AEW President and CEO Tony Khan participated in the post-show media scrum for ROH Death Before Dishonor 2026, where he discussed various topics, including Ilja Dragunov’s contractual status with WWE.
Khan said, “I’m not sure about the contractual status, but that’s a tremendous, tremendous professional wrestler, absolutely. I don’t know exactly what the contractual status is of people that don’t work here, I can’t keep track of those things, and there is no way for me to know that, but one thing I do is that’s a great wrestler.”
As previously reported by PWMania.com, individuals within AEW have not received any information regarding the wrestler’s potential joining of the promotion. Additionally, industry sources do not expect Dragunov to sign with AEW; however, this sentiment is more of a hunch than a definitive conclusion.
Dragunov last competed for WWE during the final SmackDown before WrestleMania 42, where he participated in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. He is now reportedly an unrestricted free agent following the expiration of his WWE contract.
You can check out Khan’s comment in the video below.
(H/T to Fightful for transcribing the above quotes)
