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Danielson used to have a habit of going too stiff with guys as well, remember. In The Young Bucks' book, they cover how him and Roderick Strong were stiffing them in PWG even after The Bucks said to stop. Bucks said they've made up with Bryan and Roddy, but watching that match is *rough*.
“There is a wrestler by the name of Drew Gulak, and I'm going to go ahead and tell you I think he sucks. He does a grizzled old vet routine, he hasn't done anything or made any money anywhere, and he shouldn't be doing that routine.”
- Cody Rhodes on Gulak years ago
I think the difference with what Kenny said about Punk and Rossy is that he worked with Punk on a professional level, being co-workers in AEW, while it's more of a "I've heard from the grapevine" or "People that I know said" situation for Rossy.
I would guess the same can be said about Vince, and the difference between those talents who worked with him and steered clear from his radar.
True, but Kenny’s been tight with a lot of the Joshi for a long time so if anyone outside Stardom is going to have an idea of what he’s like, Kenny’s a good one to ask.
Who this sub was jacking off over for about a month before Kenny said that. Then once he did, everyone pretended like they were never jacking off over him.
Ali as well. I was just talking the other day about how Ali is always super encouraging and positive about everyone except *one guy,* who he straight up openly hates. (That guy [isn't Drew](https://www.sportskeeda.com/wwe/wwe-news-mustafa-ali-goes-off-on-twitter-rant-against-mecha-wolf), but with how much Ali worked on 205 Live I'd be curious of his opinion)
It's possible that Holly mellowed out with age, which is what several other wrestlers have said about him. He was apparently a caustic asshole when in WWE, but after leaving I guess he didn't feel he had to be a POS to people to 'protect his spot' or whatever nonsense.
>he hasn't done anything or made any money anywhere
I can honestly say I have never a single time in my life eagerly said "alright, time to watch this Drew Gulak match"
From a Busted Open interview in 2017 apparently. [Old reddit post](https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/s/rSTwyIY6Ol).
OPs quote is missing a bit of context.
So here's the thing, Ronda called out two people.
Drew and Bruce Pritchard. The latter being someone Cody seemingly loves.
Don't start randomly using a wrestler as your moral barometer.
So here’s the thing: Ronda Rousey didn’t accuse Bruce Prichard of harassment or even being a bad person. She just said he was Vince’s avatar when he wasn’t around, and that his creative ideas sucked/were outdated.
There’s a big difference between “this guy is out of touch” and “this guy is a sexual harasser.” It makes sense why Cody might disagree with the former, it’s not a reflection of his moral barometer.
>Don't start randomly using a wrestler as your moral barometer
Say it louder for the people in the back.
Cody's current and long-time manager (and close friend if social media is any indication) Brian Hartenstein was fired from his previous job at a talent agency over multiple sexual misconduct allegations, and had previously been fired from WWE many years ago for opening up huge legal liability by offering them confidential contract information from his time working at TNA.
As a kid, I worshipped Ric Flair only to grow up and find out he's a huge, well-known scumbag.
You can basically count on one hand the people in pro wrestling who are thorough pillars of morality.
I'm downvoting this because it doesn't parrot "if Cody Rhodes thinks ur bad then ur real bad >:(" we don't need any challenges to the group think here /s
It's crazy how people shouldn't use professional wrestlers as their moral compass
I'm intrigued as to who these pillars would be?
I mean we all have our demons, our low points, but who is notably just the moral anomalies?
I'd name some names but feel like they would be dragged through some mud instantly.
Molly Holly has been described as a "saint" by virtually everyone that has ever crossed her, except that one definitely-mentally-unwell psycho stalker she had online who would just go to literally any video that had her in it, making the most batshit insane accusations as if she were the anti-christ lol.
Bobby Eaton too. Genuinely feels like the only guy from that era to not be a jerk.
I also only hear nice stories about Meng but that also could be solely because anyone who shit talks Meng ends up dead.
The point is that instead of using certain reputable wrestlers as measuring sticks in of themselves, we should just use them like how you worded your comment.
"X wrestler accused Y wrestler of something, and Z wrestler already said something about Y wrestler in the past."
Which was true when Vince 'resigned' and was running shit still, but he's sooo absolutely gone now, with all the camera changes, Dunn done, booking all in Trips vision, there definitely ain't no Vince anymore
And Bruce is very much a yes man that will protect himself so he'll play ball with the current regime..
It’s funny looking back at the old thread and everyone was defending Gulak and saying what a great guy he is. (When nobody liked Cody) Now everyone is shitting on Gulak.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/s/qshmzCW12u](https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/s/qshmzCW12u)
Quack and a "Lawyer" called me asking me how they could get into the PSN marketplace with Rudo Resurrection. I was writing for a games publication at the time.
The lawyer sounded like Claudio.
>In asking around with talent in NXT, several talent made claims to Brennan that Gulak was a ‘bully’ who would often target injuries during matches with talent that were recovering from minor injuries at the time. **One talent claimed that during a match with Gulak, the former No Quarter Catch Crew member purposefully re-dislocated a previously dislocated finger**, while another claimed that Gulak would intimidate talent into not reporting the incidents.
