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Drew Gulak vs Tony Nese
Well, exactly one year to the day since Kevin Owens turned on Chris Jericho in the Festival of Friendship, two former friends go head-to-head for a shot at the Cruiserweight Championship. Gulak and Nese started off their first-round match with some impressive mat skills.
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Drew Gulak showed off his incredible grappling techniques by locking up Nese on the canvas with the pair exchanging some stretches and, essentially, tying each other in knots.
The match then began to get physical with the pair exchanging some strikes before taking it to the outside, where Nese laid out Gulak with a vicious forearm, before Gulak pulled out a backdrop on the ground before rolling back in to try win by count-out - but the Premier Athlete managed to break the count at eight.
He rolled back into trouble though as Gulak went back into submission mode in his fight for a better 205 Live.
While slower paced than the first match, this was a technical wrestling masterclass with some well-placed rough edges. Nese went for a pumphandle slam but Gulak reversed it, throwing Nese to the ropes and the pair clashed, with both falling to the mat.
We had more strikes, more forearms before the biggest plot twist of the night - Drew Gulak leaving his feet! We saw a dropkick from the man who preaches of a no-fly zone. Gulak then grabbed Nese by the throat and mercilessly beat him before hitting the electric chair drop.
Just the two count, though, but Gulak locks in another innovative submission maneovre, wrapping himself around the Premier Athlete, but Nese lifts Gulak from vertical suplex position to the apron, knocks him off and goes flying!
Nese shoved Gulak back into the ring, went to the top but no-one was home. Gulak went for a dragon sleeper, Nese countered into a pumphandle slam which he finished with a driver and pinned Gulak but just the two count again.
Nese got in some offence of his own, it looked like a pin but Nese deadlifts Gulak and gives him a buckle bomb to the bottom buckle. He went for the running knee but Gulak shows incredible ring awareness to escape.
Nese then delivered a slap of his own, put Gulak back in the ring but didn't make it in himself as Gulak wiped him out, with Nese hitting the announce table hard.
Drew Gulak said he'll finish what he started and drove Tony Nese into the announce table twice, throws Nese back into the ring and turns him inside out with a clothesline.
Gulak seems to snap, relentlessly beats Nese before locking in the Dragon Sleeper. The referee deems Nese unfit to continue and stops the match.
Drew Gulak progresses, but he's a very different Drew Gulak from the one who started the match! A new, aggressive Gulak progresses to round two.
Ex WWE writer blasts Liv Morgan HERE
