WWE made another round of talent cuts on Friday with notable names such as Gable Steveson and Drew Gulak being on the released list.
Gulak was a name that has been in the news as of late after Ronda Rousey accused Gulak of inappropriate conduct while she was backstage at a WWE show. He was later removed from TV. Triple H said at the Backlash France presser that Gulak wasn’t released, but his contract wasn’t renewed.
Fightful Select reported that Gulak is actually still with the company but he was told that they wouldn’t be renewing his deal, which expires next month. Regarding the Rousey allegation, it was said the belief in NXT is that Gulak’s public response to Rousey’s claim only made things worse but wasn’t the final straw in deciding not to bring him back.
It was said by NXT talent that “Gulak was a ‘bully’ who would often target injuries during matches with talent that were recovering from minor injuries at the time.” It was said by one talent who worked with Gulak that during their match, Gulak purposefully re-dislocated a previously dislocated finger, while another star said Gulak would intimidate talent into not reporting the incidents.
The report stated, “Fightful learned about an incident during an NXT taping last year where Gulak was verbally reprimanded by Shawn Michaels and NXT coaches for intentionally spiking an opponent during a match.”
One NXT talent who worked with Gulak said that he was “odd” as he would often “test” talent to see if they would react to him being a bully.
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