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WWE star Drew Gulak has publicly responded to Ronda Rousey’s allegation that he inappropriately pulled on her pant drawstrings backstage.
The WWE is preparing for its biggest event of the year this weekend when WrestleMania 40 takes place over Saturday and Sunday.
However, one big name that will not be involved is the UFC legend Rousey, 37.
“Rowdy” switched to wrestling in 2018 and became a three-time WWE champion before leaving the company in October.
Her last match in the company was a defeat to best friend Shayna Baszler at SummerSlam in August and she was then spotted backstage at AEW Collision and AEW Rampage before making a shock return to the ring in November.
Since then her old billionaire WWE chief McMahon has dominated the headlines as he was accused of sexual assault, trafficking and physical abuse by a former WWE employee identified as Janel Grant, something the 78-year-old denies.
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And she has used the release of her new autobiography to slam her former boss by claiming that it is “hard to know where the evil, unethical, slimeball character on-screen character ends” last week.
However, Rousey appeared on NewsNation on Tuesday and claimed that someone grabbed the string of her sweatpants while she was waiting to speak with Triple H outside a writers’ room backstage.
She then went on to identify the alleged culprit as being Gulak, a 36-year-old who currently performs on the NXT brand and who has worked for WWE since 2016.
That led to a fierce backlash on social media before Gulak, real name Andrew Gulak, took to X to respond to the allegations.
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And he claimed that he had already apologised for the awkward situation that was a “complete accident”.
Gulak wrote: “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.”
During her appearance on NewsNation, she had claimed: “I was standing there and this guy I was barely an acquaintance with grabs the string of my sweatpants as I’m walking by...and nobody reacts as if this is abnormal, and he’s going down the hall and I’m like ‘what the f*** 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?'
“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?”
WWE have been contacted for comment.