In February 2018, Gulak was entered into a 16-man single elimination tournament to determine a new WWE Cruiserweight Champion, with the final round set to occur at WrestleMania 34. Gulak defeated both Tony Nese and Mark Andrews via submission en route to the semi-finals, where he lost to Mustafa Ali. During this time, Gulak stopped the PowerPoint Presentations and his "No-Fly Zone" campaign for a better "205 Live", and developed a new character with aspirations to be the best submission specialist in WWE. Around this time, Gulak formed an alliance with Gentleman Jack Gallagher and The Brian Kendrick to feud with Lucha House Party (Kalisto, Gran Metalik, and Lince Dorado), with the two teams trading victories, including a six-man tag team elimination match, which Gulak won for his team. On July 24 episode of "205 Live", Gulak won a fatal four-way match also involving Mustafa Ali, Hideo Itami and TJP to become the number one contender to the WWE Cruiserweight Championship. Gulak challenged Cedric Alexander for the Cruiserweight Championship at SummerSlam and on September 19 episode of "205 Live", where he was unsuccessful both times.