Uncharted Territory, Season 2 Episode 11
December 12, 2019
Live from the White Eagle in Worcester, MA
Streaming on IWTV.live
by Tiffany Rose
Things are getting rowdy as Season 2 of Uncharted Territory approaches its end, and as we move closer to Heavy Lies The Crown on New Year’s Eve I don’t see this out-of-control train stopping for a damn thing. Speaking of out-of-control, tonight’s episode was wild even before it started with birthday boy Eddie Kingston at the commentary table on a hot mic, providing an entertaining running commentary of the IWTV ads. Just throwing this out there, I would watch an IWTV-produced Eddie Kingston show. The man’s just a delight!
Tonight’s Commentary: Eddie Kingston and Paul Crockett were on first and then later Sidney Bakabella and Paul Crockett had their regular spot at the commentator’s table. Massachusetts traffic was against our Uncharted Territory crew this evening and as a result we got to enjoy Eddie on commentary for the first part of the show alongside Crockett and then Bakabella was at the table for the remainder of the episode. The viewing audience wins the evening; we had solid commentary all throughout the show.
Spotlight Match: Ava Everett vs Davienne
Ava’s Red Power Ranger gear was on point tonight; the 90s baby was giving it 100% against Davienne, who was undoubtedly using this opportunity in the Spotlight Match to win and not just make a good showing. Davienne’s a brutal brawler and it looked as if the Ava-Taker was in trouble in more than one spot here, but despite the balance of power going back and forth Ava was able to come back and take the victory after a beautiful modified neckbreaker for the finish.
Match 1: Tony Deppen vs. Carlos Romo
Carlos Romo deserves all the love in 2020, let this guy shine soon! This opening bout was a classic, and credit goes to both Deppen (who was wearing Wheeler Yuta’s trunks for this one) and Romo for setting the tone of an excellent episode of Uncharted Territory by starting things out with this exemplary match. Whether you love or hate Deppen - he makes it fairly easy to go either way - you can’t deny that the man has had an excellent latter half of 2019 and he’s ending the year on a solid note. Deppen takes the win here with a savage running knee to Romo and then a pinfall; masterfully clean win for Dirty Deppen and let’s have more of Romo on the indies, please!
Match 2: Team Pazuzu vs. Violence is Forever
Dirty Daddy is back! Chris Dickinson and Pinkie Sanchez were out next to celebrate the return of the Filthy Father to his home at Uncharted Territory after going on an overseas tour. Dickinson was quick to let us all know he’s got business to take care of against “Chuck Who Doesn’t Fuck” and he’s not wasting any time. Chuck-Don’t-Fuck is out next with Larry Legend, who looks so much better than this non-fuckable trash he’s associated himself with. Damn it, Larry. And if that’s not bad enough...the Lethal Legend numbers are growing! Larry lets us know that not only has he affiliated himself with Chuck O’Neil, but there’s been some kind of wheeling and dealing going on and now we have Violence is Forever aligned with this team. If we thought things were bad before...now they’ve gone and got two total badasses in Dominic Garrini and Kevin Ku. Just as it looked as if the score was evened up with the return of Dickinson, Larry’s thrown two new players into the game and Violence is Forever took on Team Pazuzu this evening. Not daunted by the new challenge, Dickinson and Sanchez gave Garrini and Ku a run for their money (or Larry’s money?) in this match and looked as if they’d come out on top until Legend and O’Neil took the cheater’s path, interfering and allowing Ku and Garrini to take Dickinson out via Total Elimination and get the unfair win. This feud has only gotten hotter but also more difficult to handle with more players added to the game; what’s Team Pazuzu’s next move against this onslaught?
Match 3: DL Hurst vs. Richard Holliday (Tournament for Tomorrow match)
Beyond fans should be proud of DL Hurst, he’s gotten his name out there in a great way in the months that I’ve been watching Uncharted Territory. Since Season 1 Hurst has been a familiar face and the chance he’s given here with the Tournament for Tomorrow is huge. If only he didn’t have to face such a dork like Richard Holliday (or Dick Vacation as Razerhawk so eloquently put it on Twitter recently), who came to the ring with Club Cam and we knew whatever happened from that point would involve some modicum of bullshit. Thankfully we had much of the match untroubled by interference and Hurst was able to show off some and looked great in this one, both in physique and skill. Leave it to Cam Zagami to mess things up just when they’re going great, though - he interfered by sliding Holliday’s Airpod case into the ring to distract the ref, allowing the Airpod God to attack Hurst from behind and hit the Market Crash for the win to advance in the tournament.
Match 4: Leyla Hirsch/Wheeler Yuta vs. AC Mack/Fred Yehi
Now THIS was a damn good tag team match! You know it’d have to be a standout match if I’m going to have to sit through AC Mack’s loud and lengthy introductions, which I did - because I wasn’t about to miss a minute of action. ACTION indeed, as Mack even brought along ACTION Wrestling’s Matt Griffin to hold the dual championship belts as apparently Rich Palladino wasn’t doing a good enough job. Legit Yutes wasn’t bothered by any of this, though - they came to kick some ass and that is exactly what they did. Mack and Yehi fought as a united front here and operated pretty damn well as a tag team. I was particularly impressed by Yehi’s in-ring proficiency and would really like to see him in a singles match somewhere in the future against Leyla Hirsch. As far as championship matches go, I’d say Yuta earned his shot against AC Mack tonight as he took the win for Legit Yutes after successfully making the ACTION and Southern Underground Pro champ submit in defeat. Let’s see these warriors go one-on-one now, Leyla vs. Yehi and Yuta vs. Mack!