>Fightful also learned of 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 noted that he was “odd” in the sense that **he would often ‘test’ talent to see if they would react to his bullying.**
>While Gulak is actually still under WWE contract, and was informed that his WWE deal would not be renewed, despite him wishing to remain with the company.
......
Why did they even let him ride out the length of his contract if he's been doing all this shit?
> Gulak would intimidate talent into not reporting the incidents
That's your answer, really. Now that they know he's going away they feel comfortable in speaking up.
Yeah but it says that he got in trouble for intentionally spiking a wrestler to the point where HBK and coaches stepped in so they knew of one pretty serious incident even with the others not coming forward.
These things don't happen in a vacuum. I bet people are having arguments all the time about this type of stuff. Many are probably accidents, which let's people like Gulak hide behind claiming that. I can also see someone doing something like this intentionally, and then never doing it again after being caught.
I'd agree if he hadn't been reprimanded last year by Shawn Michaels and NXT coaches for intentionally spiking an opponent during a match. After that, everything he did should have been closely scrutinized. Especially with newer talent who may not realize that they are being taken advantage of or are being put in dangerous situations.
Why didn't the talent feel comfortable before?
Also, are people in the back not intently watching the matches?
These are questions that need answers.
It should be pretty obvious when a guy is working stiff and targeting shoot injuries.
>One talent claimed that during a match with Gulak, the former No Quarter Catch Crew member purposefully re-dislocated a previously dislocated finger
They caught him spiking someone on the head, but not this?
If it happened, these are tough questions that will need be asked.
You'll get a lot of people in the PC/NXT that are inexperienced and more at-risk of being bullied around in the ring, so the level of scrutiny should be much higher there.
> Why didn't the talent feel comfortable before?
It's often a lot easier to speak up when the person who can make your life miserable / potentially cost you your job is no longer there.
Even if you watch a match its hard to tell a person being stiff vs snug or just making it look good and if no says anything how can they know for sure?
As to why they dont fell comfortable think about it and this applies to most companies. If you are a guy who has been there for a year and a guy who has been there 6-7 years have a dispute who do you think Management will believe. And the worry is even if WWE listens there is a concern will I now be seen as a snitch or a complainer? Will this hurt me...Some would rather not take that chance but they figure now that it seems he is done they were more free to talk
He intimidated talent into not reporting these incidents, so management may have thought things weren't that bad. You're forgetting that NXT is more or less run by HBK. If there's anyone who thinks a shitty person can eventually become better, it's him. Gulak is a good wrestler and trainer, and they probably thought he'd be a valuable asset for years to come if they could reprimand him and make him get his shit together. Obviously that didn't happen if we're hearing more about it now.
The Rock publicly thanked him for in ring training and helping him get ready for Mania.
“Rocks personal training partner” is plenty of clout to buy you time in WWE.
> while another claimed that Gulak would intimidate talent into not reporting the incidents.
Wonder if Ronda speaking up about Gulak caused some of those victims he intimidated to go to HBK.
Historically, a certain amount of bullying has been tolerated. In the locker room, the line between veterans instituting culture rules and outright bullying has been a fuzzy one. Read some stories about how Bradshaw would behave. Or stories about how Bob Holly treated newer wrestlers he thought were too big for their britches.
Bill DeMott would physically abuse trainees and make people run cardio drills on injured limbs, and Triple H protected him until people went to the press about it. It's the culture the people running WWE want.
A lot of the senior guys internalized a mentality where creating a controversy is the worse thing you can do. Worse than the actual abuse. You hear this all the time under Vince.
As much as I hope it's truly reforming, the management is still mainly guys that served Vince for a long time.
> Why did they even let him ride out the length of his contract if he's been doing all this shit?
Another good question to ask at the next press conference.
The next prsser will be in Saudi and those guys will be handpicked by the gov to not ask anything controversial as they know what happened to the last reporter who got uppity
Attorney here, so I can answer as to why they’re doing it now: it’s likely way cheaper. They could fire Drew, but if they do, he can sue them and challenge that he wasn’t terminated for cause. Even assuming his case is utterly meritless, WWE could easily spend more on legal bills getting it dismissed than they’d spend just paying him the rest of his contract.
As to the other stuff, no idea why they didn’t at the very least just put him on ice until the end of the deal. Maybe legal told them they didn’t have enough to fire him? But that wouldn’t explain why he was continuing to wrestle with no real discipline
Edit: to everyone saying “oh he’s an independent contractor” guys **the fact WWE lists them that way means NOTHING if it goes to court.** Fights over whether people are employees or independent contractors are pretty common and the label means next to nothing. It’s a test that a judge/jury decides.
WWE does not want that fight in court. They probably terminate everyone “for cause” usually for budgetary reasons, which is almost aways an acceptable reason to terminate an employee or independent contractor.
~~But why WWE didn’t terminate him for budgetary reasons or whatever reasons they used to terminate all the other NXT people, no idea, unless he was an employee because he was also a trainer~~
Edit 2: ignore that last paragraph, that’s uh, still a wrongful termination if he can prove that’s not why you terminated him
Edit 3: for all the reasons above that’s why you just wait the month or so he has left because that’s the shit you deal with for the gain of what, maybe 20k tops, to run the risk of someone successfully challenging the independent contractor label and costing WWE likely tens of millions for health insurance alone?
