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My Gulak Must Be Acknowledged - The WWE Main Event thread


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On 6/22/2021 at 11:20 AM, RunningFromAmerica said:

NXT invades Main Event this week with Karrion Kross taking on Shelton Benjamin and Bronson Reed facing Drew Gulak.

It would have been better if Kross was facing Jeff Hardy, but the 2nd match sounds alright maybe.

I'm oddly fascinated by the idea of Kross vs Benjamin. Reed vs Gulak could be swank if it was competitive enough. I have my doubts about that, though.

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Kross had a generic entrance with normal camera angles. And Scarlett wasn't there. He had two things going for him, and they took both away.

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Ricochet vs Drew Gulak

Commentators don't quite reference the no-fly zone, but they report Gulak saying that he hates everything Ricochet stands for, with Ricochet getting the best of it. Gulak turns it into a test of strength and begins to win it, but Ricochet bridges and hits a monkey flip for 2. He mainstains the hand control and tries it again, but Gulak rolls out of it and gets him in a japanese stranglehold. Wrestling! Ricochet reverses into a waistlock from which he sends Drew off the ropes and leapfrogs, but Gulak catches him and rolls him over into a double-leg pin for 2. Nice! Ricochet with the dropkick as they both get up, 1 count. Ricochet tries a suplex but Gulak escapes and hits a brutal looking bodyslam with Ricochet's legs....ricocheting...off the ropes. Looked nasty. 2 count, and Ricochet rolls out as we go to break. We come back to a Main Event Chinlock, but they replay the slam and commentators suggest it may neutralise Ricochet's air offence. Sick gut-wrench suplex from Gulak. Another 2 count. Gulak mauls him some more and put him in a single leg crab and makes Ricochet go to the ropes. Gulak weirdly calls Ricochet 'a good guy' and hits an elbow strike for another 2. 2 elbow drops for another nearfall. He takes Ricochet to the corner, but Ricochet is able to use the corner to kick Drew Gulak away and follow up with a 2nd rope crossbody. Both men are down. Ricochet with the big comeback strikes and the angry lariat for 2, and then follow up with the Hager/Lumis head and arm choke. Gulak powers out and hits another hard bodyslam whilst falling to his knees and gets another 2. He goes for some kind of armhold, but Ricochet escapes easily and goes for the head and arm again. Gulak elbows out but misses a clothesline and Ricochet gets a Side Effect. Back in the head and arm, Gulak locks his hands to relieve the pressure, but Ricochet uses the opportunity to grab the arm and transition into and Anaconda Vice (!) for the tap in just over 7 and half minutes of TV time.

This was all kinds of great. Rating: 4.0

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Bronson Reed vs Drew Gulak

They wisely ditched the 'Reed does his warface on the Tron and then they switch to him doing it live' bit. This is a man who needs to work on his warface a lot if they want to try that on the big stage. Modern-day Tugboat is much more his thing. Gulak has switched gear here, dude's got himself a fresh tan and a trap pump. But it doesn't do him much good as he gets thrown on his face from the lockup, then he tries a go-behind waistlock but gets thrown off pretty easily, then he tries a single leg and get held upside down and tossed away again. Reed gets a headlock, Gulak whips him but then just gets shoved away when he tries a leapfrog. Reed then kills him with a big senton and Gulak rolls out. Gulak manages to drop Reed's arm across the top rope coming in to take some vague semblance of control. Gulak targets the arm and a dropkick in the corner takes Reed down to a knee. more armwork but the second corner dropkick misses and he flies into the turnbuckles. Reed follows up with a military press into a front first drop. Gulak manages to get a chinbreaker and goes back to the arm...unfortunately he tries a schoolboy and Bronson his a standing Earthquake splash. It's all over from here as he hits an avalanch, a Vader Charge, a suplex into a Death Valley Driver...and of course the Tsunami top-rope splash gets the win for Bronson in a little over 4 minutes

