She kicked out before the two. Ms. Adeyemi has produced one near-fall in three minutes and twenty seconds. The score on the federation's site, by the way, has commenced.

First time we've seen Voss off her feet! Adeyemi is having the better of this!

She is having the busier of this, Ms. Quinn. The two are not identical.

Spinebuster! First sustained contact from Voss!

Ms. Quinn — note Ms. Voss's positioning. She is not pressing the advantage. She is letting Ms. Adeyemi get up. She wants the next exchange on her terms.

Adeyemi escapes — but Voss is making contact every exchange now.

She is mapping Ms. Adeyemi's escape routes. She is closing them one at a time.

She missed! Adeyemi missed it!

The LEDs, Ms. Quinn. The moment is heavy. Ms. Voss read the trajectory and removed the target.

The Dissection. She has Adeyemi in The Dissection.

This is what she does, Ms. Quinn. She is not going to release. She is going to work the arm until the arm cannot do the work it needs to do.

SHE GOT OUT! ADEYEMI GOT OUT!

She produced kinetic disruption. The arm is, however, not what it was thirty seconds ago.

She's going up. Top of the cage wall. STRIFE Nation —

She is going for the Power Surge. The federation's site has the move's name; the federation's main event of this division is what she has on her mind.

HE'S CAUGHT — SHE'S CAUGHT — SPINEBUSTER!

Null and Void! She has Null and Void!

This is the position from which Ms. Voss does not concede leverage. Ms. Adeyemi will need to demonstrate, in the next fifteen seconds, that the version of Voss she prepared for is the version she is fighting.

Sera Voss wins by submission, fourteen minutes and twenty-two seconds, via the Null and Void. STRIFE Nation, that was the kind of match that tells you something about both fighters.

It told the federation what Ms. Voss told it last week in writing — that she fights at twenty-two hundred and finishes at twenty-two hundred. It also told the federation that Ms. Adeyemi belongs at this level, regardless of the result.

She does, Reggie. She absolutely does. Voltage Nia Adeyemi — STRIFE Nation, that is a name you are going to be hearing again.

And Ms. Voss is two-and-zero since Ignition. The math, as she likes to say, is the math.

STRIFE Nation, we are headed backstage. The office has business to conduct. Mr. Barr is going to be in this cage shortly. We will be right back.

STRIFE Nation, before our next contest, we have a piece of office business to attend to that the federation has been waiting on for two full shows now. Mr. Barr made a commitment on this very broadcast at the end of Behind Closed Doors Six. He stated, on the record, that within three shows "Simply" Shawn Cortez would be placed in a singles match against an opponent of the office's selection — discussed with him in advance.

He is, by my count, on the first of those three shows.

He is. And he is about to deliver. Music check —

There he is. The federation's owner.

He looks, Ms. Quinn, like a man who is not enjoying being in front of approximately five thousand people. As he generally does.

He looks like he's about to do his job. Which is what we're here for.

Good evening.

Two weeks ago, at the end of our last show, I made a commitment in this cage with regard to one of our competitors. The competitor is Mr. Shawn Cortez. The commitment was that the office would, within three shows, name an opponent of the office's selection for him to compete against in a singles match. The conversation between the office and Mr. Cortez about that opponent was had this past Tuesday afternoon, by phone, for approximately eleven minutes. Mr. Cortez is aware of the name I am about to give.

That name is Evan Morse.

Mr. Morse competes under the name "The Doctrine." Two and two in this federation. Took our reigning World Champion to twenty-one minutes and twenty-seven seconds at Behind Closed Doors Five — the longest match Mr. Reyes-Montoya has had in this building. Filed a written after-action report to the federation site this past week regarding that match and his current intentions.

Mr. Cortez has spent the past three months filing letters and open letters to the office regarding the office's methodology in selecting competitors for matches and tournaments. Mr. Morse has spent the past three months demonstrating, in the cage, the standard the office considers a methodology to be answerable to. The match between them is going to be on the card at Behind Closed Doors Eight. Two weeks from tonight. In this building.

That is the match.

One more thing.

Mr. Cortez has been writing about methodology in his pieces for the federation site. He has asked, more than once, what the office's process actually is. The match he has been given is one part of the office's process. The published document Mr. Cortez has requested — the written methodology — is another part. That document remains on the office's schedule. It remains on the timeline I gave him, which was ninety days from BCD Six. The clock continues to run. The match does not replace the document. The document does not replace the match. Both are coming.

