Ilja Dragunov’s AEW debut wasn’t just a stressful waiting game for Tony Khan — Dragunov was losing patience with the visa process himself. The former WWE star has now detailed the frantic final hours that ended with him booking a flight within hours and rushing back to the United States for WrestleDream.
Speaking on The Ariel Helwani Show, Dragunov explained that applying for a U.S. visa wasn’t exactly new territory for him. The frustrating part was simply waiting when all he wanted to do was get back to wrestling.
“I mean, it’s not the first time that I needed to apply for a visa in the US, so that was familiar. But of course, since everything I wanna do is work and fight and perform, I just couldn’t wait for things to happen quicker.”
Dragunov also made it clear AEW wasn’t sitting around while he waited. He said the company helped him throughout the process, and while the whole thing took roughly a month, he realizes that’s actually pretty quick when put into perspective.
“And from the company’s side, they were helping me in that process in every way possible, so it was smooth. It took around, I guess, around a month, which was still too long for me. But putting it into perspective, it was very fast, and after the appointment, everything was so quick.”
Then came the middle-of-the-night email that changed everything. Dragunov was awake around 2 AM in Germany because his girlfriend was touring Japan with Sendai Girls, and he decided to check his inbox.
“So, on that day when I realized I could travel back to the States, it was 2 AM in the morning. I was awake anyway around that time since my girlfriend is touring with Sendai Girls in Japan.”
That’s when Dragunov realized his passport was ready to be picked up. Instead of waiting around another day, his mind immediately went to whether he could grab it and get on a plane that same day.
“So I was looking through my emails, and I realized, ‘Okay, today is the day I pick up my passport.’ So I thought, ‘If I can pick it up today, I can be back in the States today,’ since we travel back in time if I travel from Germany to the States.”
Dragunov immediately contacted AEW, and that’s when everything went into overdrive. Flights were arranged almost immediately, and only seven hours later he was on a plane heading back to the United States.
“So I reached out to AEW — to the company — and everything went extremely quickly. Everything got booked, and I was, in seven hours, on my flight back to the States. I didn’t want to wait another single second anymore.”
That frantic timeline lines up with what Tony Khan revealed following WrestleDream. Khan said AEW was still uncertain about Dragunov’s availability while Dynamite and Collision were airing live, with confirmation finally arriving that Dragunov would be able to pick up his visa the following day.
“Some people asked about the timing of the vignettes that suggested your arrival at WrestleDream on Wednesday and then having a second vignette on Friday. Well, there’s a lot of uncertainty in wrestling. On Wednesday night, in the middle of the show, at 2 AM your time, we got the message that Ilja was able to pick up the visa the next day, and we found that out during the live broadcast.”
AEW had already filmed material teasing Dragunov’s arrival, but Khan didn’t want to advertise something the company couldn’t guarantee. Until that visa was actually ready, there was still a chance the WrestleDream surprise wouldn’t happen.
“And that’s why I didn’t run the vignette — because I didn’t want to falsely advertise under the false assumption until you knew you would be there. We filmed the vignette thinking initially, just in case you were able to be there at the pay-per-view, we would start the build until you were here.”
Everything ultimately fell into place just in time. Dragunov made his official AEW debut at WrestleDream on October 17, bringing an end to the uncertainty that had followed him since his WWE contract expired in August.
What looked like a carefully planned surprise on television was much more chaotic behind the scenes. Dragunov went from checking an email at 2 AM in Germany to sitting on a flight back to the United States just hours later, and he clearly wasn’t interested in wasting another second once that passport was ready.
What do you think about Ilja Dragunov scrambling to get back to the United States within hours of finally getting his passport and visa situation sorted out? Let us know in the comments below.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
