Ilja Dragunov made his debut appearance in AEW over the weekend at the WrestleDream pay-per-view, before winning his first match for the promotion in the main event of this week’s (Oct. 21) episode of Dynamite.
I’ve seen quite a few wrestling fans wonder why Dragunov is allowed to keep using his WWE ring name in AEW. During an interview this week on the Battleground Podcast, Dragunov gave a very simple answer to that question.
“I mean, [there’s] a very easy answer to that. Nobody ever asked me to change
it when I was working with WWE. So I was Ilja Dragunov when I started on the indies for all the time, I was still [Ilja Dragunov] while I was with WWE, and I still have the rights to the name when I left.”
Sometimes things just work out in one’s favor, I suppose. In this case, WWE never asked the Mad Dragon to change his ring name, so he gets to keep using it now that he’s gone from the company.
Are you glad that Ilja Dragunov doesn’t have to come up with a different name for his post-WWE career? Why didn’t WWE ever ask him to change it? Give me your best guess in the comments below, Cagesiders.
