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UFC Hall of Famer Ronda Rousey claims a WWE trainer of inappropriate behavior during her tenure with the company.
Rousey, who has been a vocal critic of WWE's culture under its former chairman Vince McMahon following a sex trafficking lawsuit filed against him, claims Drew Gulak, a former in-ring competitor, grabbed her by the string of her sweatpants backstage at a live event. The former UFC Women's Bantamweight Champion revealed the allegations during an appearance on NewsNation, initially forgetting Gulak's name before identifying him.
"God, I forgot his name. I can’t believe I forgot this guy’s name. It’ll come back to me, but I was standing there and this guy I was barely an acquaintance with, grabs the string of my sweatpants as I’m walking by," Rousey said. "And I wasn’t even looking at him, and I look down the hall and... nobody else reacts as if this is abnormal, and he’s grabs is and starts going down the hall and I’m like, ‘What the fuck 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?’
“And no one around me acted as if it was abnormal. 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? So that really put me on edge that not only is this behavior prevalent, but it’s so prevalent people don’t even realize it’s a problem any more.”
“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," Rousey added after remembering Gulak's name. "And he was like ‘No, no, no, I’m glad you said something to me’, and he really just backpedaled and everything like that. But it just put like a really 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. And anywhere...”
Gulak addressed the allegations in a statement shared on his social media account Wednesday (April 3).
"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," Gulak wrote.
Rousey, a pioneer in women's combat sports, had previously made sporadic appearances before officially signing with WWE and debuting at the 2018 'Royal Rumble.' The former judo star was a two-time WWE SmackDown Women's Champion, one-time Raw Women's Champion and one-time WWE Women's Tag Team champion with friend and fellow former UFC star Shayna Baszler prior to leaving the company in 2023.