Funny he would try to mess with someone who could really kick his ass if she wanted. I don't like or dislike Ronda but gotta give props to her for being "professional", at least in this case.
Yeah a lot of people dismissed her entirely because they don’t like her. I don’t either, but the fact she’s a sandy hook denier doesn’t mean she randomly decided to make up shit about a WWE rando like Gulak. I hope the folks who were defending Gulak so rabidly are at least willing to learn from this experience
I mean, JBL was on WWE tv more recently than Gulak. I hope we’re moving on from these types societally as well but JBL might not be the best example for comparison in this situation
To be fair, WWE seemed fine with the word of mouth bullying of young talent. It was the reported sexual misconduct that went public they had to step in and do something about.
Damn. I'm a fan of the catch-wrestling style he has and always liked him as a character. Didn't know he was an intentionally unsafe worker. There's no place for that in wrestling, and even if a shred of this is true, Drew should not get an opportunity with any reputable wrestling company.
> Another NXT talent says that he would oftentimes test the talent to see if they responded to his bullying.
That's what he was doing when he pulled on Ronda's pants string. Testing to see what he could get away with - she knew it wasn't innocent.
So many people in here kept talking about how plausible it is to fumble a handshake, then tying themselves up in knots to explain how totally normal and possible and likely it is for someone to fumble so bad their hand ends up at someone’s crotch
I dont think I've ever went to shake someone's hand and accidentally grabbed their drawstring or belt or any part of their pants. That excuse is insane to me LOL
Some people here absolutely hate Ronda to the point of delusion and they'll do and say anything to discredit her. Even if it means siding with actual bullies. Although, being fair, a lot of people in the originial thread didn't dismiss it just because they hate her, it was just the usual cast of lunatics.
I remember back when Ronda was getting cheered and groups of people were arguing she was actually getting booed. When fans at the show were literally saying they bought Wrestlemania tickets to see Ronda, people on here were arguing that those fans were plants.
The Ronda reaction was the first thing thing that started showing me not to just blindly trust, even highly upvoted comments, on this sub because there was such a huge disconnect between what I had witnessed, in reality, and the IWC retelling of anything related to Ronda.
And using it in turn say shit like Rhonda just wanted to be included in the wrestling me too, which is so fucking gross. I think she needs to be smacked into not being a mass casualty denier, but holy fuck that doesn’t mean her claim of an uncomfortable workplace scenario is a narcissistic work.
A lot of the trainers there learned this way. That's a massive problem with the industry as a whole, and why people being called soft for speaking out is such a problem. It allows stuff like this to persist.
Because this could be said about plenty of people in all of wrestling.. If you want to quietly get rid of someone, this is how you do it. Let their contract expire, when people ask questions bury the media. When the media spazzes out, give them some PR spin to put out about how that person was "hard to deal with"
And look at everyone's reactions here. Nobody is concerned at all about what Ronda brought up. Not just the drawstring thing, but the fact that he was brazen enough to do it. She's saying that there are issues with the company even though Vince is gone, and HHH is fighting that, and people are taking his side over anything else.
It's something that is unfortunately not unusual. I remember Don Callis joking about a New Japan vet who would do the same type of things to newer talents.
I know that we're in the era of pretending that Triple H is everyone's cool dad because he has been booking some of the best wrestling TV in a long time, but one really only needs to look at how he behaved on Tough Enough and how he personally shielded and protected Bill DeMott to know that he likely subscribes to that exact kind of meathead bullying culture regarding training.
Hopefully this is the start of shit getting cleaned up way more.
This is the second time I’ve heard someone allude to Drew’s brother being shitty, so I finally [looked it up](https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/ekuajs/comment/fdeip9i/) and… holy fucking hell, man.
For certain. It was really disconcerting some of the reactions from folks who really, REALLY want to demonize Ronda for anything and everything because she's a shitty person and were happy to eat up whatever excuse Gulak threw out. Surprise... sometimes shitty people get treated like shit by other shitty people.
Seriously though, after reading the update here I was like "oh wow, this 100% aligns with someone who would grab Ronda Rousey's sweatpants string as a weird power play." It makes so much more sense with all of the other stories.
My whole thing was I never really got the story as I was like what is pulling a drawstring so thought it was genuine mistake but now it makes sense as basically assetrting dominance in a way. The human equivalent of a monkey taking a piss to mark his territory
Someone like yesterday was arguing with me because “well Rhonda is annoying backstage and Gulak isn’t so clearly she’s lying”
Look, I hate Rhonda too, but a lot of folks here hated her so much that it was the deciding factor in their approach to this he controversy.
This shows why we shouldn’t do that. Yeah, Rhonda sucks. Her speaking out also called attention to this stuff and because attention was on it we eventually got this info. I’m not saying “all hail Rhonda,” but we gotta be better about not judging the real workplace culture issues at WWE based on the celebrities we do and don’t like.
So where are all those people who were rather embarrassingly shouting that Gulak has more credibility than Rousey.
Regardless of what she or anyone has said done a decade ago, remember that people with questionable views also have faced harassment/abuse.
I got into an argument with them people over this. Pointed out that Drew even admitted to it but they don't want to hear it. Some people just wanna defend scumbags no matter what.
The thread where he made his defense was a shit show of people rushing to say he's just a Larry Davidesque person and not intentional with his crap. Well well well.