Tbh I kind of liked this match better second time. The Main Event audience was not the actual audience of this match, Gulak was clearly told to make Reed look like a killer. Reed hit way too much offence near the end, he could have went for the Tsunami after the avalanche and that's twenty seconds Gulak could have spent on heat. That might be picky, but if we're evaluating the guy. Rating: 3.2

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Shelton Benjamin vs Karrion Kross

Ugh. Lockup struggle to start, Kross gets Shelton in the corner but gives a clean break. They try the lockup again and this time Benjamin goes behind and gets a waistlock takedown. Kross gets up and backs him into the corner again and inevitably no clean break this time. He mauls Shelton and then starts with the trash talk; 'I know you. I've been watching you for years. I know you like the back of my hand'. Sheton doesn't like this and introduces him to the back of his hand and then hits a flying shouldertackle but Kross quickly gets back control and goes back to the 'I know you' schtick, then tries a suplex but Benjamin reverses to a neckbreaker, and then hits a running flying bodypress to take both of them over the top as we go to break. As we return Shelton whips Kross but Kross no sells..something (a punch to the gut?) and hits a lariat. 2 count. Stomps and then a top wristlock into an elbow strike. He then gets the suplex for another 2 count. Arm-based resthold for a bit then admittedly quite nice arm drag counter from Benjamin and a clothesline for the double down. Shelton makes the comeback and hits the Stinger Splash, and then another clothesline. But this time Kross no sells and hits a definitely not a Saito suplex for 2. Then he tries an Irish Whip but Shelton blocks and they botch some kind of wristlock into a suplex. Then Kross catches the leg and despite knowing Shelton like the back of his hand spins Shelton into the Dragon Whip. FFS. That makes no sense. Two count. He goes for the T-Bone, but it is blocked and then he is kicked in the face running into the corner. Kross Jacket gets the win via referee stoppage in about 6:20 of TV time.

DVDVR was not that much into Shelton during his Gold Standard run, and I struggle to see why we would like him more now tbh. Kross isn't great, and didn't come across very well here. I can see he tried to tell a little story, but then he blew it. And they blew spots. This wasn't the ting. Basic. They fired Miro so they could push this guy??! LOL. Rating: 2.5

Edited by RunningFromAmerica
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Mace & T-Bar vs Lucha House Party

Look it was perfectly ok but a pretty similar match to two weeks ago. This time Dorado takes out T-Bar and himself, so Mace to hits a ChokeBaldoDerailerBaldoIchiban Bomb on Metalik for the win in just under 7 minutes

Rating: 3.1

Yes I will review Veer vs Gulak, it wasn't terrible.

Edited by RunningFromAmerica
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  • 2 weeks later...

I'll just do quick reviews to catchup, as there hasn't been anything really that worth checking out in a while (Veer's elbow drop aside perhaps):

Drew Gulak vs Veer

- basically Gulak tries to take Veer to the mat, and even puts him in an Indian Deathlock...but Veer wins with three corner splashes and a 'baseball pitch closthesline'. Veer has a great elbow-drop with ludicrous height and hang-time - it really needs to be his finish. He's ultimate a second-string big heel to be fed to whoever, but he seems ok.

Shelton Benjamin vs Angel Garza

- Benjamin's best match on Main Event by a long stretch, but I dunno he's kind of boring and some of his stuff looks off somehow. Angel Garza is basically a babyface now, and so he's busting out some different stuff which might be of interest to some. Garza wins with a high angle 2nd rope moonsault.

Jeff Hardy vs Veer

- Hardy bounces around like a pinball and eats the elbow, gets his usual comeback but tries the Twisto and Veer shrugs him off and hits the corner splashes and clothesline for the win. I respect Hardy not trying to 50-50 shit, but nothing to see here.

Shelton Benjamin vs Mansoor

- HOLY RAW ANGLE DEVELOPMENT BATMAN! Mustafa Ali comes out dressed swank, and when Benjamin tries to use the ropes to win he points it out to the ref. Mansoor wins with a rollup soon after, from the first angle it looked like he used the tights himself but the replay revealed that he didn't. Match was what you'd expect; Mansoor is basically completely ok at this point, and Benjamin rolls with things and more or less plays heel. It's all fine, but nothing worth going out your way to see.

