Fresh off a Saturday night debut at AEW’s WrestleDream PPV, and with his first AEW match tomorrow night on Dynamite to promote, Ilja Dragunov stopped by The Ariel Helwani Show this afternoon (Oct. 20).
Dragunov left WWE when his last contract expired, and spoke a little bit about that decision and the one to join AEW at the post-PPV media scrum, but he went a little more in depth with Helwani. The lack of creative for his character after dropping the United States title last December was a red flag
for the Mad Dragon:
“After I dropped the belt, things kind of went in directions where I felt like, ok, it could have been better. There could have been more time to go into a story, into something that is outside of just holding a championship, captivating for the people…
It never changed anything about my work mentality, because I love what I do, and I make every minute count for myself. But we all have feelings, and… especially if we’re in a business like this, we want to devote ourselves to this…”
WWE wanted to keep Dragunov, and Ilja is “too much of a businessman, and a gentleman” himself to reveal numbers, but seems to say their financial offer wasn’t the issue. It doesn’t sound like they gave him enough creative assurances to convince him not to try for something more fulfilling elsewhere. The arrival of AEW made that a gamble worth taking, and Ilja had experience “eating the dirt” from his pre-WWE days on the independents around the world.
“There was no intention of the company to let me go… It was an accumulation of a lot of things. Of course, the offering, because we all know at the end of the day, it’s a business. But also, it’s definitely based on my feeling of how I want to work creatively.
I spent most of my twenties in WWE. That’s a very, very long time, and the landscape in this beautiful business changed… the expiration of my contract came and the negotiations didn’t lead anywhere. There was nothing that I felt satisfying. Nothing that gave me the perspective of, ‘Oo, I must stick with what I have here.’
I had a gut feeling. I think things will work out for me, that I can bet on myself… Change always requires guts. It requires courage. It requires dealing with the possibility that things could not work out your way.
It all came down to betting on myself and believing it’s going to be all right.”
Helwani probed at the dirt himself in a couple of different ways. The host asked about Dragunov about Brock Lesnar no-selling his offense at Royal Rumble last year, and fans who were upset about it on his behalf. He essentially doesn’t say anything about how or why that came about, or if he even knows, saying he “didn’t spare a second or third thought about it.” Instead, Dragunov focuses on how he was true to his character in that moment.
That also sets up a great line from Ilja about the polarizing reaction he gets from wrestling fandom:
“For what I was given and how this whole situation occurred, I did the best I could do. My best career moments were made by my vulnerability. I became a name in moments where I’ve gotten beaten down… It’s always the way I fought back and how I recovered after those moments…
“I don’t see it as a defeat. I’m glad that people are upset for me, and maybe it could have worked out a different way…
“I have two categories of people watching my work. Either people who are extremely behind me, really get me, really get emotionally invested in me, or it’s the polar opposite, the people who think I’m the cringiest person in the world. But I love it that way because people care.”
This clip also includes Helwani asked if Dragunov leaves with any regrets, which he dismisses with, “No, why should I?” before talking about what he got out of his seven years there, and expressing gratitude for the opportunities he got during that time.
Asking about his old friend and epic rival Gunther’s booking this year got Dragunov to be slightly critical of his old company:
“I guess my feelings the same feeling as a lot of other people share — if you are the person to retire John Cena, it’s kind of like a standard that you should keep a certain level of that, in my opinion. For me, [Gunther] is the best, he will be one of the best of all-time, he is a dear friend of mine for… I don’t know, maybe since 2014-15… and I know he’s good, I know he will always do good, and whatever he does is gonna be awesome.
“But I can not imagine, after the standard he’s set, and the standard of how he got portrayed, that this is not necessarily the level we are working at right now.”
Mostly though, Dragunov wanted to talk about how happy he was in his new home. In addition to how excited he was about his first AEW appearance last Saturday in Orlando, Florida, Ilja also said that so far, his ideas and AEW’s have been in synch. That’s helped make the entire experience of debuting “a fairy tale” — right down to bringing back his old pre-WWE entrance music:
“That day at WrestleDream was a fairy tale for me. From all the nuances to the warm welcome of the fans to all the work that AEW put into that. Even the entrance music, that it was possible to get this specific entrance music, touched my heart.
“I’m Russian born but German raised boy… When I started my very young path in independent wrestling in Germany, that was my entrance music. It guided me through my youngest years to my biggest moments that put me on the platform in Europe, got me to the United Kingdom, got me to the States.
“All of my career is based on that music, and when I heard it and did my entrance at WrestleDream, I felt like a child again in that business.
“I was craving this feeling for a very, very long time.”
Ilja Dragunov seems happy, grateful, and motivated. Hard to be angry with that, although someone will. Share your reaction to the Mad Dragon’s conversation with Ariel Helwani below, and click here to watch it in its entirety.