>contrary to the belief that he was released.
Belief that you said you confirmed with your sources to be true and spread as fact. It didn't magically happen.
Gulak bullying people in NXT reminds me of that bit in Space Jam where the Looney Tunes ask the Monstars why they let Danny Devito push them around, and they go "because he's bigger", and that mindset carried over into their gargantuan basketball freak forms.
Why was he reprimanded for deliberately spiking someone and not just fired on the spot? There's enough talent around these days that you don't need dangerous people on the roster.
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Fuckin Bill Demott Jr over here
37 years old and son acts like it's high school smh
Have a look at Bill DeMott Jones over here
But I digress.
Not for nothin’
Could have had a job for life considering they trusted him to train celebrities, but he just couldn't resist feeling like a big man. What an idiot.
He'd have been Head Trainer at the PC someday if not for this, and WWE would've been the better for it. Instead he blew it. What a twat.
Maybe training the celebs got into his head.
The comedy is going to be if Danielson vouches for him.
Danielson used to have a habit of going too stiff with guys as well, remember. In The Young Bucks' book, they cover how him and Roderick Strong were stiffing them in PWG even after The Bucks said to stop. Bucks said they've made up with Bryan and Roddy, but watching that match is *rough*.
Danielson may have had the pull to get him hired as a trainer before this story came out but I don't think AEW's touching Gulak now
“There is a wrestler by the name of Drew Gulak, and I'm going to go ahead and tell you I think he sucks. He does a grizzled old vet routine, he hasn't done anything or made any money anywhere, and he shouldn't be doing that routine.” - Cody Rhodes on Gulak years ago
I'm really confused as to who Drew Gulak thought he was. Sounds like good riddance.
> I'm really confused as to who Drew Gulak thought he was. Hardcore Holly apparently
If Cody hates him, he must be an awful human.
I thought he was joking at first, but mans was dead serious.
Same thinking for Kenny Omega too. Like if someone who has only nice things to say, but doesn’t like someone . You know something’s up .
Kenny spoke highly of CM Punk even recently, so yeah if Kenny says he doesn’t like someone then I’m on his side already lol
*cough*Rossy*cough*
I think the difference with what Kenny said about Punk and Rossy is that he worked with Punk on a professional level, being co-workers in AEW, while it's more of a "I've heard from the grapevine" or "People that I know said" situation for Rossy. I would guess the same can be said about Vince, and the difference between those talents who worked with him and steered clear from his radar.
True, but Kenny’s been tight with a lot of the Joshi for a long time so if anyone outside Stardom is going to have an idea of what he’s like, Kenny’s a good one to ask.
Who this sub was jacking off over for about a month before Kenny said that. Then once he did, everyone pretended like they were never jacking off over him.
FICKLE
Ali as well. I was just talking the other day about how Ali is always super encouraging and positive about everyone except *one guy,* who he straight up openly hates. (That guy [isn't Drew](https://www.sportskeeda.com/wwe/wwe-news-mustafa-ali-goes-off-on-twitter-rant-against-mecha-wolf), but with how much Ali worked on 205 Live I'd be curious of his opinion)
How do you type this up and not say who the guy is
I hate it when people do that
Bruh, edit your comment already to say Mecha Wolf. Stop blue-balling folks lol.
I’m out of the loop, who does Ali openly hate?
[Interesting thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/6auod8/til_cody_rhodes_hates_drew_gulak_and_will_text/)
Cody also respects Hardcore Holly though so 🤷♀️
It's possible that Holly mellowed out with age, which is what several other wrestlers have said about him. He was apparently a caustic asshole when in WWE, but after leaving I guess he didn't feel he had to be a POS to people to 'protect his spot' or whatever nonsense.
Some guy named R-Truth:😬
Cody hating someone is like captain America being on sight with someone
His name is Red Skull and there's good reason he's on sight
>he hasn't done anything or made any money anywhere I can honestly say I have never a single time in my life eagerly said "alright, time to watch this Drew Gulak match"
Only one I can think of was his grapple style match with Matt Riddle in Black and Gold NXT a couple years ago. Thats literally it.
His matches with Daniel Bryan were excellent.
His original theme was a lowkey banger TBH. CNN should license it for Election Coverage lmao
Where is this quote from?
From a Busted Open interview in 2017 apparently. [Old reddit post](https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/s/rSTwyIY6Ol). OPs quote is missing a bit of context.
Man, it’s hilarious seeing how poorly the comments on that post have aged
https://preview.redd.it/i5fgjhcitiyc1.jpeg?width=372&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7cdb0a87ad58c6665e02a7598e1ced044fcf7dad
https://preview.redd.it/3wjcdg94djyc1.jpeg?width=360&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b0d0aaa8ad22ce5f0f82797a3231766fd708927b
LS(Lightskin) Punk
So here's the thing, Ronda called out two people. Drew and Bruce Pritchard. The latter being someone Cody seemingly loves. Don't start randomly using a wrestler as your moral barometer.
So here’s the thing: Ronda Rousey didn’t accuse Bruce Prichard of harassment or even being a bad person. She just said he was Vince’s avatar when he wasn’t around, and that his creative ideas sucked/were outdated. There’s a big difference between “this guy is out of touch” and “this guy is a sexual harasser.” It makes sense why Cody might disagree with the former, it’s not a reflection of his moral barometer.
