Ain't No Chains to Hold Gulak In, to Hold Gulak To

Drew Gulak vs. Jaxson Ryker WWE Main Event 9/16/21 - GREAT

ER: The last time Gulak showed up in a match before this was also against Ryker, seven weeks earlier on this very program. This match was an improvement over their late July match, which saw Ryker work as a heel while being positioned as the babyface. Not a whole lot changed here, except Ryker seemed to understand that he was the babyface (however bizarre that choice might be) here, and Gulak plays a punishing heel well. The opening match lock-up was great, taken to all sides of the ring, and a nice way of establishing that this was not going to be a heavyweight steamrolling a cruiser. 

Ryker does much of the same offense he did several weeks prior, with a couple important changes that all work to get him face reactions from the crowd: Instead of hard bodyslams, he picks Gulak up for one and then shows him off to the crowd from different angles before slamming him, letting the reaction build before throwing him down and hitting a falling headbutt. Ryker even adds in a surprise rana off the top (not sure I've seen him use that before) to cement his babyface status to the Boston crowd, who has no problem rooting for guys who look like sentient Thin Blue Punisher window decals. 

The best parts of this were Gulak fighting his way back, as he throws some slashing knife edge chops (a stunned Ryker chops him back just as hard), and this great moment where Ryker runs into Gulak's boot and then Gulak wastes him with one of his all time finest lariats. Gulak knows how to make bigger moments (like that huge lariat) read so well, but I also loved little details he added throughout, like when he took a stiff shoulderblock and immediately grabbed for Ryker's leg, tying him up to halt momentum. This was a lightly tweaked version of their previous match, but it was tweaked in all the right ways.   

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DREW GULAK