Cedric Alexander Beats Drew Gulak, Retains Cruiserweight Title at WWE SummerSlam

In his first pay-per-view title defense since the Greatest Royal Rumble, Cedric Alexander beat Drew Gulak to retain the Cruiserweight Championship on Sunday at SummerSlam.

Alexander and Gulak cycled through a number of pinning combinations before Alexander finally kept Gulak's shoulders down for the three-count:

Bleacher Report's Dave Schilling was pleasantly surprised with the frenetic finishing sequence:

Since Alexander beat Mustafa Ali in the finals of a tournament to win the vacant title at WrestleMania 34, the cruiserweights have largely been relegated to 205 Live.

However, that changed Sunday when Alexander and Gulak were given the opportunity to shine on the pay-per-view stage.

After Alexander defended the Cruiserweight Championship against the likes of Kalisto, Buddy Murphy and Hideo Itami, 205 Live general manager Drake Maverick set out to find a new No. 1 contender.

That led to a Fatal 4-Way match between Gulak, Itami, Ali and TJP, which Gulak won to become Alexander's top challenger.

During the current tenure of the cruiserweight division, Gulak has undergone several personality changes en route to becoming the Superstar he is today.

He was initially serious and somewhat lacking in terms of entertainment value, but that changed when he began utilizing a political character whose stated goal was to stop the high-flying and risk-taking that so many cruiserweights employed.

Somewhere along the way, Gulak experienced another shift, and he is now more vicious and focused than ever before.

That made him a huge threat to Alexander, who hasn't had much opportunity for character development since winning the title at WrestleMania.

Alexander has put on some fantastic matches during that time, though, and it enhanced his reputation as a workhorse champion.

With the roll Gulak has been on as of late, he stood out as the biggest threat to Alexander's title reign thus far.

Gulak's technical wizardry and mean streak went a long way toward pushing Alexander to the brink, but he fell short of capturing the title like many before him.

With Alexander now having retained against many of the top Superstars 205 Live has to offer, the path is clear for an up-and-coming challenger such as Lio Rush to step up in the near future.

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