Systems and methods are described to address issues associated with welding with cored wires. In certain processes, a welding wire may “stick” or fuse to a contact tip. To mitigate the negative effects of a wire fusing to a contact tip, a double pulse waveform is applied. A first pulse is applied at a first current level above a threshold current level required to transfer a ball of molten welding wire in a peak phase, and a second pulse is applied in the background phase at a second current level below the threshold current level to limit and/or eliminate fusion between the wire and the contact tip. In examples, the second current level is sufficient to dislodge a spot weld between the welding wire and the welding torch yet insufficient to transfer a ball of molten welding wire.