Following his departure from WWE, Drew Gulak is returning to the indies.
Beyond Wrestling has announced Gulak for its Americanrana ’24 event that’s taking place in Worcester, Massachusetts on Thursday, July 4. It’s the first appearance Gulak has been confirmed for since WWE chose not to renew his contract.
— Beyond Wrestling (@beyondwrestling) June 1, 2024
It was initially reported last month that Gulak was released by WWE in a round of NXT roster cuts. When asked about Gulak’s status at a press conference in France after WWE Backlash, Paul “Triple H” Levesque confirmed that Gulak was gone from the company but said that Gulak was not released — his contract “was just not renewed.”
Levesque didn’t address if Gulak’s departure had anything to do with the allegation that had been made against him by Ronda Rousey. During an April appearance on NewsNation, Rousey discussed a backstage incident that occurred in 2022 where Gulak pulled on the string of her sweatpants. Gulak then issued a statement responding to Rousey. He claimed that the incident was a “complete accident” where he went to shake Rousey’s hand and accidentally touched her drawstring.
Gulak had been with WWE since 2016. Before signing with WWE, Beyond Wrestling was among the indie promotions that he regularly appeared for.
Beyond Wrestling has yet to announced Gulak’s opponent for Americanrana. The show will stream live on IndependentWrestling.TV.
Wrestling Observer Live with Bryan Alvarez and Mike Sempervive is back with tons to talk about including Ric Flair alleging a heart attack in his last match, WrestleMania in Vegas, Ronda Rousey and Drew Gulak and Hunter vs. the media, WWE Speed, and tons more. A fun show as always so check it out~!
– Bryan and I did our weekend show last night covering WWE Backlash, UFC 301, WWE cuts, John Laurinaitis, and New Japan Dontaku. We’ll be back again Monday night after Raw.
– Regarding the Drew Gulak situation after yesterday’s press conference with Paul Levesque, technically his contract is expiring and not being renewed as opposed to firing but that’s largely word semantics. The Ronda Rousey story is the reason he stopped being used and wasn’t going to be brought back, but with him gone, we’re told the stories surfacing are accurate as less experienced talent had not been comfortable talking about a veteran on the roster.
– WWE starts the King and Queen of the Ring tournaments on Raw tomorrow in Hartford, CT. They announced men’s bouts with Drew McIntyre vs. Finn Balor, Kofi Kingston vs. Rey Mysterio, Ricochet vs. Ilja Draunov, and Sheamus vs. Gunther. They also announced women’s bouts with Ivy Nile vs. Zoey Stark, Shayna Baszler vs. Zelina Vega, Lyra Valkyria vs. Asuka, and Iyo Sky vs. Natalya. Some of these bouts sound great but with eight bouts on a show, they may not get time. Based on what was announced, it appears this will be Raw and SmackDown each having an eight-man men’s and women’s tournament over the next few weeks and the winners meeting in the finals at the King & Queen of the Ring PPV on 5/25 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. I don’t know that factually. I brought this up to a few in WWE, and the official word was that this will all likely be explained tomorrow night. One other person said that they believed this to be the plan. If they are doing eight bouts on Smackdown in two hours on Friday, that would be rushed. But that will be the focus of TV in the next few weeks.
– We’re looking for your thoughts on WWE Backlash as well as the second night of NXT Dontaku, so you can leave a thumbs up, down or middle, best and worst match to [email protected]
– Lots of interesting Google search notes for the weekend. UFC 301 last night did 420,000 searches. I felt less interest in this than any UFC PPV ever. WWE Backlash did 100,000, which is the lowest I can ever recall a WWE PPV doing. The Canelo Alvarez fight with Jaime Munguia did 1.5 million, so to the public, it was the one with the most interest of the shows yesterday. For comparison, the Kentucky Derby did 5.5 million. The only other boxing or MMA or wrestling stuff that trended was Ryan Garcia’s positive drug test did 200,000 on Wednesday and the death of Francis Ngannou’s young child did 100,000 on Monday.
– Jon Jones claimed that he’s got a date for his return and upcoming UFC heavyweight title fight with Stipe Miocic, but he’ll let Dana White make the official announcement. He said it’s nearly a done deal but the contracts have not been issued but said there is a verbal agreement.