That is all.

... Mr. Morse. The Doctrine. Behind Closed Doors Eight. Two weeks.

Ms. Quinn — I would like to put on the broadcast record that Mr. Morse filed his after-action report to the federation site on the same day Mr. Barr conducted the eleven-minute telephone call with Mr. Cortez.

... I had not made that connection.

One of two things is true. Either Mr. Barr made the call, and Mr. Morse filed his document subsequently, in which case Mr. Morse's document — which I have read, which contains the phrase "I have identified other work to do in this federation that has been left unattended for too long" — is in response to the booking he had just been informed of. Or Mr. Morse filed first, and Mr. Barr made the call subsequently, in which case Mr. Barr selected him based on the document. Either reading is interesting. Both readings are interesting. I leave it to STRIFE Nation to decide which they prefer.

STRIFE Nation, that is The Doctrine versus "Simply" Shawn Cortez at Behind Closed Doors Eight. Two weeks from tonight. And the office's methodology document is, per Mr. Barr, still being written. We will be tracking it.

We are headed to our second contest of the evening. Saoirse Fallon and Marisol Reyes — coming up next. We will be right back.

STRIFE Nation, we are back. Our second contest of the evening is the women's division match-up STRIFE Nation has been asking the federation to book for four shows. Saoirse Fallon — the Cork high-flyer who produced her first STRIFE win at Behind Closed Doors Five — against Marisol Reyes, the Monterrey submission specialist who came one match away from the inaugural Women's Championship.

A pure styles clash, Ms. Quinn. Air against ground. And both competitors have, this past week, said in writing — well, one of them said in a training scene observed by the federation site — that they have specific intentions for what happens in this cage.

Ms. Fallon filed something I would call extraordinary. We will see whether the cage agrees.

Marisol Reyes. One and two in this federation. The number does not capture the work. Her loss at Behind Closed Doors Five was to a sitting champion. This is, the federation knows, one of the most technical women on the roster.

She is a submission specialist of the lucha school, Ms. Quinn, refined by two years in Japan. She does not need to make a match unpleasant. She does, however, retain the option.

Here she comes! Saoirse Fallon! Cork, Ireland, one and two but coming off a Behind Closed Doors Five performance that the federation has not stopped talking about —

A performance that — and I quote Ms. Fallon's published training scene from this past week — involved "the body's stop signal" and her ongoing efforts to overrule it. The federation should keep that material in mind.

Fast start for Fallon! She is not letting Reyes settle!

She has named her plan in writing, Ms. Quinn. The plan is no canvas. We are watching the plan.

She is moving! She is not staying in any one position long enough for Reyes to grip her!

A correct read of the matchup. Whether the read survives twelve more minutes of it is the open question.

First time on the canvas — first attempt at a hold — Fallon out!

Eight tenths of a second from a locked Armbar. Ms. Fallon should not enjoy the next ten minutes of this match.

SHE GOT OUT! Triangle setup — Fallon got out!

She produced explosive leg drive at the precise moment of conversion. This is also in her published plan, Ms. Quinn. Page two, paragraph three.

I did not catch a page two paragraph three of any published Saoirse Fallon document, Reggie.

I take liberties with my paraphrasing. The plan is, however, the plan. She is executing it.

Near-fall!

Two-count. Ms. Reyes is unrushed.

LA TELARAÑA! Reyes has La Telaraña! She has it locked!

This is the position from which Ms. Reyes does her work. Ms. Fallon will need to demonstrate, in the next fifteen seconds, what her plan actually anticipates.

SHE'S OUT! Fallon is out!

She is on her feet, Ms. Quinn. She is also breathing in a way she was not breathing four minutes ago.

PHOENIX SPLASH! SHE GOT THERE — REFEREE COUNTS —

Saoirse Fallon wins by pinfall, eleven minutes and twenty-one seconds, via the Phoenix Splash from the top of the cage wall. STRIFE Nation, she did it. She did exactly what she said she was going to do.

She did it without the pause, Ms. Quinn. Note that. The plan she described in her training scene — execute the move without the body's stop signal — was the plan she executed. We will see, in coming weeks, how often that plan can be executed before the federation has to ask what the body's stop signal was for.

