Drew Gulak Talks John Cena Being A Big Fan Of "205 Live", Giving Advice To Talent

Corey Graves interviewed Drew Gulak on the latest episode of After The Bell where the two talked about Gulak's time on the independent wrestling scene and the things that they are doing while in quarantine. Graves asked Gulak about his move to Smackdown, and Gulak talked about his wait-and-see approach at the time.

"This is still like, 'OK, maybe it'll happen. Maybe it won't.' For a while, it was just people coming up to me and being like, 'hey, I think this is gonna happen,' and I'll go like, 'people tell me that a lot and nothing happened, so thank you.' People were telling me I was going to RAW at the same time too," Gulak said. "I really had no idea until it was announced online officially."

When Daniel Bryan and Gulak were moved to Smackdown as part of the 2019 WWE Draft, Bryan named Gulak as an opponent that he wanted to face. The two did face off at Elimination Chamber that concluded with Bryan saying he wanted to learn from Gulak leading to their current partnership. Gulak talked about his small history with Bryan and the Elimination Chamber match in his hometown.

"Especially that day at Elimination Chamber, which was up the street from where I trained and from where Daniel Bryan cut his teeth at the Murphy Rec Center, which is up the street from the Wells Fargo Center, we were two guys who are two years apart. He came in, and he was the top independent star. He stayed that way until he became the top WWE star.

"I just never crossed paths with him. For me, I wasn't the Shawn Michaels trained guy who came in and immediately booked to win the Super 8 Tournament or those kinds of things," Gulak said. "I had to grind from the bottom of the card to get to where I was throughout my career. So I had so much to prove that time I got to work with him. Us skating by in our careers, we never touched in the ring. He got to call my matches at the Cruiserweight Classic, which is kind of cool because that was him getting a chance to see that kind of style. I think that woke up something inside of him to be like I want to do more of that."

Graves wondered if there was anyone that Gulak turns to for advice. Gulak talked more about his friendship with Bryan and other wrestlers that he talks to from time to time. He also talked about how John Cena would take the time to give advice and how he would take time to watch 205 Live and give advice to those guys on the 205 Live roster.

"I don't try to pry too hard," Gulak admitted. "I'll be open with everyone in the locker room for situations and asking for opinions all the way up and down the locker room, but Bryan in particular has been a huge help lately just getting to chat with him and getting to know him because it was only until recently that we've really gotten to know each other. We were acquaintances before and respectful colleagues, but now we're building a friendship, so that's kind of nice. Getting to pick his brain has been awesome.

"Cesaro just because of our background and history, if I really need to be like, 'what should I do in this situation?,' I go right to him. Same with Kassius Ohno. I go right to Mike Quackenbush and ask him what his opinions are if I need them, and any chance I've ever had to interact with John Cena, he's been the most generous guy in the world with his time. And he really does love this like he would sit and watch 205 Live every night after Smackdown just because he wanted to. He'd be giving out advice all the time. It's like, 'oh, why didn't I think of that?'"

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit After The Bell with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.