Ilja Dragunov Talks AEW Debut, Creative Freedom, & Tony Khan | Inside The Ring

Specifically, something that I would, that I need to do is to wrestle in Japan. I need to wrestle in Japan. Welcome to TMZ's Inside the Ring. I'm Roger Corral. I'm Brandon Quirk. We have a big day today, dude. Yeah, did you see WrestleDream on Saturday? Dude, of course I did, man. Yeah, I mean, of course. And the big thing coming out of WrestleDream is the world premiere of Ilya Dragunov. And he is here with us today. They have granted us the time. And just let me give you a few things of this guy. this guy is known as a Mad Dragon, the symphony of conductor of violence he's earned a reputation as one of professional wrestling's ultimate big match performers he's violent his threshold for any type of pain is unbelievable he's a former WWE U.S. Champion, former WWE NXT Champion, WWE NXT UK Champion this guy has a million accolades dude and I looked it up in 2020 he earned CBS Sports Match of the Year wow I know wow I know and now he belongs to AEW please welcome Ilja Dragunov hello guys it's nice for you to have me here you know it's funny we we used to form the intros where we would tease the person so they didn't hear the name yet but then I'm thinking people are on YouTube they see him on the thumbnail they know exactly who they're about to about to see us talk to so hey welcome we are so appreciative that you are here with us uh your entrance on Saturday it was incredible the crowd was roaring for you what was it like for you that day walk us through being behind the curtain all of it how did you feel uh prior to that i mean i can say it was it was definitely a fairy tale for me as soon as everything happened uh again i was i was hidden for quite a while and then uh as a person that really just everything that i want to do is just go out and perform and even if it's just an entrance and introduction this entrance already meant the world for me like the music that i had was the is the music that i had in the beginning of my career to have this back is means everything to me because my most memorable moments were all connected to that in my humble uh indie days and just the atmosphere of the arena the warm welcoming of the people the entire work that AEW put into that detail by detail and the devotion of working together on that and making this beautiful day this beautiful beginning possible is something that possibly will carry in my heart for the rest of me it was so different than any other debut i've ever seen you know the lighting being red it was so dark and everything and it was it was amazing uh you know putting that together with you um did you have a voice in that was there did you have a part in the creative freedom uh of that first debut entrance was it something that you wanted and you guys discussed it or how did that all come to be i mean it's that's a beautiful part about it like professional wrestling in its best form is a play and it's a play together you know and i already started in the very very small time that we are working together to uh have the opportunity to work with great minds when it comes down to the first vignettes that we're passing on with the perspectives from my other hometown Dresden by night when it comes down to the parts with the metronome when it comes down to the music which came specific specifically for me but all the different layers like conducting the pyro that came out out of the entrance stage that like so many things came from a side from my side but somehow we were always on the same page with everything and everything they offered me was just always better at some point so but it was my it was based on the ideas anyway so it was kind of like not even everything we needed to communicate i know you talked about uh your visa being cleared during dynamite and that's what led to the uh debut happening right away uh i just wanted to know right off the bat who reached out to who first like how did the communication happen with Tony Khan and how is that relationship going uh as of now and what convinced you to to finally make the decision to uh become all elite i mean it's based on a lot of things i don't think that you can find like necessarily a point of time where you can say which side how and how came together i can say it came together quite quickly after my uh contract expired that's something that happened in a very much of a fragment of a time uh i felt the respect from the other side pretty quick pretty quick i was asking myself if i am at the right place for quite a while already which doesn't say necessarily anything bad about uh the years that i spent the seven years that i spent with the company um but i just was i mean i'm so emotionally driven in what i'm doing i'm always listening to my gut feeling and what i always try to be is not a hypocrite so if i feel like something is not going into the direction that i wanted anymore it doesn't feel like a place where i want to stick anymore if i feel like there's a landscape of more opportunities out there that i can reach out and people might be interested like who wouldn't go for that absolutely talking backstage and everything um being new to that locker room how has that been so far i know it's quite literally only been a week uh or a few days now so it's hard to ask you some of these questions but was there anybody there that that you knew that you caught up with and uh and it was like made a little easier for you or is it was it a totally new thing and everybody was super kind i mean i didn't didn't