Beyond Wrestling – Uncharted Territory Episode 5 Review

Match Results

LAX defeated Best Friends by pinfall @ 17:21
– A raucous tag team match that displayed the high level LAX is working at the moment.
Beyond Discovery Gauntlet: Thomas Santell defeated Mantis by pinfall @ 9:01 mins.
– The veteran old school style of Santell grinded a victory out over the high-flying youngster.
WWR Showcase 4-way: Solo Darling defeated Ashley Vox by submission @ 7:18
– Darling in another stand-out performance with the always rare submission win during a multi-person match.
Bear Country defeated Milk Chocolate by pinfall @ 5:30
– Two completely nuts gimmicks collided with some wild results.
Kris Statlander defeated The Whisper by pinfall @ ~8 mins
– The Beyond phenom racks up another come-from-behind victory.
Slither defeated Beaver Boys by pinfall @ ~20 mins
– Slither looked to be outmatched by the savvy teamwork of the Beaver Boys, but it was a selfish distraction that forced the result.

This is the first week where we are going to have to turn people away at the door. #UnchartedTerritory pic.twitter.com/jQU11l7Ri0

— Beyond Wrestling (@beyondwrestling) May 2, 2019

Episode Summary

As is now the welcome tradition (in contrast to all those OTHER shows) Uncharted Territory opens up with wrestlers standing in the ring ready to get a match started. You know, because this is a professional wrestling show, not some glorified gossip fest where we have to open an “entertainment program” with 25 minutes of half-actors talking in circles. This is Beyond Wrestling, so let’s kick some ass!

And who better than the EYFBO team that is just days after main event-ing a pretty bad ass IMPACT Wrestling PPV, and look ready to keep the fun rolling here against AEW’s Best Friends. I mean, where else are you going to see this mix of companies… live!

The match was a beautiful piece of tag team-ing excellence, as each man worked their trademark styles, collaborated on some textbook team strategy, and had the hyped audience eating out of the palm of their seasoned tag-slapped hands.

https://twitter.com/MrLARIATO/status/1123744754687193088

In what’s become another nice tradition on the show, is Cam Zagami interviewing the newcomer to Beyond who is challenging for the Beyond Gauntlet. This week it’s Thomas Santell a bit of an oddity, was touting his clean-living, catch-as-catch style, in a bit of a Bob Backlund meets Crispin Glover-type persona.

https://jonwasher.smugmug.com/Wrestling/Beyond-Wrestling/Uncharted-Territory/Uncharted-Territory-Promos/i-DBTtscV/A

Photos via Jon Washer – Freelance Photography

Mantis, as a pure high-flyer, was in for a clash of styles against the technician Santell, which is the interesting kind of arithmetic you only get to see on the best pure wrestling indie shows that don’t train out all the style of their wrestlers at a “performance center”. Gotta admit, I was happy for the win by the quirky Santell, but the one-and-done Mantis still looked good in the loss.

Ashley Vox, Veda Scott, Penelope Ford and Solo Darling had a 4-way showcase match courtesy of Beyond’s sibling promotion Women’s Wrestling Revolution. This one cut a brisk pace and Solo “Archduke of the Apron” Darling got in an inverted DDT on the apron, so the fans went home happy!

https://twitter.com/MrLARIATO/status/1123751659765731331

An unannounced bonus tag match was up next between Milk Chocolate and Bear Country. Milk Chocolate of Brandon Watts and Randy Summers came out first and seemed to enjoy rubbing in their Hollywood good looks and god-given athletic talents to the Electric Haze audience. On the other hand, the scary huge Bear Bronson and Bear Beefcake came to the ring in masks that looked like stretched face skin across bloody bear traps, and seemed ready to literally wrestle a bear.

https://jonwasher.smugmug.com/Wrestling/Beyond-Wrestling/Uncharted-Territory/Uncharted-Territory-Promos/i-7PKLgqj/A

The contrast between these teams in look and size made for a colourfully easy match that popped off for from the get go. And after what looked like was going to be a straight squash by the massive Bears, Milk Chocolate recovered and made this one one competitive for a few minutes, which was a nice twist.

