wrestling / Video Reviews

Beyond Wrestling – Uncharted Territory Episode 1 Review

April 16, 2019 | Posted by Jake Chambers
MJF MLW Beyond Wrestling Image Credit: MLW
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Beyond Wrestling – Uncharted Territory Episode 1 Review  

Match Results

So Cal Uncensored defeated Team Pazuzu by pinfall @15:09
– A civilized 6-man that turned into late stage multi-mayhem.
MJF defeated Kimber Lee by pinfall @ ~6 mins.
– Jerky MJF squeaks past a Beyond legend with a slingshot piledriver.
Beaver Boys defeated Aussie Open by pinfall @ ~16 1/2 mins.
– The surprising debut of Aussie Open was a typhoon of tandem tag-team maneuvers.
Beyond Discovery Gauntlet: Mick Moretti defeated Gabriel Sky by pinfall @ 6:38
– These newcomers put it all on the line for an opportunity to come back next week and keep the gauntlet rolling.
Kris Statlander defeated AR Fox by pinfall @ 8:54
– Phenom vs. Superstar; Statlander continues slicing through the competition in Beyond.
Mystery Partner Tag Team Match: Jordynne Grace &… Brian Cage defeated Orange Cassidy &… Session Moth Martina by pinfall @ ~11 mins.
– Wackiness ensued as hands-in-pockets Cassidy and drunken-twerking Session Moth matched wits with two power wrestlers.
Masato Tanaka defeated David Starr by pinfall @15:08
– Unsurprisingly, a brutal slugfest from two guys who don’t know how to hold anything back.

Episode Summary

All killer, no filler: Beyond started their first episode of this new weekly streaming series with pure in-ring action. From image one, we see three of Beyond’s biggest stars ever, Chris Dickinson and LAX (or EYFBO, if you will), waiting for the entrance the primetime stars from So-Cal Uncensored. The evenly matched contest ended when the evil “ace” of Beyond came out to distract his long-time rival Dickinson, leading to Scoprio Sky and Kazarian hitting an assisted back-cracker on Ortiz for the win.

Then the always entertaining prototypical arrogant heel MJF whips the crowd into a frenzy before his match, bringing up how his male genetics dictate that he must be better than his opponent, clearly tugging at the heartstrings of inter-gender wrestling pioneer Kimber Lee and the Beyond faithful.

Next the Beaver Boys come out for their Open Challenge, which is surprisingly answered by Aussie Open right after they were announced as headliners for next week’s second episode. This textbook indie tag team thriller starting picking up momentum at the mid-point and was then just one devestating duo-move sequence after another to the end.

The Discovery Gauntlet was introduced with two up-and-comers given the chance to move on to next week’s episode with a win here, as the quick and wiry high-flyer Sky, looking like a young 1-2-3 Kid, falls to the cunning Damien Demento-esque mind games of Moretti.

Indie wrestling superstar AR Fox emanated his traditionally too cool and cocky aura, seemingly ignorant that he was stepping into the ring with Beyond’s newest phenom. Even though he hit Statlander with many of his signature moves, Fox left himself open to an unsuspecting roll-up and became another notch on the belt of the extraterrestrial ace.

For the reveal of the mystery partners for the tag team match, first the super-strong Jordynne Grace brings out quadruply jacked Brian “The Machine” Cage, while the always lethargic Orange Cassidy calls out the non-stop party Session Moth Martina from Ireland, as Beyond doubled the whole deal down on the mismatch gimmick. While there was antics aplenty, Grace staked her claim to a shot at Cassidy’s Independent Wrestling Championship by spiking him with a sit-out pump-handle bomb for the victory.

In the main event, Beyond Wrestling’s quote/unquote “Ace” David Starr and the Japanese legend Masato Tanaka started out with a patient ground battle, displaying to what fans of both know is just as much as specialty on their resumes as death matches. After taking it to the floor, the strike battle began and the physical violence ramped up from there. While many probably assumed that Chris Dickinson would eventually interfere as a receipt for Starr costing him the opening match of the show, it was in fact a different enemy of his who returned to Beyond and helped Tanaka secure the win.

Move of the Night
While partial to Mark Davis doing a one-armed powerbomb on John Silver while holding Alex Reynolds in a wrist-lock during their tag match, and AR Fox’s Coast to coast through the ropes to Kris Statlander on the floor, I think Orange Cassidy defiantly keeping his hands in his pockets while taking a series of offensive moves always stands out for me as impressive comedy, athleticism and gamesmanship.

Shock of the Night
Beloved Kimber Lee coming out to turn on Kris Statlander, who was to be her partner in a tag team match Wrestlemania weekend. Watching Statlander rack up the wins against lame competitors show after show, seems to have sparked some jealously in for the inter-gender match veteran.

Episode MVP
David Starr
A credit to Beyond for really laying out a pretty even show that didn’t rely heavily on one performer to carry the load and make this look like a “star” promotion. However, Starr actually has cultivated such a star presence now, especially in Beyond where he seems to be caped in a thicker comfort for his sneer and swagger.

Best Match
Aussie Open vs. Beaver Boys
While the main event was a pretty awesome traditional style match, I think Aussie Open appropriately answering the “open” challenge of the Beaver Boys was an even more exciting display of what Beyond Wrestling will be bringing to the stream on a weekly basis. This was indie wrestling extraordinaire where the competition and innovation embedded in the wrestling tells all the story you need.

How Did It All End?
Joey Janella and Penelope Ford returned to Beyond and stopped David Starr from finishing off Tanaka while the referee was knocked out. The Bad Boy passed Dangan a chair who clonked Starr ECW-style, and and hit a patented sliding elbow smash for the win. Janela was joined by Chris Dickinson in the ring to pay tribute to major influence on both their careers, leaving hints of dream matches to come.

8.0
The final score: review Very Good
The 411
Uncharted Territory is certainly off to a good start, as this first episode felt like an authentic Beyond show and yet wholly unique to the weekly wrestling show formula. They didn't try to explain everything from the beginning or look like they were teasing something better for the future, like many a wrestling promotion does in their first episode. Instead, this felt like you were plopped right into the center of a thriving wrestling culture and given everything you would need to to enjoy what felt like as much like a major event as it did a piece of a serialized pro-wrestling narrative. Very good stuff!
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