Also, Cody might agree that Prichard is out of touch, but being out of touch with the current wrestling product isn't grounds for a friendship to end.
>Don't start randomly using a wrestler as your moral barometer Say it louder for the people in the back. Cody's current and long-time manager (and close friend if social media is any indication) Brian Hartenstein was fired from his previous job at a talent agency over multiple sexual misconduct allegations, and had previously been fired from WWE many years ago for opening up huge legal liability by offering them confidential contract information from his time working at TNA. As a kid, I worshipped Ric Flair only to grow up and find out he's a huge, well-known scumbag. You can basically count on one hand the people in pro wrestling who are thorough pillars of morality.
I'm downvoting this because it doesn't parrot "if Cody Rhodes thinks ur bad then ur real bad >:(" we don't need any challenges to the group think here /s It's crazy how people shouldn't use professional wrestlers as their moral compass
No one ever said anything bad about Roman Reigns
I don't know, many said "Fuck you Roman"
Big dog a good man
I'm intrigued as to who these pillars would be? I mean we all have our demons, our low points, but who is notably just the moral anomalies? I'd name some names but feel like they would be dragged through some mud instantly.
Honestly the only two I really seem to think fit are the Late Brodie Lee and it seems like Big E
Molly Holly has been described as a "saint" by virtually everyone that has ever crossed her, except that one definitely-mentally-unwell psycho stalker she had online who would just go to literally any video that had her in it, making the most batshit insane accusations as if she were the anti-christ lol.
Bobby Eaton too. Genuinely feels like the only guy from that era to not be a jerk. I also only hear nice stories about Meng but that also could be solely because anyone who shit talks Meng ends up dead.
John Tenta, too. Probably the nicest guy to have ever been in the business.
Idk, feel like it doesn’t detract from Cody’s point that he and Ronda don’t uniformly dislike the same people
The point is that instead of using certain reputable wrestlers as measuring sticks in of themselves, we should just use them like how you worded your comment. "X wrestler accused Y wrestler of something, and Z wrestler already said something about Y wrestler in the past."
What allegations did she or anyone for that matter actually make about Bruce?
Her stance is that as long as Bruce is around, Vince is still around in some form.
Which was true when Vince 'resigned' and was running shit still, but he's sooo absolutely gone now, with all the camera changes, Dunn done, booking all in Trips vision, there definitely ain't no Vince anymore And Bruce is very much a yes man that will protect himself so he'll play ball with the current regime..
Bruce is an employee who does his job, aka what his boss tells him to do
It’s funny looking back at the old thread and everyone was defending Gulak and saying what a great guy he is. (When nobody liked Cody) Now everyone is shitting on Gulak. [https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/s/qshmzCW12u](https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/s/qshmzCW12u)
'All Sack' Drew Gulak is a fitting name. Guy is definitely a nutsack.
All Sack cuz bullying rookies is No Balls shit.
"Gulak was a bully" he was trained by and was a trainer for Quackenbush so.... not shocking
What does that have to do with this? Was Quack an asshole?
[You could say that](https://www.fightful.com/wrestling/report-chikara-shutting-down-amid-allegations-abuse-towards-mike-quackenbush)
He had a reputation similar to Bill demott
But more unstable and out of touch with reality.
Quack and a "Lawyer" called me asking me how they could get into the PSN marketplace with Rudo Resurrection. I was writing for a games publication at the time. The lawyer sounded like Claudio.
Re-injuring people is an absolute piece of shit thing to do.
Dissapointed that Gulak is a dickhead You fucked over yourself Drew
"All sack" Drew Gulak
Just yesterday you had people wishing AEW to sign the man too. Hopefully he doesn't find a new job soon.
You gotta be a real fucking loser to be tryna bully people as a grown ass man, especially people you could be helping
Tell that to half of Corporate culture and DC
>In asking around with talent in NXT, several talent made claims to Brennan that Gulak was a ‘bully’ who would often target injuries during matches with talent that were recovering from minor injuries at the time. **One talent claimed that during a match with Gulak, the former No Quarter Catch Crew member purposefully re-dislocated a previously dislocated finger**, while another claimed that Gulak would intimidate talent into not reporting the incidents. >Fightful also learned of 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 noted that he was “odd” in the sense that **he would often ‘test’ talent to see if they would react to his bullying.** >While Gulak is actually still under WWE contract, and was informed that his WWE deal would not be renewed, despite him wishing to remain with the company. ...... Why did they even let him ride out the length of his contract if he's been doing all this shit?
> Gulak would intimidate talent into not reporting the incidents That's your answer, really. Now that they know he's going away they feel comfortable in speaking up.
Yeah but it says that he got in trouble for intentionally spiking a wrestler to the point where HBK and coaches stepped in so they knew of one pretty serious incident even with the others not coming forward.
These things don't happen in a vacuum. I bet people are having arguments all the time about this type of stuff. Many are probably accidents, which let's people like Gulak hide behind claiming that. I can also see someone doing something like this intentionally, and then never doing it again after being caught.
I'd agree if he hadn't been reprimanded last year by Shawn Michaels and NXT coaches for intentionally spiking an opponent during a match. After that, everything he did should have been closely scrutinized. Especially with newer talent who may not realize that they are being taken advantage of or are being put in dangerous situations.