Reggie — she won.

She did. She did. I am not arguing the result. I am making an observation about the method. The two are different categories of information, as one of our other competitors put it in writing last week.

STRIFE Nation, Saoirse Fallon, two and two in this federation, having just defeated Marisol Reyes cleanly. Reyes — STRIFE Nation, do not write off Marisol Reyes. Two losses in this cage this year and both of them on the wrong side of competitors with championship potential. She belongs in the conversation.

A correct framing, Ms. Quinn.

We are headed backstage. STRIFE Nation, do not move. I am being told the cameras have caught something we have been waiting for since Ignition. We will be right back.

(quiet, off-screen, over the shot) ... STRIFE Nation, I am being told the cameras have just found Bríd Ó'Súilleabháin in the building. The veteran has not been at The Foundry since Ignition.

(matching her register) She has, on the federation's reading material, said she would be. She is.

... Ma'am. It's — it's good to have you back in the building.

(still quiet) ... and there it is, STRIFE Nation. Saoirse Fallon and Bríd Ó'Súilleabháin in the same shot for the first time since the veteran's pre-Ignition segment.

Ms. Quinn. Listen.

(after a beat) ... she's here, STRIFE Nation. She's here.

She did look at the camera, Ms. Quinn. I want to mention that on the record. Bríd Ó'Súilleabháin looked at the camera. The veteran does not look at the camera unless she means to.

She means to.

She does. And the federation should now be paying attention to her in a way it has not been paying attention to her since Ignition's bracket.

STRIFE Nation, we are heading back to in-cage action shortly. Cormac Healy and Callum McCready — coming up. The federation's first announced fellow-traveler match between two competitors with a combined record of zero and seven. Reggie has thoughts. We will be right back.

STRIFE Nation, we are back. Our next contest of the evening is the match Reginald has been advocating for since Behind Closed Doors Six. Cormac Healy, zero and four, against Callum McCready, zero and three. The federation's first publicly booked fellow-traveler match. Two brawlers from the same continent who have been on the same indie cards for the better part of a decade.

Ms. Quinn — I want to put on the record before this match begins that I did not advocate for Mr. Healy to be matched against Mr. McCready specifically. I advocated for the office to consider his next assignment with care. The office considered. The office decided. And — by Mr. McCready's own voice memo this past Wednesday — the office gave Mr. Healy the kind of opponent that respects what he has been doing in this cage. That is care, Ms. Quinn. That is not softness.

I do not disagree with you. Music check —

Callum "The Cut" McCready. Glasgow East End. Thirty-eight years old, fifteen years in this business. Filed a voice memo to the federation site forty-eight hours ago that has, frankly, given me joy every time I have re-read it.

A voice memo in which I was referred to, by name, as the auld cunt on commentary. The federation should appreciate Mr. McCready's directness.

[laughs] You said earlier you found that satisfying, Reggie.

I did. I do. I would like to see whether Mr. McCready's directness extends from the parking lot to the cage.

Cormac "The Butcher" Healy. Limerick. Thirty-one years old, four losses but four losses that have produced exit applause from this crowd at every single one. The audience has decided this man is worth their attention.

A determination I have publicly shared.

Straight to it! No feeling-out!

This is what both men were going to do. We are watching it.

Headbutt by Healy! The man's calling card!

His calling card and the entire reason his nose has the architecture it has, Ms. Quinn.

Cormac blocks the Spear! The cage wall worked for him there!

It often does, Ms. Quinn. It is, in The Crucible, the brawler's home. The man who knows how to use it does not get speared into oblivion.

McCready building offense! One-count!

He is fighting at the higher pace right now. The question is whether the pace is sustainable.

TWO! Cormac kicks out at two!

A near-fall, Ms. Quinn. McCready can finish this. He has the tools.

Cormac with the comeback! Corner Splash!

He has read the room, Ms. Quinn. He needs the wall. The wall is where his strength advantage matters most.

LARIAT! That's the running lariat!

The crowd has, Ms. Quinn, decided.

TWO AND A HALF! McCready stole that one!

The veteran's small package, Ms. Quinn. Mr. McCready has not lost his ability to scramble.

He's got him up! He's got him up!

Last Rites. The finish. We have never seen it land in this federation. We are about to.