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Angel Garza vs Jaxson Ryker

I had forgotton about this match, perhaps ironically. Handshake cements Garza as a babyface, but then he get control using the pants spot which is a bit heelish maybe? dunno. Anyways, Ryker has most of the offence here and wins in 5 minutes with a slightly botched Black Hole Slam. Ryker isn't terrible, but he's not exactly brilliant either.

Still....we get Garza vs Gulak and Ricochet (welcome back to Main Event Ricky!) vs Cedric this week so perhaps normal service shall be resumed!

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 8/1/2021 at 11:29 PM, D.Z said:

I wish they taped more womens matches.

Not really sure who'd they'd feature? The Baez maybe?

Humberto Carrillo vs Angel Garza 07.29.21

Garza was back working heel and they pretty much did the match they've done a bunch of times, with Garza winning with the Wing Clipper. Garza wooing the ladies on the outside obviously hadn't happened for a while, but I'm not sure this is enough to justify going out of your way to see this.

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08.05.21

Angel Garza vs Lince Dorado

This was actually pretty decent though didn't go very long. Garza is back to being heel, but the crowd is pretty into his shtick and obviously he wins with the Wing Clipper

Jaxson Ryker vs Cedric Alexander

Cedric Alexander was actually really good here, and carried Jaxson to what may well be his best match in WWE so far. But Ryker is still pretty bland and a little sloppy, and the Chicago crowd shit all over him and the result - which obviously was him winning with the Black Hole Slam.

Probably the best Main Event in a while though.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

08.12.21 - Vince's Revenge Special

Aaliyah vs Dakota Kai

This was pretty rough tbh, with Aaliyah seemingly whiffing a few things including the finish - a jumping DDT of sorts after 5 1/2 minutes. Kai seemed pretty over though. 

Austin Theory vs Odyssey Jones

This was fun actually, and borderline worth checking out - Theory has just risen in my estimation and he did a good job of shining Jones up and then finding ways to get control. Jones hit a second-rope frog splash for the win in around 5 1/2 minutes

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  • 3 weeks later...

08.19.21

Ricochet vs Angel Garza

This was fine, not really worth going out of your way to see but completely acceptable. Ricochet with the Recoil.

Jaxson Ryker vs Cedric Alexander

Cedric almost nearly kind of got something out of Ryker a few weeks previous, but didn't here. Jaxson won with the spinning Boss Man Slam.

 

08.26.21

Jeff Hardy vs Shelton Benjamin

This was actually pretty good - these two click well and the people were into it (obviously crowd's are v. happy to get Jeff Hardy as a curtain jerker). Hardy with the usual. Borderline worth checking out.

Viking Raiders vs LHP

It was alright, Raiders don't do a lot for me in this kind of setting. They won with the Viking Experience.

 

09.02.21

Jeff Hardy vs Cedric Alexander

Although not as good as Hardy vs Shelton, I like Cedric's schtick and it got him heat against an over babyface (see above). Out of position on the finish though, which was Hardy with the usual obviously.

Mustafa Ali and Mansoor vs LHP

LHP have new music, and it rules! Mustafa Ali and Mansoor are doing the tag partners who don't really get along, which is very played out trope....but as it involves Mustafa Ali, it manages to be competely brilliant and this is therefore lots of fun and I recommend to check it out. I won't even spoil the result. Well worth watching.

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  • 1 month later...

Clearly I lost my way with this, and now Gulak is on Smackdown sob.

I did watch a couple of matches e.g. Karrion Kross vs Ricochet (has happened again since), but meh.

I will probably check out Morrison vs Gulak though.

They didn't overtly do the Raw get 3 picks, SD 2 this time around so looking at the roster there's a little less obvious Main Event fodder. I'm kind of hoping for a Alpha Academy vs Ricochet run.

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