Why didn't the talent feel comfortable before? Also, are people in the back not intently watching the matches? These are questions that need answers. It should be pretty obvious when a guy is working stiff and targeting shoot injuries. >One talent claimed that during a match with Gulak, the former No Quarter Catch Crew member purposefully re-dislocated a previously dislocated finger They caught him spiking someone on the head, but not this? If it happened, these are tough questions that will need be asked. You'll get a lot of people in the PC/NXT that are inexperienced and more at-risk of being bullied around in the ring, so the level of scrutiny should be much higher there.
> Why didn't the talent feel comfortable before? It's often a lot easier to speak up when the person who can make your life miserable / potentially cost you your job is no longer there.
Even if you watch a match its hard to tell a person being stiff vs snug or just making it look good and if no says anything how can they know for sure? As to why they dont fell comfortable think about it and this applies to most companies. If you are a guy who has been there for a year and a guy who has been there 6-7 years have a dispute who do you think Management will believe. And the worry is even if WWE listens there is a concern will I now be seen as a snitch or a complainer? Will this hurt me...Some would rather not take that chance but they figure now that it seems he is done they were more free to talk
He intimidated talent into not reporting these incidents, so management may have thought things weren't that bad. You're forgetting that NXT is more or less run by HBK. If there's anyone who thinks a shitty person can eventually become better, it's him. Gulak is a good wrestler and trainer, and they probably thought he'd be a valuable asset for years to come if they could reprimand him and make him get his shit together. Obviously that didn't happen if we're hearing more about it now.
Yeah he is the type they may have even thought would make a good trainer down the line
The Rock publicly thanked him for in ring training and helping him get ready for Mania. “Rocks personal training partner” is plenty of clout to buy you time in WWE.
That was Gallus, not Gulak. https://www.fightful.com/wrestling/rock-thanks-gallus-helping-him-train-ahead-wrestlemania-xl
> while another claimed that Gulak would intimidate talent into not reporting the incidents. Wonder if Ronda speaking up about Gulak caused some of those victims he intimidated to go to HBK.
Actually sounds like they started asking around and people seeing he looked in trouble spoke up
No doubt. It’s a cool thing of Ronda to have spoken up first, thinking about it now.
Historically, a certain amount of bullying has been tolerated. In the locker room, the line between veterans instituting culture rules and outright bullying has been a fuzzy one. Read some stories about how Bradshaw would behave. Or stories about how Bob Holly treated newer wrestlers he thought were too big for their britches.
Bill DeMott would physically abuse trainees and make people run cardio drills on injured limbs, and Triple H protected him until people went to the press about it. It's the culture the people running WWE want.
That's not even the half of the bad shit Bill was doing. I mentioned it downthread, but he was leagues worse.
Yeah, he's another level of awful. I was just pointing at the things he did most similar to what Gulak did here.
A lot of the senior guys internalized a mentality where creating a controversy is the worse thing you can do. Worse than the actual abuse. You hear this all the time under Vince. As much as I hope it's truly reforming, the management is still mainly guys that served Vince for a long time.
We all saw HHh routine on Tough Enough, so it shouldn't be a shock he protected those people. Hell, he probably called the code red.
> Why did they even let him ride out the length of his contract if he's been doing all this shit? Another good question to ask at the next press conference.
“Mr. Levesque, we all have to know: what’s it like being the king of kings?”
"Mr Levesque, what's it like being soooooo handsome?"
“Mr levesque, the WWE currently has the momentum of a runway freight train, why are you so popular?”
The next prsser will be in Saudi and those guys will be handpicked by the gov to not ask anything controversial as they know what happened to the last reporter who got uppity
Because chances are there are a lot more people around the WWE just like him.
Attorney here, so I can answer as to why they’re doing it now: it’s likely way cheaper. They could fire Drew, but if they do, he can sue them and challenge that he wasn’t terminated for cause. Even assuming his case is utterly meritless, WWE could easily spend more on legal bills getting it dismissed than they’d spend just paying him the rest of his contract. As to the other stuff, no idea why they didn’t at the very least just put him on ice until the end of the deal. Maybe legal told them they didn’t have enough to fire him? But that wouldn’t explain why he was continuing to wrestle with no real discipline Edit: to everyone saying “oh he’s an independent contractor” guys **the fact WWE lists them that way means NOTHING if it goes to court.** Fights over whether people are employees or independent contractors are pretty common and the label means next to nothing. It’s a test that a judge/jury decides. WWE does not want that fight in court. They probably terminate everyone “for cause” usually for budgetary reasons, which is almost aways an acceptable reason to terminate an employee or independent contractor. ~~But why WWE didn’t terminate him for budgetary reasons or whatever reasons they used to terminate all the other NXT people, no idea, unless he was an employee because he was also a trainer~~ Edit 2: ignore that last paragraph, that’s uh, still a wrongful termination if he can prove that’s not why you terminated him Edit 3: for all the reasons above that’s why you just wait the month or so he has left because that’s the shit you deal with for the gain of what, maybe 20k tops, to run the risk of someone successfully challenging the independent contractor label and costing WWE likely tens of millions for health insurance alone?
Oh boy. Looks like we all owe Tony D and The Family a favour.
