Look Alikes

I keep mistaking Timothy Thatcher for Drew Gulak.  It happened in the June 4th, 2014 episode of Trunks Appreciation Society where I noted that Drew Gulak had affixed the word “Bastard” to his trunks — which surprised me because Gulak usually portrays the friendly, respectful, heroic type.  So a reader kindly posted a comment to let me know that Gulak has NOT experienced a Heel Turn: “That’s Tim Thatcher not Drew Gulak by the way.  He always puts bastard on his trunks.”

Then it happened again on August 13th when I pondered who is luckier to be wrestling whom:  Oliver John or Drew Gulak?  Two readers responded to let me know Timothy Thatcher was actually the lucky one, not Drew Gulak, preparing to lock up with the buff Mr. John.

I am sorry to keep making this mistake, and I apologize to both wrestlers for mis-matching them. (But at least I generate more feedback in my comments box when I screw up and readers write in to correct me…)

And in my defense, these two wrestlers do share some notable similarities:  both are lean, fit dudes with nice physiques; both wear snug little trunks without kneepads on their long legs;  both have well-groomed man-beards; both are highly skilled mat technicians who deliver tons of hot wrestling moves in their matches.  So please keep correcting me if I mistake Thather for Gulak — I was told I need to identify the wrestlers seen on this Blog, so I’m trying.

To help me sort out who is who, to help me differentiate Thatcher from Gulak, I streamed a match where the two Beard Twins (as I refer to them) actually faced off against each other.

Gulak and Thatcher met and wrestled each other at “Evolve 31″ held in Ybor City, Florida on 8/8/14.  I wonder if the two twins laughed about the fact that my Blog keeps confusing them?

The Beard Twins delivered a gorgeous evenly-matched scientific wrestling clinic.  They just stayed down on the mat trading holds with each other the entire match, like two lovers rolling around in bed. First one would be on top dominating, then the other would take over, a true “back and forth” battle.

Even these images I am posting reveal the Give and Take nature of the battle, with the man in control alternating from one image to the next.  First Thatcher twisted Gulak’s arm, then Gulak twisted back.  Next Thatcher went for an arm breaker, so Gulak fucked up Thatcher’s leg.  The whole match was Your Turn, My Turn…

Their fight is all about wrestling holds — just locking on lock after lock.  They never left the ring to brawl in the aisles, they barely ever lifted or threw one another, and they never dove or flipped off the top rope.  The only time they utilized the ropes at all was to grab the bottom rope to break up an inescapable hold, which happened like 18 times, a repeated motif.

And I am sorry to tell you this match is not on YouTube where you can just go watch it.  I streamed Evolve 31 from the World Wrestling Network pay-per-view website. I paid about a dozen bucks, and this was just one of the great matches on the card.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been excited by the trope of a hero fighting his exact match, like if Superman had to try to defeat the fake Superman, or Mr. Wrestling feuded with Mr. Wrestling II.  There was always just something alluring about a man needing to strive against and overpower his imposter, his exact equal. It flipped a trigger in the pleasure center of my brain to watch it.

I believe Gulak and Thatcher are playing off the Evenly Matched Twins gimmick in this match.  They look similar (at least to me), neither one can gain a definitive advantage, and the only way for one to escape from a hold applied by his double is to grab the ropes, requiring the ref to disentangle their braided bodies and limbs.

So I think I can tell them apart now and won’t mistake Thatcher for Gulak any more.  If I get confused, I can always go back and stream this match again — it is now saved (I guess indefinitely) to my WWN Network user account.  I think I’ll be saving a lot more events to my user account if Evolve wrestling shows are always this good!

Staying true to the classic style of the match, it was actually a submission hold — an Ankle Lock — that secured victory for Gulak.  When Thatcher tried to reach the ropes for safety, as both men had done repeatedly, Gulak beasted him back to the center of the ring and really slapped on the pressure.  This was a nice final narrative touch — denying him the rope grab.

So in the end, this was an enjoyable and entertaining grapple-fest by two look-alike wrestlers whom I seem to Blog about frequently (even if I don’t always get their names correct.)