Clearly, Bear Country were the favourites and really made their mark with some big power moves to end the match. Kind of crazily, after those two monsters just blew the minds of the audience, Chuck O’Neal came out and got in the ring with both men and then surprisingly he fought them both off. As O’Neal then faced the Electric Haze signature brick wall and talked his “make Beyond legit again” smack, the riled-up audience went ballistic trying to shut him up. Great segment that is really setting up O’Neal as a mega-heel for the promotion.

The weirdly wild and wildly popular Kris Statlander once again withstood the sustained punishment from Uncharted Territory newcomer The Whisper. Focusing on the back, Whisper thought he’d solved the puzzle of Statlander’s resilience, and even kicked out of her axe-kick finisher, but he ended up another victim of the extraterrestrial Beyond phenom.

https://twitter.com/MrLARIATO/status/1123756961235918852

Anthony Greene came out next in a gWo gimmick that mocked the bWo (which, of course, was a rip on the Turner Network’s ’90s nWo sports entertainment traveling legends convention). Greene, flooded in green light, was doing this to call out Stevie Richards, the next veteran on his tour of retro-opponents.

And in the main event, the Slither team of Chris Dickinson and Joey Janela looked to stake a claim to the “tag team aces” title against a team in the Beaver Boys who have been touting themselves as such recently. Janela took a brutal Snake Eyes javelin to the turnbuckle that let the Beaver Boys take control for a while, which eventually set up a fired-up Dickinson to make the hot tag. This sequence worked so well because Alex Reynolds and John Silver have established themselves as willing to do whatever it takes to demonstrate their team dominance, while the singles star combo of the lovably-popular Janela and intense Dickinson worked better when isolated and in peril.

https://twitter.com/MrLARIATO/status/1123763713075445762

In the end, it was a distracted Silver who pursued Janela’s ringside representative Penelope Ford, who’d accosted his CZW Heavyweight Title. This lead to Reynolds being the victim of Slither’s combination offense and taking the loss without his partner to save him.

Move of the Night
In the 4-way match, there was this Cattle Mutilation / Horse Collar / Fish Hook thingee that kind of defies explanation.

The weirdest game of Twister broke out at @beyondwrestling #UnchartedTerritory this last Wednesday between @ashley__vox , @SoloDarling , @itsvedatime , and @thePenelopeFord pic.twitter.com/6eWspj7FQe

— Grenwail (@grenwail) May 3, 2019

Shock of the Night
Anthony Greene coming out in green-tinged Stevie Richards cosplay was throwback fun.

Episode MVP
Beaver Boys
After a couple of pretty great tag team matches on the undercard on past UT episodes, Silver and Reynolds got a chance to feature in the main event and looked every bit the marquee players. Despite the miscommunication loss that teased some dissension between the partners, the match was smartly wrestled by the two wrestlers all Beyond fans want to see more of no matter what.

Best Match
Bear Country vs. Milk Chocolate
This was a really fast-paced episode with a ton of different things going on, all very positive. The opening and closing tag team matches were both stellar showings and could easily be match of the night, but something about this short and frenzied bout between two teams I’m not very familiar with at all has just stuck with me. I loved how Milk Chocolate came out and just owned on the mic with their arrogance, making you want to see them take a beating without even knowing who their opponents were going to be yet. And so out come these two monster hoss dudes with freaky masks and just start to destroy those guys. But then Milk Chocolate starting to make a brief comeback, and I was hooked. WWE pretty much hasn’t been able to do this with some fresh faces since like the ’90s. Beyond has been committed to re-stocking the upper tier of the indies as more stars get signed away, and so far they seem to be making good on that promise with Uncharted Territory.

https://twitter.com/MrLARIATO/status/1123753722201423873

How Did It All End?
Penelope Ford tossed the celebrating members of Slither over the top rope as a message that she was ready for the weekend’s upcoming Lethal Lottery show where all three will be involved in a quest to lock in a coveted main event singles match at Beyond’s signature annual event Americanrana.

7.0

The final score: review Good

The 411

One of the fastest moving episodes so far for Uncharted Territory, and that's pretty good considering how brisk most episodes are. Inter-promotional, economical and wrestling-heavy, this one hooked the crowd early and never let go. That passion from a regularly attending audience in such an intimate venue is sure starting to give some old ECW chills to an old school fan like me.