– In the flyweight title main event at UFC 301 in Rio de Janeiro, Alexandre Pantoja won a 48-47, 48-47, and 49-46 win over Stev Erceg. Judge Favio Alves gave Pantoja rounds one, three, and five. Sal D’Amato had the same score. Dave Tirelli had Pantoja winning 1, 2, 3 and 5. Media scores were 88 percent for Pantoja.
– In Canada this coming weekend the three-hour Collision & Rampage block from Vancouver will air from midnight to 3 a.m. Eastern, or on a four-hour tape delay on TSN in Canada. Usually, those shows don’t even air in Canada except for streaming, but TSN airs shows that are taped in Canada. But it’s hardly at a time it’ll get much viewership.
– In the U.K., while Joe Hendry’s song “I Believe in Joe Hendry” got a lot of viral notice, it did not land in the official charts for the week which takes in data from airplay, YouTube, Spotify, iTunes, and others. Tom Campbell reported that for just sales this past week, it was the No. 6 single, and for downloads, it was No. 4. It was also No. 4 in the Official Big Top 40 based on streams, downloads, and Radio play.
– Jose Aldo, whose fight with Jonathan Martinez probably had the most interest of any bout on the UFC show, said he believes his contract is up but UFC has the right to match any outside offer. Many expected this would be his last fight but he indicated he’s not retiring and is hopeful of getting a title shot at bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley. He also said he had an offer to box on the 7/20 Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul show at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX. He also talked about perhaps fighting Henry Cejudo, Dominick Cruz, or Cory Sandhagen and said he brought all those names up for last night’s show but none were available.
– All Together Now at Budokan Hall on ABEMA Live PPV at 3:30 a.m. Eastern very late tonight:
Daisuke Sekimoto & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Jeff Cobb & Masa Kitamiya
Sanada & Kai vs. Zack Sabre Jr. & Chris Brookes
Kenoh vs. Kosei Fujita
AZM & Miyu Amasaki vs. Starlight Kid & Natsupoi
Kota Minoura & Mao & Ninja Mack & Hayata & Desperado vs. Yamato & Tetsuya Endo & Alpha Wolf & Dragon Bane & Hiromu Takahashi
Tetsuya Naito & Yota Tsuji & Shingo Takagi vs. Jake Lee & David Finlay & Gabe Kidd
The show is a joint effort of New Japan, NOAH, DDT, Dragon Gate, Big Japan, and Stardom.
– In non-WWE matches that have been recommended highly for the weekend, they were Shingo Takagi vs. Gabe Kidd’s Never title match yesterday and Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Jeff Cobb for the TV title on Friday’s New Japan show, as well as the Arena Mexico main event was the usual excellent, superheated, great creative moves with Mistico & Mascara Dorada & Templario vs. Flip Gordon & Angel de Oro & Niebla Roja. Kaito Kiyomiya’s GHC title win yesterday over El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. was recommended to me as was the Hazuki & Koguma tag title win over Suzu Suzuki & Mei Seira on yesterday’s Stardom PPV show.
– A&E tonight has WWE Rivals on John Cena vs. Batista at 8 p.m. and Most Wanted Treasures on HHH at 9 p.m.
– Penta vs. Rey Fenix takes place on tonight’s House of Glory show at the NYC Arena in New York for Cinco de Mayo.
– Alex Pereira issued a challenge to Anthony Smith saying he would let Smith get his back and put the books in and that if Smith with that dominant position could choke him out, he’d give him $50,000. It was brought up to Smith last night after his win over Vitor Petrino. Smith said, “If I start on his back, I’ll choke the shit out of him, 100 percent.”
– Eve results from Friday night in London: Safire Reed & Zizi & Maya Matthews & Chantal Jordan & Millie McKenzie b Sky Smitson & Nightshade & LA Taylor & Session Moth Martina in a War Games cage match, Lana Austin & Ivy b Alexxis Falcon & Lizzy Evo in an I Quit match, Emersyn Jayne & Kanji b Alex Windsor & Rhio, Nina Samuels b Su Yung in the Eve title match. The show drew 400. Will Ospreay was at the show. The next show is 6/7 in Walthamstow with both Charlie Morgan & Jetta retiring in a trios match teaming with Erin Angel vs. Charli Evans & Millie McKnzie & Nina Samuels, plus Miyuki Takase & Haruka Uemuaki
Levesque said that, while Gulak is gone from WWE, he was not released from his contract — Gulak’s contract was up and the company chose not to renew it.