Match 5: Aaron Rourke vs. Anthony Bowens (Discovery Gauntlet match)
This match was my introduction to Anthony Bowens, who I was surprised that I hadn’t seen in the ring prior to this episode as he’s got the look and dexterity of someone who’s been going in the ring for years in the big promotions. Bowens had something to prove tonight and did so in great fashion, providing Rourke his biggest challenge yet in the Discovery Gauntlet. I’m so glad Beyond’s introduced us to Aaron Rourke through the Gauntlet; each week he continues to prove that he’s just as good as he says he is and this week he earned the hell out of his bragging rights. Rourke goes 3-0 in the Gauntlet this week as he defeated Bowens by pinfall, and it’s going to take an exceptionally talented person on the top of their game to take Rourke out at this point; he’s left his sparkling mark of glitter on the Gauntlet and can back up the boasting for now, but can he back it up for good?
After the Gauntlet match we have a word from Anthony Greene who’s here to give us some explanation for the shocking turn of events we saw on last week’s episode where Greene turned on his best friend Josh Briggs in a most un-fuckworthy moment. Greene explains things simply - if he doesn’t advance in the Tournament of Tomorrow, then neither does Briggs. Easy enough explanation but it seems like there are a lot more factors at play here - jealousy, rivalry, and malice come to mind.
Match 6: Voros Twins vs. The Riegel Twins
We’ve got a surprise tonight and it’s like a Doublemint gum commercial but a lot more fun! That’s right, we’ve got twin tag team action and it’s awesome to see The Riegel Twins show up on Uncharted Territory after seeing them in promotions down here in the midwest recently. The Voros Twins are deceptively charming; once you think they’re so delightful that’s when you realize these two are a mighty cohesive tag team and they’ll give the opposition a good fight. That’s what we had here with the Voros brothers and the Riegels, who also came through with an impressive showing in this match. The Riegels get the win here after a rousing match that had the crowd’s complete attention by the end - if anyone didn’t know who these twin teams were before tonight, they sure know them now!
Match 7: Robo the Punjabi Lion vs. Christian Casanova (Tournament for Tomorrow)
Kenn Doane vs. Christian Casanova (Revised Match)
Just when I was ready to see Robo the Punjabi Lion for the first time out comes asshole Kenn Doane to mess up yet another moment for us all, and there went the hope of seeing Christian Casanova go into the Tournament for Tomorrow without the “help” of Club Cam. Doane gets on the mic to remind everyone how much he hates Worcester and that this match is now his, as he’d be the one taking on Casanova. If things seemed off here, it’s because they were - there’d been notice that Club Cam may not be as cohesive as it once was, and that seemed to be the case with Doane taking on Casanova, but what we had here was a series of calculated spots in favor of Casanova’s victory and advancement into the tournament. Casanova defeats Doane here with a small package pinfall and does indeed get to go forward into the tournament, but now I have to wonder how much all of this has to do with Casanova’s singular process or if it’s all for the “greater good” of Club Cam. There’s no way in hell I’d continue trusting those dudes if I were as talented - or even a top talent - as Casanova definitely is.
Match 8: NDK vs. Eddie Kingston/John Silver
Having Kingston and Silver team up here in the main event made perfect sense, as John Silver’s been killing it in the past weeks on Uncharted Territory thanks in part to the motivational words Kingston delivered to him early in the season. It’d be good to have Silver team up with the man who instilled so much drive in him so that Kingston could see the improvement for himself, right? It certainly seemed that way as the two went on to face NDK this week. As good as this main event was, there was the lingering feeling of discord and disunity in the air as it has been in Beyond’s tag team division lately. Was it from the amount of time that Santell was left in the ring to take on both Silver and Kingston as Gage recovered on the outside? No, tonight it was the general unsteadiness that Silver and Kingston had as a team. Despite being monumentally talented on their own in singles competition, Eddie and John just couldn’t find their footing as a tag team on this occasion and this allowed NDK to get by with the victory in the main event (and stay together as a team for at least another week!) It was too bad to see Silver and Kingston couldn’t solidify here despite the two appearing to have an otherwise strong relationship...or at least that’s what we thought up until Kingston turned savagely on Silver after their team lost. I’m hoping this doesn’t throw Silver back to where he started again after he’s done so well this season and I’m sure the hell hoping this isn’t the catalyst that leads us to seeing Silver join the Dark Order over in AEW anytime soon...
Post-Show Thoughts
These final episodes of Season 2 are the hard-hitters, I can already see that from tonight’s show. Heavy Lies The Crown is shaping up to be just as excellent as Americanrana was thanks to this glorious build towards the event. Beyond’s tag team division storytelling is better than any other promotion at the moment and I now refuse to hear anyone say it’s difficult to book for tag teams so that’s why they fall by the wayside so often. Nope! Beyond has proven that when you put the effort into the division you come up with gold, and that’s what we’ve thankfully got now.