WWE apparently wasn’t ready to give up on Ilja Dragunov, but the former United States Champion was ready to give up on WWE.
According to False Finish, WWE actually wanted Dragunov to remain with the company before his contract expired. There was just one problem—Dragunov apparently decided he didn’t want to stick around.
That certainly changes the feel of an exit that initially looked like WWE simply allowing another unused wrestler to quietly disappear.
We had that Dragunov’s contract had expired and he was exiting the company. WWE then wasted absolutely no time making things look official, moving him straight into the Alumni section of its website.
The weird part is how long Dragunov had already been gone. He last wrestled during WrestleMania weekend and then basically vanished. No injury announcement. No television explanation. No farewell angle. Dragunov was even spotted training at the Hart Dungeon while months continued passing without WWE finding anything for him to do.
Things weren’t exactly sounding great behind the scenes either. It was reported that Dragunov’s name hadn’t been coming up much and described as not a priority. WWE’s growing reliance on analytics was also discussed as something potentially hurting wrestlers who weren’t performing well enough in the company’s numbers, while Dragunov barely having any merchandise certainly wasn’t helping his case.
So WWE wasn’t using him. He wasn’t much of a priority. He hadn’t wrestled in months. Apparently, they still wanted him to stay, but the Mad Dragon clearly had other ideas.
For months, everyone wondered when WWE was finally going to do something with Ilja Dragunov. Turns out, Dragunov may have gotten tired of waiting too.
What do you think about Dragunov reportedly choosing to leave despite WWE wanting him to stay? Where should he show up next? Let us know in the comments below.