have much time to pay attention to this kind of stuff of course there are a lot of people there that i don't know i was basically shaking hands and apologizing that i possibly need to ask a couple of times more for the names uh some some people i definitely knew like uh Carl Fletcher for instance uh was pretty in a beautiful way expressing his excitement about me as a person so i i definitely had a small get together with him uh claudio yeah somebody i know from the back of the day because we had a match in in wales for NXT UK yeah so i for quite quite some time uh outside of that there are a lot of new people you know that i didn't have the chance to connect for right now because obviously the priority on Saturday was a different one but i think this is something that uh will happen down the line and uh everything i'm focusing on right now is to to debut tomorrow on AEW Dynamite and to show exactly what i'm all about i love that i love that i don't know if this was on purpose but you've kind of been a baby face at least in your last several runs and i feel like foreign wrestlers tend to be especially like you know people from russia or germany sometimes they get a villain role uh in american culture and american wrestling uh what's your thoughts on that perception and what are your thoughts and potentially playing more of a villainous character as well i mean like that's actually a funny question because like a lot of people think that i that i wrestle in a way that i heel worth because i'm extremely aggressive uh so i don't know where you pull the line there i think it's just me natural exceeding in my strength that puts me into a baby face role because i'm not seven foot tall i'm not three hundred pounds and my most memorable moments that were accelerating my career were moments where i was uh beaten down very badly so but i do it in a way like nobody else does i do i express pain in the way that nobody else does and i give pain in the way nobody else does so if i'm a baby face or i'm a heel as a matter of fact comes down to differentiating a certain situation in which like people will see me but um everything i was betting on was the type of way how i'm fighting and i don't exceed in certain athleticism i exceed in my rawness and how pure i am how honest i am how authentic i am and what i make people feel through the way how i fight speaking and going back to you know you said your wrestling style is violent looking back at WWE and now looking here at AEW obviously there's limits in terms of things you can do in the ring AEW obviously being the one where you might have a lot more freedom right in terms of uh in-ring style do you plan on changing your in-ring style a little bit uh adding more are there things that you would like to do that you haven't been able to do for a long time no no because of my wrestling style that i have is the reason why i am here i know that's the reason why there is a gap that's that people want to fill with what i have to offer what my what my craft can offer like it's it's not only to say that what I do is perfectly fitting AEW. It is more to say that it's exactly another layer that this company needs. Somebody who puts pain and brutality in an almost beautiful way that people can feel right down to the bone. It's funny because I do think you carry that pressure. You talked about being raw. I know your culture matters a lot to you. I feel like there's this perception of Russian men and russian athletes being very strong you know i've seen clips of russian dudes taking on bears like it's it's insane uh how do you feel about that perception obviously you know you're okay going in and again being raw with your opponents but do you ever feel pressure to live up to a certain standard when it comes to that no the only standard that i set on myself is being as honest as i can with the crowds like i i'm like i don't know i think it was like let me answer you that way i once saw a podcast with Rick Rubin who was asked if he ever considers the audience when he works and he said no because he considers what he likes and then he lets the audience decide what they feel about and that's the same way that i i found this this expression so beautiful because somehow that's what i did for the most part of my of my career i only consider i love my Russian roots i love my German roots and if you look very very closely at the nuances of my work you can tell that all these little pieces of culture are included in that i'm i grew up in the one of the most baroque beautiful continental Europe cities in Dresden we have buildings that look like like you're on a movie set and you can just walk them in bright daylight or at night and enjoy it without paying paying money to see them so this beautiful artsy expressive thing is something that i carry in my style but if you want to talk about pain we talk about Russian writers like Dostoyevsky that was writing about suffering and struggling and pain and the reality of things that only a Russian author could to a certain extent so this is also something that I express in my style is the bear thing true by the way I don't know you're so hung up on the bears I just know these guys can take it man I mean yeah I think it's in Dagestan they do that sometimes I've heard that like 2-3 years ago yeah yeah yeah I'm gonna ask my mom AEW obviously stacked roster uh you're coming into that now and uh no doubt you know you're going to be able to keep up with everybody but how do you plan and have you thought about how you plan to stick out in