2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

8. Biff Busick v. Drew Gulak CZW 4/27

PAS: Man there is some weird stuff going on in CZW. The land of Wifebeater and Nick Mondo is apparently putting on almost Jack Briscoeish long mat based title matches. These guys hit the mat hard for 10 or so minutes and it is really great. Gulak can make simple things like go behinds and headlocks look really good, and Busick is a strong looking guy who has some nice powering out counters. Gulak has some nice douchey cheapshots too, kicks to the temple, biting the fingers, twisting the ankle and knees. He controls the match, and Busick does a nice job working from underneath, making some big comebacks and near falls, but Gulak always finds away to take over. Happy to see some indy wrestling I can get behind and get excited about.

ER: Wow. Sometimes when you're not paying attention, two guys you've never watched before go and get really damn great. Suddenly CZW has a whole crew of Billy Robinsons, with Timothy Thatcher, Drew Gulak and Biff Busick. This match is 30 minutes of pure greatness. I think the word "solid" gets both overused and misused a lot when talking about wrestlers, in the same way people often use "average" or "mediocre" to mean "awful". But these are two solid motherfuckers right here. Everything they do is snug, and not just mindless stiffness, just tight solid ringwork with no light showing between contact. The shoulderblocks thud, the back elbows land, the kneebars wrench, everything just works and looks great. It's like two Cesaro's spending 30 minutes just wearing the other down. The first 10 minutes of grappling is great, and really the whole thing is a war which had me wondering which guy was gonna break first. Truthfully I tend to get a little distracted during longer matches, but I think that's mostly due to most matches not actually needing to go very long to effectively convey the story they're trying to tell. I think it's a testament to how engaging this long match was that Phil told me it went around 19 minutes, and it really went 30. By the time I realized the match had overshot the 19 minute mark it was almost over. Everything in it is just so damn good. Gulak's middle rope elbow drop, Busick's body shots, Gulak's rolling wristlock, the tangled leg lock they end up in, a couple nasty suplexes, a dangerous top rope tease that ends with Gulak throwing back headbutts and his elbow point to Busick's face. If this is the new direction indy wrestling is trending, sign me the hell up.


2014 MASTER LIST