HE GOT IT! CORMAC HEALY HAS WON A MATCH! HE'S WON A MATCH, STRIFE NATION!

Last Rites. Twelve minutes and thirty-eight seconds. The federation has its first Cormac Healy victory on the record.

STRIFE Nation — what you just witnessed was, in my view, the federation acknowledging what Reggie said on this broadcast at the end of Behind Closed Doors Six. The man fights. The federation respected what it had. The man won.

Ms. Quinn. I am going to say something I do not say often. I was right.

[laughs] You were, Reggie. You were.

I am also going to say — and I want this on the record — that Mr. McCready lost correctly. I would like to see Mr. McCready in another match before the federation moves him too far from this one.

Noted, Reggie. STRIFE Nation, we are headed to our main event. Coming up next — the first New Wave Championship Contender Match in STRIFE history. Static against Nkosi Dlamini. We will be right back.

STRIFE Nation — we are at the end of Behind Closed Doors Seven. The federation's first New Wave Championship Contender Match. The winner of what is about to happen in this cage walks out as the number-one contender to Desmond Pryce's championship at NO ESCAPE. Static. Nkosi Dlamini. The match.

Ms. Quinn — I want to say one thing before the bell. Both men have written, in their own ways, about this match in advance. Mr. Dlamini's published diary referred to Mr. Braddock throughout as Mr. Braddock — the only competitor on the roster to use the formal address convention. Mr. Braddock's published voice piece referred to Mr. Dlamini as "the kid" without contempt and without dismissal. The two men have, in writing, met each other where they actually are.

And now they meet in The Crucible. Music check —

Nkosi Dlamini. Twenty-four. From Johannesburg. Zero and two in this federation. The federation that decided, after watching what this man has done in spite of those results, that he had earned the right to fight for a contender's spot.

A correct decision, Ms. Quinn. A correct decision predicated on the work he has shown rather than the column the federation maintains.

Static. Thirty-eight. Memphis, Tennessee. Three and one in this federation. The man who, two weeks ago in this cage, did something the federation is, in the words of the veteran's published letter, still understanding in arrears.

Ms. Quinn — the published letter you are referring to is Ms. Ó'Súilleabháin's correspondence to him. The veteran addressed Mr. Braddock by his legal first name. Twice in two weeks the federation has had to update its address conventions for this man. The federation should attend to that.

Fast start! Nkosi straight to the air!

His published framework's first commitment. Engage at altitude. Refuse the canvas.

HE WOULD NOT LET STATIC GET HIM TO THE WALL! HE WOULD NOT LET HIM!

His framework's second commitment, Ms. Quinn. Stay off the cage wall. Fight at centre. The published plan and the executed plan are, so far, the same plan.

TWO! Nkosi out at two!

A countered Hurricanrana. Mr. Braddock has been in this cage with more aerial fighters than the federation has cared to record. He knows the catches.

Two and a half! Static is working him over now — methodical, no rush —

He is establishing the pace. Mr. Dlamini's published framework names altitude as his answer. Mr. Braddock is removing altitude from the room.

... Reggie. Reggie, did you see that?

I saw it, Ms. Quinn. The federation saw it.

Static had a chair within arm's reach. Static knew it was there. Static chose to walk away from it.

He has been writing this on the broadcast record for three weeks, Ms. Quinn. The veteran of the same archetype told him in a letter, two weeks ago, that he had held a line, and the line was the right one. He is holding the line. In the main event. With a contender's spot on it.

HE GOT OUT! Nkosi got out of the setup!

He produced the kinetic escape this archetype is supposed to produce. His framework's third commitment, Ms. Quinn — the high-altitude exchanges have to land. He has not produced one in eight minutes. The fourth commitment is the one we are about to see.

Which is what, Reggie?

Mr. Dlamini's published phrasing was: "Mr. Braddock's code is usable." We will see now whether he has been carrying the meaning of that sentence into this match. I believe he has.

Springboard DDT! Two and a half!

He is composing this finish, Ms. Quinn. He is not rushing.

He's going up. He's going to the top of the cage wall.

He is matching the federation's other Phoenix moment this evening, Ms. Quinn — Ms. Fallon's plan, executed without the pause. We will see whether Mr. Dlamini has read her piece too.

