AEW’s newest star, Ilya Dragunov, is excited to be a part of the action, explaining how it feels like a new lease on life.
Dragunov, who was released by WWE earlier this year, debuted in Tony Khan’s promotion at the WrestleDream pay-per-view. Following his AEW debut, the former WWE United States Champion spoke “The Takedown on SI:“, saying that his initial impressions of the company were excellent and that he felt a great sense of freedom there.
“It gets my heart pumping and I feel like I’ve somehow fallen back in love with professional wrestling. My experience so far is to have people around me who really want to portray everything that’s going on in my mind, who really understand what I’m doing,” said Dragunov. “They want to improve what I’m doing, and they want to put it in the right light, what I’m doing. And I feel, if you can describe it in one word, I feel freedom.”
He has been positive about his AEW tenure thus far, describing it as joint efforts in which he and the AEW creative team agreed on many creative decisions.
Dragunov’s debut was of great importance obstacle because he needed to renew his visawhich all came together at the last moment. His decision to leave WWE was conditioned TKO owned promotion by not offering him enough of a contractprompting him to discover new possibilities. Dragunov started his AEW career on a positive note by defeating Mike Bayley in the main event of the October 21 episode of Diaspora.AEW Dynamite:“.