such a stacked roster like AEW I mean we basically talked about this right i didn't consider how stacked the roster is because like this that's a fear i don't have i was always betting on myself i bet on myself when i when i uh left WWE i'm betting on myself still and i'm betting on what my gut is telling me and the way the people the company introduced me i think it speaks for itself that i stick out from all the rest in that roster and you don't people who stick out and are not like anybody else you kind of like put the objective on on them and only if you are like everybody else or try to be like everybody else which is also like unfortunate thing happening nowadays unfortunately uh then you get overlooked but i haven't been overlooked uh once in my 14 years of career this guy's not getting overlooked bro no no not at all hey a faction that you know is a worry of a lot of people yeah the Don Callis family which is very very large now the giant family what's your thoughts being new to AEW seeing the Don Callis family do they worry you would you consider joining them eventually do you think that they're missing something maybe you it's for sure a big family, it's a back as a big family with a lot of dangerous competitors um yeah i mean like coming back to the words that i said at the press conference after Wrestle Dream i'm i'm very hungry you know and i know that there's going to be a big problem for many many people because i am here so i'm much rather think about all the people i want to walk through the people that i want to join if that makes sense i mean he's ready yeah i mean he's ready have you also been able to uh catch up with New Level yet i know you guys overlapped at over a past employer um have you guys chatted yet at all no we said we said hello i mean i know the guys for for quite some time and seeing them is definitely a happy happy reunion i was wondering about your uh again your background coming from another country um how did you perceive american wrestling growing up like was there a certain image that that had on you growing up and then how did that image transfer in terms of where you want to wrestle you know now that you're in AEW you could wrestle in other places like New Japan and they have partnerships with other companies uh so it's kind of a two-parter like where do you see that going i mean like these are multiple questions so i'm gonna answer the first one first it's uh it's how i perceive uh professional wrestling over in the united states i mean where i come from it's uh it's uh considered entertainment so i when i started to do to pursue professional wrestling uh i had different influences that made me start and it wasn't necessarily the american wrestling ish style or however you would call it like my role models are Katsuhiko Nakajima, Meiko Satomura, Terry Funk, Roddy Pipers uh William Regals you know and coming from continental europe we have our own legends like Axel Dieter, Klaus Karloff, you know, René Lacoste these are in in where i come from and what people inspired me professional wrestling professional wrestlers are fighters and that's how we entertain we don't entertain first and then we are fighters or portraying fighters we are fighters in the first place so coming over to the states is definitely of course like a different direction but this is the beautiful thing about about AEW being a place for people who are really expressing this craft like people being there like a Samoa Joe who was highly influential on me when i didn't even know how to put on the wrist lock to know that this person is there for instance just as an example yeah it clicks with me and resonates with me and i feel like okay okay that feels good how has your first few days been uh with Tony Khan as boss if you could tell us it was uh it was the same expression that or impression that i had with everyone else i was working so far with it's it's devotion dedication it's excitement especially as about me as a person and into the strengths that i have to offer and it has been it has been flattering because hearing words uh at the press especially at the press conference after after WrestleDream that they are they feeling thankful for me for deciding for AEW is a is a beautiful thing to hear as a performer something that we love about AEW is and we've talked to a lot of talent about creative freedom and how they can express themselves and try new things and if they have ideas that ideas are are are considered uh more so than other places is that something that's important to you creative freedom or do you uh you know look going into this you want to just trust others to to create your story or is this something that you want to have more of a voice in i mean who who wouldn't appreciate freedom that's a that's a pretty obvious take like the more i know that some people get get scared by freedom because it's a it's a scary thing because a lot of things are just in your own hands but i believe um especially coming from the indies where you kind of like gotta have ideas you gotta pave your own way a lot of things are depending on yourself your shape your your look your creativity when it comes down to make a name for yourself in the smallest places possible yeah that's i think as professional wrestling is a competitive sport to some extent it is a it is an art it is a creative business and if you really want to reach your full potential you got to get also strong in that sense and if the company and this company does that provide you the freedom to do so what more can i ask for