Far Away, Gulak, There's a Black Sun Risin' Overhead

Drew Gulak vs. Akira Tozawa WWE Main Event 3/25/21 - FUN

ER: It's cool seeing one of these matches that start with Gulak torturing somebody, actually end in Gulak defeating somebody. This match starts a bit slow and then suddenly explodes when Tozawa hits a crazy cannonball off the apron that could have sent him into the second row. We always get some Gulak body punishment, and here he drops a nice elbowdrop on Tozawa's chest, hits a hard backbreaker, hard bodyslam, and generally ties up Tozawa's neck and arm on the mat. This is around the time in Gulak's matches where the flier makes his comeback and Gulak loses, and when Tozawa snaps off a smooth rana and plasters Gulak with a shining wizard, it certainly appears to be heading that way. Tozawa hits a great cannonball off the top into a standing Gulak and gets him in the octopus...and then Gulak breaks the octopus hold by just powering up out of it and smashing Tozawa with a torture rack neckbreaker for the win! What a kick ass way to reverse an octopus hold and win a match. And when Gulak won this match his face actually looked like the face of a man who hasn't tasted victory in awhile. It's those little touches that matter, and Gulak looked like a guy treating this win as the start of a snowball. Even if it's not (it isn't) those smaller character moments elevate things. 

Drew Gulak vs. Humberto Carrillo WWE Main Event 4/1/21 - FUN

ER: I remember this match got talked up a bit when it happened, but despite getting more time than a typical Gulak Main Event match, this felt like pretty ground floor stuff for a Gulak match. There was a bit of a story with Carrillo finding openings both times Gulak went to the top rope (catching him in a Spanish Fly the first time, reversing a back suplex into a crossbody the next time), but the Spanish Fly was one of the things I thought didn't quite work within the match. I'm not really a fan of guys having moves that require their opponent to do something out of character (unless it involves every single person trying to sunset flip Super Porky), and since I have no clue what offense Gulak was thinking of flying off the top to do (considering for most of his time in WWE it was a trademark thing he Does Not Do) it comes off a bit silly. Sillier, however, is Carrillo giving the ref a shocked "ONLY A 2 COUNT!?" face while holding up his fingers, as if that Spanish Fly didn't happen barely 2 minutes into the match. Gulak is a great base for Carrillo, but this match didn't have enough basing, and it didn't have enough Gulak torture. It's not a bad match at all, but I'm used to seeing Gulak craft unique 2-5 minute matches. Seeing him have a Very Normal 8 minute match that somehow contains less cool stuff than his 3 minute matches just sits strangely with me. I really liked Gulak catching Carrillo's whipping kick off the ropes and turning it into a nice ankle lock, then an even better STF, and Carrillo blocking the majistral into his own cradle was a neat finish, but I think they have a much more interesting match in them. This was fine, but most of the time it felt like it should be better. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DREW GULAK