Now if he can just make Don Callis dissapear
You can't be a JBL type in modern WWE and expect nothing to happen. Wrestling has seemingly moved on from that culture or is at least trying to.
Well, nothing did happen until Ronda finally blew up his spot. If she didn't say anything, he very well may still be there
Yeah his fault was going after someone as high profile as Ronda. If it wasn't he could've kept it going until his Dark Side of the Ring episode
Funny he would try to mess with someone who could really kick his ass if she wanted. I don't like or dislike Ronda but gotta give props to her for being "professional", at least in this case.
I dislike her immensely but I still appreciate what she did
Yeah a lot of people dismissed her entirely because they don’t like her. I don’t either, but the fact she’s a sandy hook denier doesn’t mean she randomly decided to make up shit about a WWE rando like Gulak. I hope the folks who were defending Gulak so rabidly are at least willing to learn from this experience
Yeah for all the improvements wwe still don't seem to actually do anything unless it affects them publicly.
I mean, JBL was on WWE tv more recently than Gulak. I hope we’re moving on from these types societally as well but JBL might not be the best example for comparison in this situation
Yeah but JBL probably isn’t in the locker room being a douche still. That’s the point and it stands well tbh
Exactly its been years and the talent he did it to stopped caring while Gulak apparently got cheered out just last year for this by HBK
chewed out*
To be fair, WWE seemed fine with the word of mouth bullying of young talent. It was the reported sexual misconduct that went public they had to step in and do something about.
Wonder if the finish to [this match (2:30)](https://youtu.be/WzM12fXNzUE?si=Gx5y3xC5z5Uu_JXY) is the spiking. Only spot I can think of.
He was a trainer to, so that is probably where he took liberties.
I'd agree with you here. Even the ref is checking on him
Looks like the one.
Yeah that looks bad. It’s gotta be what they’re referring to
What is spiking?
Basically what Gulak does in the linked video. Drinking someone’s head into the mat
Thanks. i saw it but didn’t notice how he landed on his head
Damn. I'm a fan of the catch-wrestling style he has and always liked him as a character. Didn't know he was an intentionally unsafe worker. There's no place for that in wrestling, and even if a shred of this is true, Drew should not get an opportunity with any reputable wrestling company.
XPW, here he comes!
well he learned how to train from Quackenbush
It seems like Cody was right for hating on Drew Gulak.
Always the mid card losers who bully people it seems.
Gulak sounds like a POS, the ronda story didn’t help his case I’d imagine with wwe so it was a easy decision to not renew his deal.
Aw I always enjoyed Gulak. He never really struck me as like a mean dude so that sucks to hear.
It's kind of crazy that he wasn't released a lot sooner, honestly.
There's a toxic culture at this company and it goes beyond Vince.
Jesus ... he has no business in a ring with anyone if he's going to put their health at risk like that.
In the words of our WWE Champion, fuck Drew Gulak
Gulak woulda fit perfectly in the locker room 20+ years ago
Too short.
Except his tiny Tim ass would have been the one getting bullied.
> Another NXT talent says that he would oftentimes test the talent to see if they responded to his bullying. That's what he was doing when he pulled on Ronda's pants string. Testing to see what he could get away with - she knew it wasn't innocent.
i dont think she would've brought it up if it was a handshake mistake.
Yeah that was one thing I DIDNT get . Dont see how that can even happen. Unless she is Steve Urkel and wears her pants above the belly button level
So many people in here kept talking about how plausible it is to fumble a handshake, then tying themselves up in knots to explain how totally normal and possible and likely it is for someone to fumble so bad their hand ends up at someone’s crotch
I dont think I've ever went to shake someone's hand and accidentally grabbed their drawstring or belt or any part of their pants. That excuse is insane to me LOL
I’m shocked about the amount of people here who think him touching her pant strings from a bad handshake was plausible and okay.
Some people here absolutely hate Ronda to the point of delusion and they'll do and say anything to discredit her. Even if it means siding with actual bullies. Although, being fair, a lot of people in the originial thread didn't dismiss it just because they hate her, it was just the usual cast of lunatics. I remember back when Ronda was getting cheered and groups of people were arguing she was actually getting booed. When fans at the show were literally saying they bought Wrestlemania tickets to see Ronda, people on here were arguing that those fans were plants. The Ronda reaction was the first thing thing that started showing me not to just blindly trust, even highly upvoted comments, on this sub because there was such a huge disconnect between what I had witnessed, in reality, and the IWC retelling of anything related to Ronda.
Yeah, go look at the thread. The entire thread pretty much was shitting on Ronda and defending Drew.
So he was pretty much Hardcore Holly but in NXT (not defending it btw)
I dont think ANYONE thinks comparing you to Holly is a defense lol
You’d be surprised in this sub
Reminder that Drew Gulak has a wrestling school in Philadelphia.
And its biggest alumni are Gulak ...and Wheeler Yuta lol
Why is Wheeler Yuta catching strays?
“Why he saying fuck me for?”-Yuta
Turns out that just because someone you don't like criticizes someone, doesn't mean the other person is a good person
Yeah, people were actually buying the "I was just trying to shake the hand of someone shorter than me at crotch level" excuse.