A round of NXT roster cuts was made on Friday. At the Backlash press conference, Levesque responded when asked if Gulak being released was true and if it had anything to do with the allegation made against Gulak by Ronda Rousey:
We release talent all the time. NFL releases 400 or 500 players a year. We release talent all the time, it’s a part of what we do. You cannot just hire people, bring them in, keep hiring more people, and just keep bringing them in. So an unfortunate part of the job is talent get released. Can I say that he was released? He was not released. His contract was just not renewed.
Levesque did not say if Rousey’s allegation contributed to Gulak’s contract not being renewed.
While appearing on NewsNation last month, Rousey spoke about a backstage incident that happened in WWE in 2022 where Gulak pulled on the string of her sweatpants. Gulak responded by issuing a statement claiming the incident was a “complete accident” where he went to shake Rousey’s hand and accidentally touched her drawstring.
WWE made a round of NXT cuts that were revealed on Friday afternoon with former NXT Cruiserweight Champion Drew Gulak as the most notable name included among the list of 11.
Our Bryan Alvarez verified the list of those who were released with Fightful reporting the same list other than Gulak and Boa. PWInsider reported that Gulak was cut, but not Boa.
He had been part of WWE since 2017, mainly competing on the then-205 Live show in addition to some appearances on both Raw and Main Event. After being cut in May 2020, he was quickly brought back.
He remained on the main roster through January 2023 when he headed to NXT. His last match there was in March of this year.
The 37-year-old held the Cruiserweight title for over 100 days in the summer of 2019 and was a multiple-time holder of the now-defunct 24/7 title.
Here’s the full list of names that were released with several of them coming from the recent Next Gen series on The Roku Channel:
Boa: The former Yanbo Wang signed with WWE in September 2016 after a tryout in Shanghai. He last wrestled in December 2023.
Vlad Pavlenko: The former track star was part of the spring 2023 PC class. He never wrestled a match.
Valentina Feroz: The former Rita Reis was part of NXT since December 2019. She hasn’t wrestled since December 2023.
Trey Bearhill: The former Triller Bucktrot is a former college football player that wrestled 17 matches from March 2023 through March 2024.
Kiyah Saint: The former Harleigh White debuted in May 2023 and wrestled 13 matches, last competing in April 2024.
Julian Baldi: Baldi said he had signed last month. He never wrestled a match and was part of the Next Gen series.
Emma Diaz: The former rugby player wrestled just three times from October 2023 through April 2024. She was also part of Next Gen.
Darrell Mason: The former amateur wrestler never wrestled a match.
Keyshawn LeFlore: The former college gymnast never wrestled a match.
Ezekiel Balogun: The former college basketball player was part of the spring 2023 class and never wrestled a match.
WWE has looked into Ronda Rousey’s claims regarding Drew Gulak.
During an appearance on NewsNation earlier this month, Rousey accused Gulak of inappropriately pulling on her pant drawstrings backstage at a WWE event in 2022. Gulak later claimed he inadvertently touched her drawstring while reaching out to shake her hand.
Our own Bryan Alvarez wrote to his subscribers on X that WWE investigated Rousey’s claims and interviewed people about what happened. While the results of the investigation have not been disclosed, Gulak has been removed from WWE programming.
Alvarez wrote:
Regarding Ronda and Drew, what is unique about this one is both claimed there were witnesses. I was told WWE did an investigation, interviewed people, and Gulak has been murdered in storyline. So I presume that tells you the result of the investigation.
On this week’s NXT, it was implied that, in storyline, the No Quarter Catch Crew approached Tony D’Angelo’s family to “take care” of Gulak, which may have been WWE’s way of writing him off television.
Yes, in storyline, No Quarter Catch Crew paid Tony D and his family to murder Drew Gulak.
Gulak has been with WWE since 2016’s Cruiserweight Classic when he defeated Harvinder Sihra of The Bollywood Boyz in the first round before losing to Zack Sabre Jr. in the second round. He won the cruiserweight title at Stomping Grounds 2019 and held it for three months before dropping it to Lio Rush on an episode of NXT.
Drew Gulak has been removed from the No Quarter Catch Crew’s entrance.
During Tuesday’s NXT, the group’s entrance video no longer featured Gulak’s name. Myles Borne & Damon Kemp went on to lose against the D’Angelo Family consisting of Channing ‘Stacks’ Lorenzo and Luca Crusifino.
