WWE Rumors: ‘Friday Night SmackDown’ Superstar Reportedly Parts Ways With Company

As documented by WrestlingNews.co, Drew Gulak is no longer with WWE. The former superstar wrestled on last night’s Friday Night SmackDown in a losing effort against Daniel Bryan, but that match appears to be his last for the company at the time of this writing.

The report states that Gulak’s profile has been moved to the Alumni section of WWE’s website, which is designated to former employees and performers who don’t work for the company on a full-time basis. There have been examples of superstars who have been moved there after being fired in a storyline, but for the most part, the Alumni section is reserved for former employees.

However, Gulak doesn’t appear to have been moved there for any storyline reasons. According to the report, his contract has expired as he wasn’t able to negotiate a new deal with the company. WWE has released several superstars recently as part of its cost-cutting measures, but Gulak was a star they had plans for.

Gulak was being pushed on Friday Night SmackDown. He feuded with Bryan earlier this year and they became tag team partners afterward. There were rumors floating around that Bryan wanted to elevate the 33-year-old, and for a while, it looked like the company was on board with Gulak receiving more airtime on the blue brand’s weekly show.

Of course, the current pandemic has complicated current negotiations for several superstars. As The Inquisitr reported earlier this week, Rey Mysterio still hasn’t agreed to terms to extend his stay because the company isn’t looking to increase people’s salaries at the moment. Perhaps Gulak wasn’t offered a deal that was better — or even on par with — his previous one.

We could all easily do a multi-slide PowerPoint presentation about why #WWE should have worked harder to keep Drew Gulak. But another one why a company should scoop him up. At least he went out strong. pic.twitter.com/IGpmgUmlVw

— Scott Fishman (@smFISHMAN) May 17, 2020

It remains to be seen where Gulak will end up, but some of his peers and WWE legends have wished him well in his future endeavors. Sean Waltman — who competed as X-Pac in WWE — took to Twitter and praised the former superstar, and encouraged other promotions to take notice of this development.

“Any promotion would be lucky to have Drew Gulak on their roster. I’m a big fan of that guy.”

Since Gulak’s contract expired, he is not bound by the 90-day non-compete clause, meaning that he’s free to join another company right away. That might not happen immediately due to the current pandemic forcing most wrestling companies to shut up shop for the foreseeable future. However, All Elite Wrestling is still operating, and the company has a pay-per-view next weekend.