Uncharted Territory: Episode 70

[Cory Olson]

The LOW team returns with the follow-up to the memorable Episode 69 with Episode 70 of Uncharted Territory! This week, we answer some great questions that we didn't have time for in Episode 64; questions from this Discussion Board and specifically from faithful promoters and listeners Kevin Butcher (@kevinb) and Jared Bals (the_faction)! We answers questions on the LOW card-creation process, move names, wrestlers we'd love to interview, a second LOW team draft, and more! Find out what these videos have to do with this episode!


Uncharted Territory: Episode 70

[TTX]

Very fun. I do think drafting is the most fun of those things and after a while, the feds tend to fall apart.
Also neat hearing about choosing the moves for names.

To talk: Frank Gotch

And I'm willing to volunteer.

[Pete]

Tim's approach to making cards is pretty similar to mine--I lay the card out first and fill in the actual moves last (though I'll lock a finisher and some other big moves in place at the start if there's little debate as to where those moves would go. If I make Jake the Snake, I know the DDT's the finisher, I know it'll be +4 with an asterisk, and I know the short-arm clothesline is going to be L2O #6).

Squash matches are a nice quick and easy way to start building a moveset, but thing I noticed about territory guys in particular is that they would definitely hold some moves back for bigger, arena matches that they wouldn't necessarily do on TV. Ivan Koloff was where I first noticed this--his WWWF squashes tended to be pretty formulaic, but in the arenas against Backlund he's doing suplexes and other things both offensively and defensively that he wasn't doing in Allentown against Steve King. So you need a balance of squashes and big-time matches--and yes, not necessarily matches against Andre the Giant or Big Show or Goldberg. (If you're making an AEW guy, a lot of Dark squashes are competitive and guys "get their s*** in" most of the time, so those help a lot.)

If you want to pay a subscription fee, newspapers.com is a great resource for vintage guys (and lots of other things). Some articles would provide an entire play-by-play of a match, especially going back to the turn of the century. And a search for "Vintage Guy X" + "favorite hold" can often get you a finisher if you're missing one. I was able to construct an entire card for Nouroulah the Turk just based on newspaper articles.

[Pete]

Re: moves...I still don't know exactly what a "sidewalk slam" is. Apparently the modern consensus is that it's the side buster drop that Gorilla would call a "side suplex" when Dino Bravo did it. But I always thought of that as a "side suplex" and that a sidewalk slam was the same thing as the Boss Man Slam.

Another confusing-in-hindsight finisher name similar to Adnan: Boris Malenko also used a camel clutch as a finisher, called the "Russian Sickle." If we ever got a Malenko card, we'd probably have to call it a "Russian Sickle Hold" or something because younger fans will associate that move with a clothesline.

"Reverse neckbreaker" is the common term, or at least once was, for the standard back-to-back neckbreaker like the Rude Awakening. I don't know what a regular "neckbreaker" is unless it's a move that didn't really exist at the time like the Stunner.

And a rowboat is decidedly a different move than a double hamstring stretch.

The Death Valley Driver website used to have a giant compendium of wrestling moves up to about 2001, based on an old online Finishers List from the early, early days of the Web. One bit of nomenclature it was strict about that I've always tried to incorporate since was that "inverted" referred to positioning, while "reverse" referred to motion. So Sting's Scorpion Death Drop is an INVERTED DDT, not a "reverse DDT," which I guess would be like a flipping neckbreaker. A "reverse suplex" is the same as a front suplex (gourdbuster), an "inverted suplex" has the opponent face-up.

Bottom line: wrestling isn't exactly judo or sumo where there's an accepted if not official list of techniques and terms for them. It's more like American football where each coach's terminology is a little different, and a "dog" technique is different in one defense than it is for another or a "west coast offense" has a different meaning depending on what timeframe you're talking about.

[guiltyparty]

Good episode. I enjoyed the discussion on card creation. It reminded me of when I tried to create a bootleg of the Natural Disasters and trying to come up with 15 moves for Typhoon broke me. I think I had three variations of a body slam on there.
Talk to (in the game): Randy Savage
Talk to (any): Fritz Von Erich

[victoryroll84]

Loved the episode guys, well done

I for one would love to roll out the draft matches for ya lol (it would be lots of fun).

Have a safe weekend everybody!

[Deleted]

As always, well done gentlemen!

[Matt]

Quality content again, although I hear next week's ep will be way better!

[Pariah]

The discussion on card creation offered a lot of insight into the work that you guys do behind the scenes... It really shows how much you guys love what you do.

On a different note... And I'm not sure how serious you guys were... But, I would definitely be happy to roll out matches for your draft fed... If you find any other volunteers, just let me know... Honestly, it would be kinda entertaining to watch you guys book your separate territorial promotions while other players actually run the matches.

Great job, fellas... As always!

[LAWraith]

Wow ... Tim has got me beat. We dont usually do the home owner but I have gone to at least one red wing game since 1986. My dad was commissioner of little league for western NY so he always got free tickets.

One of the games we went to very early on we sat behind some guys my dad recognized first and then when the game became a blow out we started talking and I told the guy my favorite team was the Baltimore Orioles. I told him about watching their world series game and that Cal Ripken was my favorite player. The guy asked me if I knew he was and I said you're my favorite baseball player and Cal signed my red wings hat that I still have.

I'm not as big Orioles fan today but still a big Rochester Red Wing fan. I love their stadium and my wife who isnt that big a baseball fan loves going for the food lol. Great stadium. Will have to check the calendar out and see which game we want to go to. UofR usually has a weekend where they offer buy one get one if your a healthcare professional.