AEW star Ilja Dragunov appeared on the Battleground podcast to discuss various topics, including his feelings just before debuting with the company at WrestleDream.
Dragunov said, “Nostalgia to a certain extent. Because I don’t remember when I felt the last time something is actually, in the version that I am today, taking me back to the days [when] wrestling was just a passion only, and not what I do majorly with my life. But also freedom, trust, excitement. Because even if it’s an entrance, a 30-minute match, whatever it is that I need to do, I will get it done with all the devotion and all the heart that I have. Which is also like one of the major characteristics that make me stick out. It is respect, it is — specifically to the point with the trust again, it is also gratefulness for the approach of the company to — even for this entrance, even for this part of the presentation, how much work was flowing into that. And how everything on so many different nuances was like a 10 out of 10.”
On who he first spoke to backstage after the promo:
“Tony. It was Tony Khan. I was talking to him, we were [exchanging] some words. I was expressing my gratitude for the moment that happened. He said similar nice words to me. And it was a very fulfilling moment to know like, ‘It feels right. It just feels right.’ A feeling that I was — this kind of moment of like. ‘Something feels so right’ was a moment that I was thinking about for a longer period of time.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
