Gulak's Silently Waiting, For How the Room Will Be Painted

Drew Gulak vs. Bronson Reed WWE Main Event 6/24/21 - GREAT

ER: I like seeing Gulak in this kind of size mismatch. The bulk of WWE Gulak matches have been against 205 Live types, but he's really fun against big guys. Oney Lorcan always got paired against big guys during his WWE run, and it made sense because he was really great at working a compelling loss. Gulak is great at working big guys and even though we haven't seen it as much, there are a ton of great potential 8 minutes matches sitting out there. I wish we got more of those rather than check what couple things Gulak and Mansoor can switch up in their routine after 5 matches. This is one of those exciting "never before" matches and it's another great look at Gulak's range. This is even more exciting because it happened during Reed's final month hurrah, which was ironically the one month of 2021 where he looked like the next level Reed. The first half of Reed's 2021 was filled with some of his weakest performances I've seen, a guy who seemed to be regressing by the month. But suddenly in June he went on a career-rejuvenating tear, looking like maybe the best guy in an incredibly fun TakeOver trios tag, then having his year-best singles match winning the North American title from Johnny Gargano in a cage, then having this absolute powerhouse monster performance against Gulak. 

So of course he gets released a few weeks later. Anyway, I was hoping for this to be worked like a Tarzan Goto vs. Yuki Ishikawa match, and it kind of started to look like I'd get my wish when they had some tough guy grappling, Reed muscled Gulak into a kind of flapjack out of a piledriver, and then cranked Gulak's ear in a side headlock. It doesn't stay muga for very long, but I like the way they pivot. Reed is at his wrecking ball best in this match, a role he can do well and needs to do exclusively. Less agility spots, more big man. Reed looks great here, really savage. He just knocks Gulak out of the air a couple times, throws him with a press slam, goes in quick with the senton. Gulak's only way out is by hacking at Reed's arm, and Reed is good at working big man while Gulak gets aggressive. Gulak misses a dropkick painfully into the ringpost, but pushes through it to work an awesome hyperextending Fujiwara. Gulak is cool at readjusting the hold to not give up the attack as Reed powered to his feet, and they had a perfect transition out of the Fujiwara when Gulak abandoned it for a schoolboy that instead becomes Reed dropping ass first onto Gulak exactly like Super Porky, one month before Porky's passing. Reed's violent run to the finish really looked like a guy piecing everything together. His death valley driver looked insane, and the top rope splash looked like a fucking finisher. This was a great match to cap a month that could easily be used as a strong example of Bronson Reed's talent, and I hope we get to see Gulak tackle more mountains while he stays impossibly employed. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DREW GULAK