Paul Levesque says Drew Gulak’s contract was not renewed

Paul Levesque, WWE’s CCO, said during today’s Backlash media Q&A that Drew Gulak’s contract expired. That was push-back on his part since pro wrestling media had reported he was released. Levesque bristled at the question at first and said if you’re going to cite news sources, you should pick credible ones. Fightful and PWInsider had reported that Drew Gulak was released.

“We release talent all the time,” said Levesque. “It’s part of what we do. You can’t just hire people, bring them in, keep hiring more people and just keep bringing them in. An unfortunate part of the job is talent gets released. Can I say he was released? He was not released. His contract was just not renewed.”

In a follow-up question, he was asked whether Gulak’s departure had anything to do with allegations made by former WWE wrestler Ronda Rousey against Gulak.

Rousey accused Gulak of grabbing the string of her sweatpants during an interview with NewsNation last month. She said the incident was witnessed by others. Levesque didn’t address that topic.

Both PWInsider and Fightful made statements standing behind their reporting on Gulak’s release following Levesque’s comments.