Beyond Wrestling presents Uncharted Territory Season 3, Episode 1
Event Air Date: October 7, 2021
Event Venue: The White Eagle Bar & Tavern, Worcester, MA
Available on demand via IWTV.live
Uncharted Territory is back on Thursday nights! The third season of IWTV’s popular show featuring the best of Beyond Wrestling is shaping up to be unforgettable. Episode 1 proved that by delivering eight top-tier matches with a mix of talent from Beyond Wrestling and territories beyond the White Eagle.
This week’s lineup of matches are listed below, with the voices of Beyond Wrestling, Paul Crockett and Sidney Bakabella - the best commentary team in indie wrestling today - on the mic!
-Ken Broadway vs. Tyree Taylor
-Wheeler YUTA vs. Leyla Hirsch (IWTV independent Wrestling World Championship Match)
-Masha Slamovich & Matt Makowski vs. YoKai (Janai Kai & Yoya)
-VSK (w/Mark Sterling) vs. Little Mean Kathleen (Open Challenge Match)
-The Kings Of The District (Eel O'Neal & Jordan Blade) & Trish Adora vs. Club Cam (Aaron Rourke, Bobby Orlando & Bryce Donovan) (w/Cam Zagami)
-Tag Team Discovery Gauntlet: 9 To 5 (Jack Verville & Louis Lyndon) vs. The Mane Event (Jay Lyon & Midas Black)
-Chris Dickinson vs. 1 Called Manders
-Alex Shelley vs. Daniel Garcia (Main Event)
It’s like things haven’t missed a beat! The Broadway/Taylor match kicked things off before the show went on the air, and it set a great tone for the night. Having seen a lot of Ken Broadway over the past year, I was thrilled to see him in the Beyond ring going up against big Tyree and going all out in a solid opening match. Tyree Taylor came through with the victory, and hopefully we get to see these two (and maybe a second helping of this match) on the main card soon!
Beyond continues to think outside of the box by starting the first episode of the new season off with a title match. Not only would Wheeler YUTA be defending the IWTV World Championship, but his opponent was none other than his Legit nemesis, Leyla Hirsch. If this match is any indicator of what we’ll be seeing all season then I’m not missing a moment. Beyond never shies away from intergender matches, and neither YUTA nor Leyla shied away from beating the hell out of each other in a serious war for the title. In the end it was YUTA retaining the title, but Leyla proved at several points in the match that she was highly capable of taking the gold from the then-reigning champ. That’s right…I said ‘then-reinging’...
Intergender matches were abundant throughout Episode 1, and I like to think of it as Beyond’s not-so-subtle calling out of other promotions’ refusal to engage their talent in a male vs female bout. With fantastic tag matches like Slamovitch/Makowski vs. YoKai and singles matches like Lil’ Mean Kathleen going up against VSK in an open challenge, it’s difficult to understand why this kind of match is still considered taboo among big business types. The mixed tag match was a memorable Uncharted Territory debut for YoKai; this duo has made a name for themselves throughout the midwest indie promotions (shout out to Paradigm!) as well as JCW and GCW. It was about time we saw Janai Kai and Yoya light up the Beyond ring! Matt Makowski and Masha Slamovitch got a hard-fought win in the tag match, and to follow that up with a brutal singles match between VSK and Lil’ Mean Kathleen drove the point home that Beyond has full intent to live up to its lofty reputation of ‘equal rights, equal fights’!
VSK’s open challenge resulted in a resounding win for him and a celebration for so-called “Smart” Mark Sterling, but the next two matches on Uncharted Territory showcased exemplary tag team work with a six-person tag and then the first round of this season’s Discovery Tag Team Gauntlet. Club Cam is in season and open for business once again with a new lineup of Cam’s cronies - Bobby Orlando, Bryce Donovan, and Aaron Rourke, to be exact! The trio took on the Kings of the District, who teamed up most effectively with Trish Adora. It was great to see Eel O’Neal and Jordan Blade work in cohesion with Adora, who has become a Beyond favorite over the past year. The adoration for Adora is well deserved, too! She and the Kings really stood out in this trios match, but the teamwork of Club Cam can’t be denied. Bobby and Bryce have meshed as a solid team for a while now, and Aaron Rourke is a perfect match for the Club Cam crew. Maybe that’s why Cam’s guys were able to steal the win in this match from Trish and the Kings…but can Club Cam keep that momentum going all season? The post-match drama between O’Neal and Blade and Adora caught everyone’s attention, as well. Will we ever see this awesome trio work together again after this loss?
I’m pretty excited about this season’s Discovery Gauntlet, as Season 3 introduces us to a series of up-and-coming tag teams from the world of indie wrestling. These teams will fight it out to see who’s the best in Beyond by the season’s end, and we started this Gauntlet out with a banger! I’m a major fan of the Mane Event, and I’ll make an easy prediction here by saying Jay Lyon and Midas Black will go far this season if they continue to put on matches like this one against 9 to 5. It’s a crime and a shame I’m just now really noticing Louis Lyndon and Jack Verville; this team not only has a gimmick that you can enjoy hating but their in-ring skill is pretty damn stylish and got my attention in this match! Lyon and Black got the impressive win against 9 to 5 and we’ll see them again in Episode 2. Here’s to seeing Mane Event keep the streak going in the Gauntlet.
If you enjoy beef as much as I do, then you’ll have a great time watching Chris Dickinson take on 1 Called Manders this episode. This was one of those good old beefy boy battles that had plenty of meat in motion. Not gonna lie, as much as these matches titillate and tingle me, there was some damn good wrestling going on here. As strong as both Dickinson and Manders are, it stood to reason that they’d shift the ring around with every slam and from my perspective, they did just that. Good match; this one ended with the Dirty Daddy Dickinson getting the win but Manders definitely tenderized himself some meat before the finish.
This week’s main event was an instant classic, and that’s saying a lot considering we’ve had two complete seasons of Uncharted Territory with several matches considered as Match of the Year candidates in 2019 and 2020. For the first episode of Season 3, however, we got absolutely WILD. Daniel Garcia took on Alex Shelley in a match that was just as memorable as it was technically masterful. Seriously, this main event requires your viewing attention. These two came to show up and show out, especially Garcia who’s enjoyed an amazing 2021 and returned to the White Eagle as a conquering hero. Alex Shelley, though, is a man whose focus was unmatched that night. For twenty straight minutes these two engaged in all out war, and the outcome saw Shelley’s laser-sharp focus guide him straight to victory. Granted, I thought Garcia had this one, but Alex Shelley brought a little something more to Episode 1. Pretty fitting that the episode would end with Shelley standing toe to toe with Wheeler YUTA, who watched this main event with interest from ringside.
Post-Show Thoughts
Be sure to follow up your viewing of Episode 1 with IWTV’s Untitled, a ‘mixtape’ show that aired the night after Uncharted Territory. The last we see of YUTA and Alex Shelley in the ring at the White Eagle leads up to a title match just 24 hours later - and from there, we have a new IWTV champion! Alex Shelley was able to take YUTA to the limit and take his title as well. Now how’s this going to shake things up for the rest of Uncharted Territory Season 3? With a new reigning champ, an exciting new version of the Discovery Gauntlet, and a lineup of fresh new talent coming into Worcester on a weekly basis, the weeks ahead are going to be packed with premium wrestling. Be there each Thursday night on IWTV to see it all happen!