sure yeah thanks for sharing that something that i think is really cool about you is your name i think Ilya is such a cool name and again in american audiences it's so different uh kind of outside of wrestling but in Heat of Rivalry there's like a russian hockey player his name is Ilya and he's like the badass hockey player uh how much does your name like uh affect you in terms of making an impact and making sure it stands out i mean my name wasn't i'm gonna ask my mother because i in fact my real name it's happening with tackle by the way i asked her the same question she's like you can ask my mom her name is she named me well i had never heard of it until i saw Heat of Rivalry and i was like oh and now like i feel like it's becoming more common and i don't know if there's any meaning behind the name i'm not sure how common it is you're really fascinated with russia aren't you i've never been have you noticed this so far this guy is just he can't let it go i see that he can't let it go hey uh speaking of WrestleDream on saturday was there a match that you caught i know everything happened so quickly was there a match that you caught that day or or a talent that that stuck out to you that you wanted to to talk about i mean a lot of people are just like absolutely absolutely fascinating they're like uh they really they really are unique in their own way like i feel for instance but this is also like somebody i have been i've have been been impressed about like at all times it's like a person like bandito yeah like what this person is just capable of it's just like like somebody just straight out of the out of a video game that isn't that is incredible he makes it some things he makes so effortlessly that this i don't have the capacity to describe that yeah i don't know if you know this but there's an upcoming episode of collision that's going to be on a boat oh yeah jericho on the jericho cruise and we are going yeah and it's a big deal man i don't know if you've ever wrestled on a boat but i wanted to know is that something you would be okay with i mean never say never i mean i'm a fighter by heart uh so whatever chance whatever uh the company is offering me to satisfy my hunger let's see about it in the future there you go this is a fun one no i'm not i'm not gonna say this is a fun question technically take that redact that i but no it is not about bears i think it's not about bears it's not about russia okay um if you could wrestle anyone in history dead or alive who would it be this is a fan this is actually a great question a fan submitted this one you stumped them it's a tough question it's a very tough question even i couldn't answer it right now for you and i don't wrestle that's a tough one because i can't bring it down just to one person yeah all the lists that i gave you like the people that inspire inspire me is actually everyone is on that list you know if i ever stated like the first person that would really stick stick out to me like i mean Kobashi for obvious reasons like that's awesome that well you can do a triple threat if you want to include more and so we we could and i know i did a two-part earlier but you know AEW does have relationships with like new japan and all these people i just want to know like is there anyone else outside of AEW they are also looking forward to working with but this is a good this is a good question i wouldn't say it's necessarily who i want to work with but where i want to work like i always like when i back in the day when i started with wXw they had a working relationship with Big Japan Pro Wrestling and when i joined wXw it's kind of like this time was passed okay and the one thing that i didn't do in my career so far i had multiple things that i didn't do in my career so far but specifically something that i would that i need to do is to wrestle in japan i need to wrestle in japan because that's the place where i think my style belongs and i think i would connect with the people like with this culture for professional wrestling in a whole different way well there's plenty of time i i predict that that's going to happen absolutely absolutely um anything else roger i'm a big fan so i'm a bit of a fanboy at the moment so i'm good oh i got a question last one we'll get you out of here uh are you open to pairing up in the future making your own faction whatever that might be is that something you're open to or are you just you know dead set on a solo run here i mean like oh i'm open to to some things but like i believe uh i don't know if the people want to still uh pair up with me after i walk through them sure sure why not no but seriously i mean it's like initiation hey names is there anybody on the roster right now in the locker room that you think needs to be dialed down it needs it needs a reality check now that you're here i gotta get to know the people first before before i can say you know it's media training That's media training, I always give the people this uh the how you call it in English I forgot the word for that, the benefit of the conversation first and then decide okay I really don't like you and I'm gonna devote myself to make you to make you feel how much I don't like, okay I have a feeling he's really lovable like backstage and then when he gets to the ring that's look dude If you want to talk about bears again, I'm sure we can get them back. Yeah. Yeah. Why not? Why not? Thank you so much for speaking with us here at TMZ and we'll see you tomorrow night on AEW Dynamite. Really excited to see. Thank you. I'll wait.