Seeing The Grappling Guru Gulak Rock NXT over 30 Minutes

[trollrogue]

NXT's always been a great spot to place guys who had trouble getting over on other WWE shows. Tyson Kidd, Cesaro, Mickie James they all really revitalized their career spending time to allow themselves to be highlighted better with the NXT system versus maybe WWE main's system of 'only push the same 4 people'. Just seeing Drew Gulak impress me more than he ever has in his entire 205Live tenure on the latest episode of NXT-- let's be real he was the perfect heel for Bro and that after-match handshake was everything-- it's worth trying to compare who is having the most success switching brands.

Obviously my pick is Gulak even with a maybe (?) one-off appearance on NXT. Drew is cemented as a technical master after this match, even if he seemed like an at-best lite version of Lance Storm-- now I know he can go on a grander stage and hold the audience in the palm of his hand (especially with the first match against Gugenheim). Also DAT DROPSAULT DROPKICK DOE on Riddle in the middle of his bro fists in the corner, really woke the already-invested crowd up from thinking this was just gonna be a technical mat wrestling clinic

But also Buddy Murphy morphed from a tag team dude overshadowed by his valet in NXT to an unbeatable, unstoppable Juggernaut on 205Live. He's been Champ the second longest in WWE after only Bruiserweight Pete Dunne, and both are billed to be about equal in terms of skill. Not a bad rebrand.

Also, Mustafa Ali has seemingly won the jackpot of random reshuffling. Getting to pin the WWE Champion Daniel Bryan clean. Main-eventing the Elimination Chamber with Bryan and literally every other top guy on SDLive. And this is all after jobbing to Cedric Alexander and Buddy Murphy for months on 205Live, he definitely seems to be finding his groove as the ultimate underdog and his eventual (midcard) title win will be epic.

Who is better off right now would you say?

[trollrogue]

Hmm just realized-- if they made Jinder Mahal the WWE Champion pinning a former multi-champ (Randy Orton) they might also make Ali the WWE Champion pinning a former multi-champ (Daniel Bryan) in the EC. might have to switch my vote

[Deleted]

That was awesome...I wish they would have let it end with the win over Bugenhagen though because “heroic face” Matt Riddle showing up and making an already somewhat worn down Gulak tap really kind of soured me. That was a good match, but I’ve officially decided Matt Riddle is my least favorite pro wrestler of all time, and I’m worried that Gulak is just gonna have a cup of coffee in NXT as a means to get MMA Spiccoli over as a submission master.

[Deleted]

Might need to look this up if only to see if it raises my opinion of Gulak. His SRSing up killed my interest in him, especially combined with how alongside that he was putting on complete borefests in the ring.

[trollrogue]

It was great since it protected Gulak more than sold Riddle to me, even after a match where the crowd was really into the face Bugenhagen "Guggenheim" (as Nigel kept calling him) Gulak a 205 lbs. lightweight owned him. Then proceeded to issue an open challenge, THEN proceeded to take the NXT newest darling to the absolute limit before tapping out. THEN... the handshake-- Gulak's best performance in WWE by far for again over 30 minutes straight really stole the show.

[trollrogue]

Feb 9, 2019 16:03:25 GMT -5 Lizuka #BLM said:

Might need to look this up if only to see if it raises my opinion of Gulak. His SRSing up killed my interest in him, especially combined with how alongside that he was putting on complete borefests in the ring.

It works much better in NXT since a lot of the guys are over-the-top like Bugenhagen was on his debut. Gulak has a lot more ammunition to use against high-flyers and people that don't respect traditional wrestling on NXT than facing Lucha House Party week-in week-out. Not only that, dream matches against other technicians like Roddy Strong, Pete Dunne, Johnny Gargano, Tommosso Ciampa, Aliester Black, I instantly want to see Gulak open challenge them next week.

[Friday Night SmackSown]

Feb 9, 2019 16:04:23 GMT -5 trollrogue said:

It was great since it protected Gulak more than sold Riddle to me, even after a match where the crowd was really into the face Bugenhagen "Guggenheim" (as Nigel kept calling him) Gulak a 205 lbs. lightweight owned him. Then proceeded to issue an open challenge, THEN proceeded to take the NXT newest darling to the absolute limit before tapping out. THEN... the handshake-- Gulak's best performance in WWE by far for again over 30 minutes straight really stole the show.

The handshake ends up being somewhat significant for people familiar with Riddle & Gulak pre-NXT, particularly in the way they did it. (For those not familiar, both guys were a part of Catch Point in EVOLVE Wrestling, basically a stable of shoot/catch wrestlers)

I'd love to see Riddle & Gulak being a tag team at some point.

[Deleted]

Feb 9, 2019 16:04:23 GMT -5 trollrogue said:

It was great since it protected Gulak more than sold Riddle to me, even after a match where the crowd was really into the face Bugenhagen "Guggenheim" (as Nigel kept calling him) Gulak a 205 lbs. lightweight owned him. Then proceeded to issue an open challenge, THEN proceeded to take the NXT newest darling to the absolute limit before tapping out. THEN... the handshake-- Gulak's best performance in WWE by far for again over 30 minutes straight really stole the show.

Yeah, I think it really did a lot to put Gulak over as a threat...I just didn’t see the need for him to tap to the Bromission his first night on NXT. I’m willing to see where it goes, I just know that Riddle has seemingly been tabbed as a future NXT champion and I’ll be upset if Gulak, who has been one of my favorites in the entire compny for a couple of years now, winds up being used as fodder to continue his ascent into the main event because Riddle just really annoys me. That match was really, really great though.

[trollrogue]

I just saw it as Gulak biting off more than he can chew, and the honest fact that he steamrolled over half of the NXT competition he's faced thus far and took the other half to the limit-- Gulak's star shines a little brighter than Riddle who basically took advantage of a guy who already competed that night.

[Deleted]

I still prefer goofy Gulak to srs Gulak, but srs Gulak is a much better fit in NXT, especially with guys like Riddle, Bugenhagen and Velveteen Dream (among others) to play off.

If there's one thing WWE does do right most of the time it's the odd couple tag team, so a Gulak and Riddle team would probably be really entertaining.

[King Devitt and the Woke Mob]

I said in my review of that show that I hope that Gulak moves to NXT permanently.

I LOVED the match with Riddle. I may sound weird, but it was Takeover worthy in my opinion.
Was not expecting a match that good on the weekly show.

[trollrogue]

Well Ali just got injured so switching my vote back to Gulak, hopefully he's on NXT longer than a week unlike Prince Pretty main eventing randomly a few weeks back.

[segaz]

Hot dawg, Rocky's back! Your title has the word 'Rock' in it! Ah'm here looking for The Rock. Is The Rock here? Hey fellas, Rock's back And he's on NXT! Where's he at?

○_○


*backs out of thread*