2021 Ongoing MOTY List: Gulak vs. T-Bar

50. Drew Gulak vs. T-Bar WWE Main Event 10/14/21

ER: I have a soft spot for guys languishing in gimmick purgatory, still wearing gear that no longer applies, a name that sounded like a bad idea from go, and a haircut from a months past angle and quickly dissolved stable. I feel enough vicarious embarrassment typing the name "T-Bar" several times in a paragraph, so think of how he feels representing it. Drew Gulak going against heavyweights was probably my favorite WWE match type this past year. Gulak never works the same match and I love how he matches physicality with big guys while working up to their size. You know this is going to be good early on when Gulak punches his way out of a facepalming collar and elbow, throwing big fists at T-Bar's eye. Their standing headlocks looked hard, with Gulak throwing right hands to T-Bar's ribs to break one of them and leaping right in with his own. Drew Gulak is out here throwing clotheslines like he's the size of Sheamus, and he blasts T-Bar with a stiff arm that somehow gets fully absorbed, and Gulak gets flattened by a comebacker. Every strike was thrown with intent and none were flashy, it was just cool attacks like Gulak running and kicking T-Bar in the chest on the apron or sneaking in an elbow smash. Gulak throws an Ikeda-level diving clothesline off the top, rearing back his arm to make even more impact and frankly, it kicked a lot of ass. Top rope diving clotheslines are really tough to make look good, as anyone throwing one has to be more concerned with their own landing than with what their arm is doing, but Gulak here cracked the code. The finish is wild, with Gulak shoving T-Bar off the top and the big man flipping backward to land on his feet, then Gulak flies chin first into T-Bar's boot. Gulak's chin gets a second introduction to T-Bar's knee a moment later after a Go 2 Sleep that's called an Eyes Wide Shut for reasons that nobody is ever going to look into. 

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DREW GULAK

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Drew Gulak is Like a Ghost in the Distance, Out of Reach

Drew Gulak vs. Humberto Carrillo WWE Main Event 2/4/21 - FUN

ER: This felt like the layout of a WCWSN Dean Malenko vs. Hector Garza match, where Dean might've eaten up most of the match working holds only to lose to a quick moonsault. There is a lot of formula wrestling going on in WWE these days, and it's always nice when someone does something to break through those formulas. Gulak breaks formula more than most, and here he completely grounds Carrillo until the final 30 seconds of the match. A match like this allows you to see different aspects of a wrestler's game, and it was cool to see Carrillo work through matwork, and that's not really something he's done in WWE. Due to the lucha feds he worked before WWE, we never got to see him work through maestro lucha exchanges, so I thought it was cool seeing him do just that. Gulak had some great holds, loved his kind of inside out deathlock where he pinned Carrillo's legs in a figure 4 and then put all his weight on them, or his different crossfaces that Carrillo fought out of by loosening Gulak's grip, throwing blind chops behind him hoping one lands, and finally a couple back elbows. Carrillo had a slick rolling single leg takedown, Gulak locked in a cool inverted armbar, and I loved the Rings of Saturn variation Gulak used while digging his elbow into Carrillo's side. The finish was abrupt, which is what reminded me of a WCW match, where someone might dominate but then lose tidily when told to go home. Carrillo finally makes it to his feet without getting taken right back down, fakes Gulak out on a kick to set up a spin kick to Gulak's forehead, giving him time to hit the moonsault. I would have loved to see this all mat based, to see Carrillo work a couple of counters, but what we got was cool. 

Drew Gulak vs. T-BAR WWE Main Event 2/18/21 - GREAT

ER: This was maybe a step below the Gulak/Titus O'Neil Main Event match, but it's not far off and has that same layout as that match. Gulak is going to only get 20% of the match, but he takes his 20% in 2% snipes the entire match. It's only 4 minutes, and even though the match is made almost entirely up of T-BAR throwing Gulak and Gulak landing in painful ways, Gulak felt like a guy who could always craftily work his way to a win. This was not a pre-ordained T-BAR victory, no matter how decisively he was smashing Gulak into the mat. Gulak hit hard to make up the size difference, and there was a great spot where Gulak hit a hard forearm to T-BAR's chest, and T-BAR was supposed to just walk through it and feel nothing, but we got a bit of a Benoit/Ice Train situation instead. T-BAR had some great downward elbows while trapping Gulak in the corner, hit a great rolling pump kick that Gulak leaned deeply into, had a clumsy but impactful middle rope splash that felt like the glory days of 2000 where WWF heavyweights sometimes tried shit mid-match that they hadn't done before. Gulak makes slams look really painful, doesn't pinball around the ring making things look bouncy, he makes these landings look rough. It was a match long performance of a guy fighting a losing battle, that somehow didn't feel that way. 

Drew Gulak vs. Angel Garza WWE Raw 5/3/21 - FUN

ER: Gulak never seems to get much more than two minutes in ring on Raw, and it's even weirder that he already had a two minute match against Angel Garza on Raw a few months ago, but he's someone who will always have some cool things in that two minutes. He tries to jump Garza during the pants removal, but Garza whips those things off and dropkicks Drew on his way in. Gulak was good at staying off balance and stumbling into Garza's offense, and when he took over he had some really nasty chokes. Drew has a sick bully choke takeover and a snug headlock takeover, then really jams his forearm into Garza's Adam's apple. Garza matches that energy back and violently grabs at Gulak's face while screaming at him in the corner. There's no reason we couldn't have been given 2 more minutes of this, as there's only so much you can do in 2, but a full match can be had in 4 so come on man. They get 10 minutes on Main Event, give them a couple extra on Raw. Oh well, Gulak takes the wing clipper with a nice snap and then gets a rose shoved into his crack and punted in by Garza. That's a finish. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DREW GULAK

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