Earlier in the night, Charlie Dempsey talked about his match at GCW’s Bloodsport event during WrestleMania weekend in a backstage promo when they were confronted by The D’Angelo Family, setting up the match. Gulak was nowhere to be seen during the segment.
During a Ronda Rousey interview on NewsNation last week, Rousey specifically mentioned an incident involving Gulak pulling the string of her sweatpants as he walked down the hall. Rousey later confronted Gulak over the incident.
“I was like, if I ever hear you putting your hands on any other woman like this or doing anything to me like this ever again…we’re going to have a problem,” she said. “And he was like ‘No, no, no, I’m glad you said something to me’ and he backpedaled. But it put a sour taste in my mouth about the culture there and what’s considered acceptable and how to touch and treat the women in the hallways.”
Gulak later wrote on X that the incident was a “complete accident”, saying he had meant to shake her hand.
Wrestling Observer Live with Bryan Alvarez and Mike Sempervive is back with tons to talk about including the Drew Gulak/Ronda Rousey story, NXT go-home show notes leading to Stand and Deliver, all the big shows this coming weekend, and tons more. A packed show as always so check it out~!
Drew Gulak has responded to Ronda Rousey’s allegations that he inappropriately pulled on her pant drawstrings backstage at a WWE event.
During an appearance on NewsNation on Tuesday, Rousey said that she was waiting to speak with Triple H outside a WWE writers’ room when someone grabbed the string of her sweatpants before walking away. She would later identify this person as Gulak.
Rousey said:
I was standing there and this guy I was barely an acquaintance with grabs the string of my sweatpants as I’m walking by…and nobody reacts as if this is abnormal, and he’s going down the hall and I’m like ‘what the f*ck is that? Why are you grabbing the string of my sweatpants? If my husband was standing there next to me, would you feel comfortable walking up to me and grabbing the string of my sweatpants?’ All the guys around me were like, this is part of the day. And if this guy was coming up to me and doing this kind of stuff to me when there are other people around, what’s happening to these other girls when I’m not in the hallway?
On Wednesday, Gulak posted to X stating that the whole situation was an accident and one that he has already apologized to Rousey for.
Gulak wrote:
Backstage at a WWE event in 2022, I saw Ronda talking with a group in the hallway. I stopped to say hi and shake all their hands, and in an attempt to shake her hand, I accidentally touched her drawstring. Complete accident, and one that I had apologized to her for the mishap.
Rousey later said that she confronted Gulak after the incident. She continued:
I was like, if I ever hear you putting your hands on any other woman like this or doing anything to me like this ever again…we’re going to have a problem. And he was like ‘No, no, no, I’m glad you said something to me’ and he backpedaled. But it put a sour taste in my mouth about the culture there and what’s considered acceptable and how to touch and treat the women in the hallways.
Ronda Rousey is accusing a current NXT star of touching her inappropriately backstage during her time in WWE.
Talking to Brian Entin of NewsNation to promote her new book “Our Fight,” Rousey recounted a time in WWE when she was waiting to speak to Triple H in the writers room when someone walked past her and grabbed the string of her sweatpants before walking away. She later identified this person as current NXT wrestler Drew Gulak.
“I was standing there and this guy I was barely an acquaintance with grabs the string of my sweatpants as I’m walking by…and nobody reacts as if this is abnormal, and he’s going down the hall and I’m like ‘what the f*ck is that? Why are you grabbing the string of my sweatpants? If my husband was standing there next to me, would you feel comfortable walking up to me and grabbing the string of my sweatpants?’ All the guys around me were like, this is part of the day. And if this guy was coming up to me and doing this kind of stuff to me when there are other people around, what’s happening to these other girls when I’m not in the hallway?”
Rousey said she later confronted Gulak over the incident.
“I was like, if I ever hear you putting your hands on any other woman like this or doing anything to me like this ever again…we’re going to have a problem. And he was like ‘No, no, no, I’m glad you said something to me’ and he backpedaled. But it put a sour taste in my mouth about the culture there and what’s considered acceptable and how to touch and treat the women in the hallways.”
Rousey left WWE in August of last year after losing to Shayna Baszler at SummerSlam and has since been negative regarding her time in WWE. Gulak remains with WWE on their NXT brand as part of the No Quarter Catch Crew, who together hold the NXT Heritage Cup trophy.
