Drew Gulak Will Stare Straight Into Nothing

Drew Gulak vs. Angel Garza WWE Raw 12/22/20 - FUN

ER: Having a match like this go 2 minutes is never not going to be Total Bullshit. If you watch the Gulak/Cesaro match from WrestleMania, you can see what kind of genuinely special match Gulak is capable of putting together with just 4 minutes, but 2 minutes? When a match doesn't go as long as the ring intros, several different people running a multi million dollar TV show fucked up several segment time allocations. What's even more cruel, is that this was the first time these two have ever been matched up, and it's very clear from these 2 minutes that their chemistry is real. We get a great gag to start, with Garza throwing his just removed pants into Gulak's face while attacking him, setting an aggressive pace that I'm glad they worked for the 2 measly minutes they were allowed. I liked the struggle they showed during the 2 minutes, nothing ever looked like part of a sequence, everything they did looked like some kind of fight was behind it. Gulak muscling up Garza with a backbreaker, all the forearms and punches and shots to ribs, and Gulak jamming his elbow into Garza's thigh to reverse an abdominal stretch (only Gulak can make an abdominal stretch look like a finisher worthy sub in 2020, even digging his fist into that soft portion of Garza's side underneath the ribs). This was an awesome scrap, and the way they tangled and threw off balance could have turned into something really special with just a couple more minutes, but the finish we got was way too premature. 

Drew Gulak vs. AJ Styles WWE Raw 1/11/21 - FUN

ER: Disappointing 3 minute match that could have been much more worthwhile with another minute or two and some better time management. There was a frustrating amount of time dedicated to a set up shot of Gulak starting at the size of Styles' bodyguard's foot, and an unsatisfying battle up top over a superplex that didn't really go anywhere but ate up significant match time. When they stuck to grounded interactions it was great, loved how Styles started things with his nice dropkick and kicked Gulak right in the chest upon landing. Gulak falls really well for Styles, and gets to hit a cool unexpected tiger driver and this awesome bridging fallaway slam, also takes a big bump over the top to the floor. But this was about as low end as you can get for a match between Gulak and Styles, mostly due to time. 

Drew Gulak vs. Humberto Carrillo WWE Main Event 1/18 (Aired 1/21/21) - GREAT

ER: Now here's a cool match, and one of the strongest Carrillo performances I've seen in at least a couple months. Gulak is obviously going to be a great opponent for a flyer, but Carrillo's flash landed a lot better here than it can. They start with some fun matwork, with Gulak working an American lucha maestro style that Carrillo can roll with nicely. But I loved how the matwork and bridging wasn't really getting Gulak anywhere, so at some point he just says Fuck It and starts bending at Carrillo's arm. Gulak is great at taking Carrillo's armdrags and leaning face first into his spinning kicks, and the whole match is him getting sick of taking that flippy trickery and just slugging Carrillo in the stomach or throat, or planting him with a kneeling bodyslam or driving a knee into his torso. We get an Actually Good strike exchange that built nicely. There was no trading, nothing that looked like a prepped combo, just Gulak getting in a shot before being thrown off balance by a kick, giving Carrillo a chance to throw another kick while Gulak tried to fire back off balance. It looked great. Carrillo hits one of the smoothest version of his handspring armdrag, Gulak goes purple trying to snap Carrillo's arm and making it look like Carrillo is fighting for his damn limb. It's a lovely yin/yang. Carrillo's springboard spinning kick saw Gulak leap to take it in the face as if he was heading a soccer ball, looked fantastic, and the moonsault finish was academic. Give me 8 minute Gulak matches on a C show against weird Main Event opponents (Tucker? Slapjack? Riddick Moss?) and let's see how much cool shit he can pull off. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DREW GULAK