Ilja Dragunov didn’t simply disappear because WWE had nothing for him. The decision to stop using him was reportedly made all the way back in April after contract talks left the two sides too far apart to get a new deal done.
According to Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dragunov’s WWE contract officially expired on August 20, making him a free agent with no non-compete clause standing between him and wherever he wants to wrestle next.
“Ilja Dragunov’s (Ilia Rukober, 32) contract expired on 8/20 and is now a free agent.”
For months, the weird part was figuring out why Dragunov wasn’t around. He hadn’t wrestled since WrestleMania weekend, but there was never an injury announcement or storyline explanation. Meltzer says he repeatedly asked about the situation and was told Dragunov wasn’t hurt—creative simply wasn’t using him.
“We had over the months since his disappearances asked about him and the only answer we had gotten was that he wasn’t injured but creative was not using him. One version was that they had nothing for him but another was that they were specifically told he was unavailable to be used.”
Now there’s apparently a much bigger reason behind that disappearance. Dragunov was already on what Meltzer described as a “very good contract,” and with that deal approaching its expiration date, WWE and Dragunov started talking about another one. Those talks apparently didn’t get very far.
“Essentially, he signed what was termed a very good contract and it was coming due. In talks over a new deal, the sides were far enough apart that the decision was made in April not to use him anymore.”
That puts an entirely different timeline on Dragunov’s absence. Instead of WWE spending the summer trying to figure out when to bring him back, the company had already decided months earlier that he wasn’t going to be used while the clock ran down on his contract.
The money involved also appears to have been a major part of the problem. Nobody was apparently questioning what Dragunov could do once the bell rang, but WWE reportedly didn’t believe his business numbers justified the level of money involved.
“It was essentially conceded he was a great worker but not a numbers mover and evidently for the level of money he was asking and getting, you needed to be a numbers mover.”
That also adds some important context to previous reports about Dragunov’s standing. It was recently reported that he was a priority and discussed WWE’s increasing reliance on analytics, while False Finish reported that WWE would have liked to keep him. There was also a report that a post-SummerSlam television return had been considered, but whatever ideas existed clearly never made it to television.
Meltzer also compared WWE’s handling of the situation to something AEW has done under Tony Khan: if the company believes somebody isn’t going to sign another contract, there isn’t necessarily going to be one final run on the way out.
“This does show WWE (as is also seemingly the case with Bayley), that they are doing the same thing Tony Khan had done, in the sense when they believed someone was not going to re-sign, to just take them off television until their contract expired.”
So Dragunov’s months of silence apparently weren’t nearly as mysterious as they looked from the outside. Contract talks were far enough apart by April that WWE reportedly stopped using him, WrestleMania weekend became his final appearance, and four months later his deal simply ran out.
Now there isn’t another contract keeping him on the sidelines either. Dragunov is a free agent with no non-compete, meaning the next time he shows up in a wrestling ring doesn’t have to be months away.
Where do you think Ilja Dragunov should go now that he’s officially free to wrestle anywhere? Let us know in the comments below.