Entertainment services, namely, wrestling exhibitions and performances by a professional wrestler and entertainer rendered and through broadcast media including television and radio, and via the internet or commercial online service; providing wrestling news and information via a global computer network; providing information in the fields of sports and entertainment via an online community portal; providing a website in the field of sports entertainment information; fan club services, namely, organizing sporting events in the field of wrestling for wrestling fan club members; organizing social entertainment events for entertainment purposes for wrestling fan club members; providing online newsletters in the fields of sports entertainment; online journals, namely blogs, in the field of sports entertainment
Gulak, Dempsey, Kemp, and Borne confronted the new NXT North American Champion Dragon Lee in the back on Tuesday’s show. Lee agreed to defend his title against a No Quarter Catch Crew member next week, although the group did not reveal which member he will face. Next Tuesday’s show will be taped tonight from the WWE Performance Center in Orlando as talent will be given a week off for the holidays from December 29 to December 26.
Two matches have been added to the lineup for WWE NXT this week.
Dana Brooke vs. Lyra Valkyria has been booked for the show. Brooke is coming off a loss in tag action on August 29 when she and Kelani Jordan lost to Elektra Lopez and Lola Vice. Valkyria’s last match on WWE programming was a victory in mixed tag action with Dragon Lee over Dominik Mysterio and Rhea Ripley on August 22.
WWE has also announced a six-man tag match for Tuesday’s show. Charlie Dempsey, Drew Gulak & Damon Kemp will team together to wrestle Brooks Jensen, Josh Briggs & Myles Borne.
Drew Gulak appeared during Tuesday’s NXT, scouting a match between Hank Walker and Charlie Dempsey.
During the match, Gulak appeared at ringside and monitored the action between Dempsey and Walker. Dempsey picked up the win with an STF. Gulak did not interact with Dempsey or Walker during or after the match.
Gulak is a member of the SmackDown brand, but has not appeared on television in months. His last televised appearance was on the August 26 edition of SmackDown, where he was defeated by Karrion Kross. He most recently had his first match since September on the December 2 edition of SmackDown, where he lost to Shinsuke Nakamura in a dark match.
Dempsey, who is the son of William Regal, first appeared on NXT back in late August, where he lost to Andre Chase. He returned to action last month, defeating Chase in a rematch. He has been signed to WWE since 2021, primarily wrestling on NXT UK before its closure earlier this year.
The Intercontinental Championship will be on the line on next week’s WWE SmackDown.
For the first time since June, Gunther will defend the Intercontinental title in a televised match, defending against Shinsuke Nakamura on the August 12 SmackDown episode.
Nakamura defeated Ludwig Kaiser in a number one contender’s match on this week’s episode to earn the title shot on August 12.
Gunther’s last televised defense came against Ricochet on the June 24 SmackDown episode.
Since winning the title from Ricochet on the June 10 SmackDown, Gunther has made the one televised defense against Ricochet, plus 13 defenses on house shows.
In his 13 house show defenses, Gunther defeated Ricochet in singles matches 11 times, won a triple threat against Nakamura and Ricochet once, and a triple threat against Madcap Moss and Ricochet one time.
Nakamura has held the IC title on two previous occasions, most recently from August 2021 to February 2022.
Next week’s SmackDown lineup so far:
WWE Intercontinental Championship: Gunther (c) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
More WWE wrestlers were drafted during the episode of Talking Smack that aired this morning on Peacock.
It was announced during the show that Reggie, Akira Tozawa, Alpha Academy (Chad Gable and Otis), Apollo Crews, Commander Azeez, Doudrop, Drake Maverick, John Morrison, T-Bar, Nia Jax, R-Truth, and Zelina Vega have been drafted to Raw. NXT star Aliyah, Drew Gulak, Mace, Mansoor, Mustafa Ali, and Toni Storm, meanwhile, have been drafted to SmackDown.
Back in July, Aliyah had turned on Robert Stone after she and Jessi Kamea lost to Kacy Catanzaro and Kayden Carter. Since then, she has been off NXT television, reportedly traded to the main roster for Mandy Rose, who has since returned to NXT and has aligned herself with Jacy Jayne and Gigi Dolan to form Toxic Attraction.
The first night of the draft took place on SmackDown, with the second night of the draft due to take place on Raw this coming Monday. High profile brand switches include Charlotte Flair, Drew McIntyre, New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods), NXT’s Hit Row, and Jeff Hardy being drafted to SmackDown while Bianca Belair, Edge, Rey & Dominik Mysterio, and NXT’s Austin Theory are moving to Raw.
