Review: Uncharted Territory Season 1, Episode 5

byThatRoseTattoo •
0


Uncharted Territory, Season 1 Episode 5
Original Air Date: May 1, 2019 (Re-aired May 5, 2020)
Episode Venue: Electric Haze in Worcester, MA
Streaming on IWTV.live
The beginning of this Uncharted Territory gives us a look at David Starr going over a list of his accomplishments in Beyond Wrestling. Granted, Starr has a lengthy history with the promotion, but he claims that he’s done all there is to do as far as competition goes. Despite this claim it’s pretty clear there’s still unfinished business between Starr and Dickinson and Janela. This episode, however, focused on SLITHER taking on the Beaver Boys to see if Silver and Reynolds’s dirty streak of wins would continue.
On Commentary: Paul Crockett and Josh Briggs
During this re-airing of Episode 5, Josh Briggs received a nice bit of praise on Twitter for his work. I can’t lie, I didn’t know how well Josh would do in these initial shows but he’s a strong color commentator and has been consistently hilarious in working with Crockett.


Match 1: Best Friends (Chuck Taylor and Trent) vs. Ortiz & Santana
Tag matches, when they’re given enough time to shine, are incredible with the right group of people. This opening match with Best Friends and EYFBO is a prime example of this statement. It was the show starter, but this one was also the show stealer. Trent was the stand out of the Best Friends here, and he’s done amazing work since then in AEW. Thankfully people are starting to see how good he is. Ortiz and Santana get the win here after a classic tag match (one of two banger tag team matches on this episode) and all four guys got a chance to shine. 


Match 2: LD ‘Mantis’ Montisanti vs. Thomas Santell
Mantis returned to the Discovery Gauntlet for his second time out after defeating Mick Moretti. His opponent this week? An Ovaltine aficionado named Thomas Santell making his Beyond debut in the Gauntlet. Looking at the crowd around the Electric Haze you wouldn’t expect a guy like Thomas Santell to find his audience, but he certainly pulled it off just like he pulled off the victory against Mantis. The crowd was solidly in favor of Mantis for the majority of the bout, but by the end Santell won the people over after having gone all out in a great match.


Match 3: Veda Scott vs. Solo Darling vs. Penelope Ford vs. Ashley Vox
This fatal four-way had some of the best female talent in independent wrestling today, including Veda Scott who was making her return to the Beyond ring in this episode. Overall the match was good; Solo and Vox really stand out as powerhouses here. Solo gets the win here and went on her way to Beyond’s Lethal Lottery as the next stop, looking for the opportunity to select her own opponent.


Match 4: Milk Chocolate (Brandon Watts and Randy Summers) vs. Bear Country (Bear Beefcake and Bear Bronson)
Ok, the history of Beyond Wrestling fans and Milk Chocolate might not be the most agreeable, but let me just say that I love these guys. I just do, it’s their energy. And it’s that same energy that kept Randy Summers and Brandon Watts in the fight against Bear Bronson and Bear Beefcake where otherwise anyone would have rightfully written this one off as a squash. This was a decent match that ended with Bear Country hitting the Elevator Drop on Milk Chocolate for the victory, but after the match we were again visited by Chuck O’Neil, who ran everyone away from the ring and, after again trashing all of the competitors, declared that he’d bring quality to the product once more.
Match 5: Kris Statlander vs. The Whisper
I’ve seen The Whisper’s work in CHIKARA, and it was cool to see him go up against Kris Statlander here in a singles match on Uncharted Territory. This one was excellent; The Whisper makes a fantastic opponent against Statlander and, as has been stated before, the amount of time given to this match allowed both involved to look their best. Statlander got the win here and I wonder why we haven’t seen more of The Whisper in both seasons of Uncharted Territory; the guy is quality and deserves more ring time.


Before the main event Anthony Greene (in cutoff jeans and a green halter shirt, LOL) and the Platinum Hunnies make an appearance as the gWo (Green World Order, naturally) hyping Anthony Greene taking on Stevie Richards at Lethal Lottery. Fun segment that put the Retrosexual over as a challenger while maintaining his comic vibe, much like Dancin’ Stevie did back in his later ECW years.
Match 6: SLITHER (Joey Janela and Chris Dickinson w/Penelope Ford) vs. The Beaver Boys (John Silver and Alex Reynolds)
The second tag match on this show went just as hard as the one in the opener, so we’ve got bookends of classic tag matches on Episode 5. Beyond set a standard early with its Uncharted Territory main events; there hasn’t been a bad one yet and this main event is among the best I’ve seen yet. Janela and Dickinson hit their stride as a pair with this match, going up against Silver and Reynolds who were already specialists at teaming together. 
The cheat-to-win mentality was still strong with the Beaver Boys, though, and it all came to a head in this match when Silver inadvertently laid the ref out at an opportune moment for his team. If that wasn’t bad enough, Penelope Ford took Silver’s CZW title and took off with it just as he was ready to use it as a weapon. Silver left the match to retrieve his title, leaving Reynolds alone to take SLITHER’s finisher and eat the pin. This is why cheaters never prosper, you know.


Post-Show Thoughts
It was great to see tag team matches with ample time both starting and ending this episode. When I first started watching Uncharted Territory I was overly impressed with the mixed-gender matches; those were the ones that got people talking. Now with the re-airing of the first season I see that the show is meant to be distinct in all styles - technical, high flying, brawling, tag team, trios, comedy, and deathmatches. There’s a variety there, and what’s most important to note is that the viewers do not end the episode feeling like they’ve been cheated out of what could have been a longer match.
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