A Few Notes on Beyond Wrestling's Uncharted Territory, Episode 14

Hirsch was one of the better reasons to watch Uncharted Territory, ep. 14 Photo Credit: Earl Gardner

When Beyond Wrestling announced it would be doing a weekly live show on Independent Wrestling TV, well, it was mostly met with excitement and promise. Even though it was, on paper, a risky move, the New England-based promotion has had a reputation for putting itself on the line and coming back not just unscathed but better for the experience. If anyone could produce a show once a week for live streaming, it would be Beyond, right? While streaming numbers have been decent for the company, Denver Colorado (the man, not the place!) thought there was room to grow, so he struck a deal with FITE TV to have this week's episode stream for free. Given that the biggest personal barrier I have to watching is that I'm usually tending to my children at this time and then am too tired to sit in front of a computer to watch, the fact that I was able to watch on a big screen (FITE has an app for streaming devices like Roku, IWTV does not) and the fact that the children were down the shore gave me a perfect opportunity to check it out. ETA: I stand corrected, IWTV DOES have a working Roku app.

The best wrestling shows, hell, even the worst wrestling shows like Monday Night RAW, they are easy to pick up whether you hit them at episode one or in this case episode 14. The commentators recapped the main points of feuds going into show, and while I'm sure this episode had developments layered into it that satisfied people who were on board for between one and 13 shows, it was also gratifying for the people tuning in the first time. Wrestling, after all, prides itself on never having an offseason, which is great for a company like Beyond that runs once a week, stays in one geographical area, and doesn't always use the same cast of characters. For a company like WWE that demands its entire roster work four times a week while paying for its own travel expenses to jetset around the country, well, you get the point.

Adding to how familiar the show was, it had a great mix of wrestlers that people knew in addition to exciting new talent as well. Even people who tuned into Uncharted Territory for the first time would know people like Joey Janela, Mike Quackenbush, Chris Dickinson, The Patriot (!!), Marko Stunt, and Nick Gage. Even further down the roster, names like Solo Darling, Josh Briggs, Razerhawk, Cam Zagami, and Sonny Kiss are known to more than a few people around the world. Even if someone never saw, say, Briggs work before, that name gets mentioned on blogs and on podcasts. Again, you're not tuning into Uncharted Territory seeing an entirely new cast of wrestlers unless you're a WWE-only viewer who decided to check out something new on a dare.

But the talent that was less name-value turned out to be the wrestlers who turned the most heads. Obviously, people who tuned into Uncharted Territory in the past know about Bear Country, but that's an act that was mostly confined to the New England area before getting national exposure through streaming. Here you have a dynamic team of beefy dudes in an era where the compass is starting to turn towards bigger dudes, and they are as good as advertised. The funny thing is that in their match against the shrimpy Stunt Brothers, they worked effectively as the babyfaces in a match where a team like them would be the heel. Like, Bear Beefcake spent a good five minutes taking double-team offense looking for the hot tag to Bear Bronson, and it was a brilliant subversion of expectation. If you have two guys who can garner sympathy like that in a weird and unexpected situation, then you can expect them to have crowds eating out of the palms of their hands in any atmosphere.

Leyla Hirsch is another newer talent who knocked my damn socks off. Obviously, those who still watch Combat Zone Wrestling, god bless 'em, know a bit about Hirsch, who has wrestled a few matches there. But again, Game Changer Wrestling has pretty much surpassed CZW in the Northeast Deathmatch scene, for better or worse. Regardless, she's still only in her third year in the biz, and she fills a giant need for an amateur-style female shooter. Yeah, Sonya DeVille and the Four MMA Horsewomen have one corner of the shooter genre filled up, but MMA-themed wrestlers are not the only catch wrestling enthusiasts in that area. I mean, Ronda Rousey, Gina Carano, and Cris Cyborg among others made women's MMA popular. Who are the Kurt Angle and Aleksandr Karelin in women's amateur wrestling? Where is the analogue to Chad Gable? Hell, even discounting amateur wrestlers, where are the women's catch wrestlers in the same vein as Timothy Thatcher and Drew Gulak? That's where Hirsch comes in.

Putting her against Darling, who by her own rights is a good mat wrestler given her pedigree, was brilliant matchmaking. Darling, whom I count as one of the five best wrestlers in America right now, is one of the most versatile competitors in the game, so she was able to stay with Hirsch on the mat and take her to greater heights. It's also a credit to the commentary booth, featuring Paul Crockett and Sidney Bakabella, that they kept up with the narrative, that it started out as a friendly match that got real heated. Hirsch kept the energy, and her highspot of powerslamming Darling on the apron made me hoot and holler on my couch. I've only seen this one match, and I'm already both a gigantic fan of Hirsch's and want to see more of her. She's got an incredible look as well. Although she can't be an taller than like 5'5", she looks as if she was carved from one giant muscle. She is the definition of stacked, and if you put her in the ring against even Brock Lesnar, I'd believe she could whip his non-vegetable-eating ass.

The show from top to bottom though was strong. It had bumps and bruises, but I mean, no show is truly all-killer, no-filler. Aside from Bear Country/Stunt Doubles and Hirsch/Darling, I think you definitely need to watch the Patriot vs. Anthony Greene, the Chikara atomicos match, and the main event between Joey Janela and Josh Briggs. The Patriot/Greene match masterfully played to Patriot's strengths while allowing Greene, who has a bright future as a top heel in whatever promotion will have him, to break out his threatrics. Although the Chikara atomicos match felt dangerously close to going off the rails late, it stayed in bounds and provided a fun spectacle like fans of the company are used to. Seriously, a multi-person Chikara match is the safest bet in wrestling, even safer than NXT Takeover. The main event hit hard and displayed both Briggs' latent misanthropy as well as Janela's reputation of being the craziest dude in wrestling.

Overall, episode 14 felt like Beyond's best foot forward. If this sampling is representative of the whole, then it means Uncharted Territory is the only must-see weekly serial in wrestling right now. It's more than worth the IWTV sub by itself, but if you do sub up to IWTV, you'll get to see Americanrana '19 which will feature Janela taking on David Starr in a 60-minute iron man match, Nick Gage and Thomas Santell teaming up to take on Filthy Tom Lawlor and Bryan Alvarez (yes, THAT Bryan Alvarez), Chris Dickinson vs. Daisuke Sekimoto, and RD Evans challenging for Orange Cassidy's Independent Wrestling Championship. I'd say it's a good deal.