Beyond Wrestling Uncharted Territory episode 2 review: Troubled waters

It’s Wednesday night, so that means we take a look at Beyond Wrestling’s shiny new webseries on IWTV, Uncharted Territory! As always, our format is a hard-hitting triple threat, results followed by the best of the show and the worst of the show, with a nautical theme because that’s how they’re branding it and I decided to roll with it. On with the show!

Land Ho!

1. Aussie Open (Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davis) over Sadkampf (Dominic Garrini & Kevin Ku) by pinfall with a double-team Iconoclasm on Ku.
2. David Starr cuts a promo on Joey Janela staking his claim to being the Ace of Beyond and talking about how he was holding things together while Janela was on the shelf, and introduces his partner for tonight as Maxwell Jacob Friedman. For his part, Joey says there was an error on the graphic and his partner isn’t Penelope Ford, but rather Chris Dickinson!
3. Wheeler YUTA over Solo Darling by submission with a reverse chinlock. Wheeler cuts a promo after putting Chuck Taylor over and challenges him for next week!
4. Mick Moretti over Tristen Thai by pinfall to advance in the Discovery Gauntlet. He cut a promo afterward that honestly I couldn’t follow live.
5. Ruthless Ambition (Maria Manic & Penelope Ford) over Platinum Hunnies (Angel Sinclair & Ava Everett) by pinfall with a double chokeslam on both of them.
6. Gangrel over Anthony Greene by pinfall with the Impaler.
7. GABES (David Starr & Maxwell Jacob Friedman) over Slither (Chris Dickinson & Joey Janela) by pinfall with a low-blow-assisted small package from Starr on Dickinson.
8. Dickinson calls MJF out for a match next week! Janela follows it up by saying that he loves independent wrestling and he made sure his AEW contract would guarantee that he’d still be able to do what he wants on the greater indies.

X Marks the Spot

• Of Dunkzilla and the Bone Collector: Despite some technical difficulties (see below), Aussie Open and Sadkampf had a really hype tag team match to open the show. In particular, Mark Davis and Dominic Garrini going at it gave me life, just really good grappler / power guy interactions that make me really want a singles somewhere down the line.
• All the tension that’s been building up: YUTA and Solo had a really fun technical wrestling match that got more and more intense until reached a boil just in time for Wheeler to choke the life out of the Sugar Creature for the win. And next week promises to take it up another notch still, given his challenge to Chuck Taylor.
• New moves and new civilizations: The Discovery Gauntlet continues to be a great idea. Mick Moretti’s offense really struck me today as being particularly on point and vicious, all stomps and brutality. And Tristen Thai, for his part, had some really innovative stuff as well, particularly a full nelson Ace Crusher that was just beautiful and a Sling Blade backbreaker. Fun way to introduce new talent and here in week two it’s become clear that there’s the instant tension of “is Moretti really sticking around this long?”
• Fangin’ and bangin’: Gangrel was having himself a ball, dancing and leading the crowd in chants (including, for reasons that I don’t understand, repeatedly doing the We Will Rock You stomp-stomp-clap rhythm, which I just found delightful), and what do you know, he can still go! Very enjoyable match between the Vampire Warrior and the Retrosexual here.
• Back for the attack: The main event was a real rowdy brawl that gradually settled into the oddly-named Great American-Born Entertaining Semites working Janela’s injured knee over but got cut off before it could really escalate to a fever pitch. That said, it was great to see the Bad Boy back and wrestling in a Beyond ring and these alliances-- Janela with Dickinson and Starr with MJF-- could go a long way towards making the Starr/Janela feud fresh for a second round now that Joey’s back.

Walk the Plank

• Technical difficulties, please stand by: The show was plagued by some production errors early-- video packages cutting in mid-match, volume fluctuations on commentary, a stuttering video feed, and so on. They were mostly rectified by the time the show was about a quarter in, but the remainder of the show was broadcast on a single camera feed, which is frustrating. Beyond have historically had very solid streams, so I wouldn’t be worried about this going forward, but it’s a black mark on an otherwise really good show.
• Where’s the Undertaker?: Josh Briggs (keeping himself busy on commentary while he heals up from his dislocated hip and doing a great job of it alongside Paul Crockett) keeps getting excited about the Undertaker showing up but he wasn’t on last week and he didn’t appear this week, either. And I know what you’re saying, you’re saying “Claire, c’mon. He’s doing a bit, the Undertaker isn’t showing up.” But to that, I say well, yes. Of course it’s a bit. But it’s 2019 and anything’s possible, so, like... where is he?

On the Horizon

Announced for next week, Chuck Taylor vs. Wheeler YUTA, Kylie Rae vs. Orange Cassidy, Rory Gulak vs. Ophidian, Davienne vs. Kris Statlander, and Chris Dickinson vs. MJF! Plus Mick Moretti returns as the Discovery Gauntlet rolls on!