SHOOTING STAR PRESS! SHOOTING STAR PRESS! NKOSI DLAMINI HAS DONE IT! NKOSI DLAMINI IS YOUR NEW WAVE CHAMPIONSHIP NUMBER-ONE CONTENDER!

From the top of the cage wall. Sixteen minutes and forty-one seconds. The federation has a new contender, Ms. Quinn. The federation has a new contender, and the federation has just confirmed that the kid is who he said he was.

STRIFE Nation — your new number-one contender to the New Wave Championship is Nkosi Dlamini. He will challenge Desmond Pryce at NO ESCAPE. The road begins tonight. The kid arrives at the title.

He does, Ms. Quinn. He does. And I want to note — for the broadcast record — that Mr. Braddock walked out of this cage having lost a contender's match by a clean finish, having held his line throughout, and having shaken the hand of the man who beat him. This federation got everything it should have wanted out of this main event.

It did, Reggie. STRIFE Nation, we are going to take you to the close of the broadcast. We will be right back.

STRIFE Nation — we are at the close of Behind Closed Doors Seven. Reggie. Where do we start.

We start where the federation is going to start, Ms. Quinn. Mr. Nkosi Dlamini is your number-one contender to the New Wave Championship. He will face Desmond Pryce at NO ESCAPE. The kid said he was here. The federation now confirms that the kid is.

And he beat — let me be clear about this — Static, in the federation's first contender's match for a championship, by a clean Shooting Star Press from the top of the cage wall, in the main event of this building. That is not a marginal result. That is a generational announcement.

It is.

And before we wrap, I want to take STRIFE Nation back through the rest of this evening, because tonight had — let me say this carefully — tonight had as much going on under the surface as it had in the cage.

I will allow that, Ms. Quinn. Briefly.

Briefly. Sera Voss is two-and-zero since Ignition. She defeated "Voltage" Nia Adeyemi tonight by submission. She is now visibly building toward a women's championship match against a sitting champion who has not yet lost in this cage. The federation's second-most-interesting contender campaign is currently happening in the women's division, and STRIFE Nation should be paying attention.

The federation's most-interesting contender campaign currently belongs to Mr. Reyes-Montoya, Ms. Quinn. But your point is, in the relevant comparative sense, well taken.

Saoirse Fallon defeated Marisol Reyes via Phoenix Splash from the top of the cage wall — and I will note, because the federation should note, that two competitors landed the same kind of finish from the same position on the same broadcast tonight. The federation is producing this generation, Reggie. The federation is producing it right now.

It is producing it, Ms. Quinn. The federation is also producing competitors who have not yet learned where their limits are. Ms. Fallon's training-scene material is on file. We will revisit it.

Cormac Healy. First STRIFE victory. The man fights. The federation knew it. The federation gave him a match. The man won. Reggie — your advocacy.

My advocacy honoured, Ms. Quinn. I will accept the credit.

[laughs] Of course you will. Wone replied to Hideo Kuramoto's question and then, in a moment I do not think STRIFE Nation has fully absorbed yet, filed a return question at Mr. Kuramoto on the broadcast record. The veteran has been quiet on the federation site for two weeks; he is, I would wager, not quiet for two more.

He will reply, Ms. Quinn. Mr. Kuramoto has a code of his own.

The office named "The Doctrine" as Cortez's opponent for Behind Closed Doors Eight. Two weeks from tonight. In this building. Mr. Barr also confirmed that the office's methodology document — the written one Mr. Cortez has been asking after — is still on the calendar and still being written.

Mr. Morse and Mr. Cortez. Two of the federation's most clinical writers. In the same cage. The federation has produced the matchup the federation's audience has been asking for.

And Bríd Ó'Súilleabháin was in the building.

She was.

STRIFE Nation, that is what Behind Closed Doors Seven looked like. The ramp to NO ESCAPE is open. The first show on the ramp is on the books. Two weeks from tonight, we will be back in this building with Behind Closed Doors Eight, which I am told will feature The Doctrine versus "Simply" Shawn Cortez, and which I am told will continue the federation's contender campaigns toward our first pay-per-view.

There will be more announced, Ms. Quinn. There always is.

There always is. For now, STRIFE Nation, on behalf of Reginald Graves —

Ms. Quinn.

— and the entire production team, I am Cassidy Quinn, and this has been Behind Closed Doors Seven. Let your hearts rise, STRIFE Nation. We will see you in two weeks.