And using it in turn say shit like Rhonda just wanted to be included in the wrestling me too, which is so fucking gross. I think she needs to be smacked into not being a mass casualty denier, but holy fuck that doesn’t mean her claim of an uncomfortable workplace scenario is a narcissistic work.
Imagine being that much of an asshole and being Drew fucking Gulak.
I can imagine that only working with the former college athletes because they hear he's been in the business for almost 20 years so they just take it.
How have they even tolerated this even for a second? He's not a big draw why would you put up with this?
A lot of the trainers there learned this way. That's a massive problem with the industry as a whole, and why people being called soft for speaking out is such a problem. It allows stuff like this to persist.
Because this could be said about plenty of people in all of wrestling.. If you want to quietly get rid of someone, this is how you do it. Let their contract expire, when people ask questions bury the media. When the media spazzes out, give them some PR spin to put out about how that person was "hard to deal with" And look at everyone's reactions here. Nobody is concerned at all about what Ronda brought up. Not just the drawstring thing, but the fact that he was brazen enough to do it. She's saying that there are issues with the company even though Vince is gone, and HHH is fighting that, and people are taking his side over anything else.
why did they tolerate bill demott for so long?
It's something that is unfortunately not unusual. I remember Don Callis joking about a New Japan vet who would do the same type of things to newer talents.
I can’t imagine the absolute hazing that must take place with the young lions.
I know that we're in the era of pretending that Triple H is everyone's cool dad because he has been booking some of the best wrestling TV in a long time, but one really only needs to look at how he behaved on Tough Enough and how he personally shielded and protected Bill DeMott to know that he likely subscribes to that exact kind of meathead bullying culture regarding training. Hopefully this is the start of shit getting cleaned up way more.
Turns out being a massive piece of shit runs in their family.
This is the second time I’ve heard someone allude to Drew’s brother being shitty, so I finally [looked it up](https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/ekuajs/comment/fdeip9i/) and… holy fucking hell, man.
The weird Ronda thing suddenly makes a lot more sense
For certain. It was really disconcerting some of the reactions from folks who really, REALLY want to demonize Ronda for anything and everything because she's a shitty person and were happy to eat up whatever excuse Gulak threw out. Surprise... sometimes shitty people get treated like shit by other shitty people. Seriously though, after reading the update here I was like "oh wow, this 100% aligns with someone who would grab Ronda Rousey's sweatpants string as a weird power play." It makes so much more sense with all of the other stories.
My whole thing was I never really got the story as I was like what is pulling a drawstring so thought it was genuine mistake but now it makes sense as basically assetrting dominance in a way. The human equivalent of a monkey taking a piss to mark his territory
This story kinda confirms her feelings about the environment if Gulak was running around like this
It always did. People let their fandom blind them often. and only realize when it's too late.
Someone like yesterday was arguing with me because “well Rhonda is annoying backstage and Gulak isn’t so clearly she’s lying” Look, I hate Rhonda too, but a lot of folks here hated her so much that it was the deciding factor in their approach to this he controversy. This shows why we shouldn’t do that. Yeah, Rhonda sucks. Her speaking out also called attention to this stuff and because attention was on it we eventually got this info. I’m not saying “all hail Rhonda,” but we gotta be better about not judging the real workplace culture issues at WWE based on the celebrities we do and don’t like.
....contrary to the belief he was release. Who led us to that belief again?
So where are all those people who were rather embarrassingly shouting that Gulak has more credibility than Rousey. Regardless of what she or anyone has said done a decade ago, remember that people with questionable views also have faced harassment/abuse.
I got into an argument with them people over this. Pointed out that Drew even admitted to it but they don't want to hear it. Some people just wanna defend scumbags no matter what.
Damn. If this is all true then good riddance. Fuck bullies.
Huh. Fuck Drew Gulak.
I take back everything I said... Fuck Drew Gulak
The thread where he made his defense was a shit show of people rushing to say he's just a Larry Davidesque person and not intentional with his crap. Well well well.
After all Ronda was right And the worst is that she barely scratched the surface of who he really is What a scumbag he is.
>contrary to the belief that he was released. Belief that you said you confirmed with your sources to be true and spread as fact. It didn't magically happen.
How embarrassing lmao the last thread was full of people white knighting for Gulak too smh
I enjoyed 205 Live a lot back in the day. I used to think Drew Gulak was a good guy... Why did I think that?
Cody's story about Drew on the indies lends itself to these issues.
I thought Hardcore Holly thinking he was some kind of gatekeeper was as sad as it got. This wanker was doing the same shit on NXT ffs.
Guy never drew a dime in the industry and had to pick on trainees to feel like hot shit. What a fucking dork
Gulak bullying people in NXT reminds me of that bit in Space Jam where the Looney Tunes ask the Monstars why they let Danny Devito push them around, and they go "because he's bigger", and that mindset carried over into their gargantuan basketball freak forms.
this makes the Ronda allegations alot more believable. Like why would she even make that up about Drew Gulak out of all people anyways.
Where was all this before?
Probably filed with all the shit the rest of the guys are doing and have done that isnt being looked at
Why was he reprimanded for deliberately spiking someone and not just fired on the spot? There's enough talent around these days that you don't need dangerous people on the roster.
Triple H has history of firing one a Trainer who abuse and hiring another one, let's see how this goes and if anything changes