- The former NXT Champion was talking ahead of WWE’s huge Bash In Berlin show in Germany, this weekend
- Dragunov has worked under both Shawn Michaels and Triple H during his time in WWE
- The ‘Mad Dragon’ has impressed massively since being drafted to Monday Night Raw
Ilja Dragunov believes Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque and ‘The Heartbreak Kid’ Shawn Michaels share a “beautiful vision” for WWE and its future.
The former NXT Champion was speaking exclusively to Pubity ahead of WWE’s huge weekend in Germany, where they will be running SmackDown tonight and their Bash In Berlin show tomorrow in the German capital. As someone who spent a large portion of his life living and wrestling in Germany, Dragunov was extremely excited about returning to the country where he made his name and also for the future of WWE and it’s developmental territory NXT, under the leadership of the D-Generation-X founders.
“It’s such an exciting time for me, right now. I would say both of them have a beautiful vision for what this business should be about. We’ve had all these great PLE’s, these PLE’s in Europe, now we’ve got one coming up for the very first time in Germany, Bash In Berlin and SmackDown right before it. It’s absolutely amazing what is going on right now.
“For a person who grew up in Germany like me, to see the work that Shawn Michaels and Triple H are creating is mind blowing for me.”
And with WWE’s recent European shows generating such foundation shaking reactions in the arenas they’ve been held in, in Lyon and Glasgow, what does Dragunov foresee the reactions being like in Berlin?
“We German people, we know what we have to compete with. Look at the UK, how they reacted, look at France and how the people were absolutely into it. With WWE, we’re bringing mind blowing excitement to these countries and these people, they want it. They’ve been waiting for it. And people in Germany, we have been waiting for the first PLE in our country. We are a football crowd as well, so we can compete with all those other countries, so every German person better step up their game, because this is our time now.“
While Dragunov is not competing on the Bash In Berlin card tomorrow night, his career-long rival and newly minted World Heavyweight Champion GUNTHER will be main eventing the show, defending his crown against 14-time World Champion Randy Orton. The pair have helped bring a more physical European style onto the main WWE roster over the last couple of years, which would not have ordinarily been able to flourish under the promotion’s previous leadership.
With Dragunov spending time under the tutelage of Michaels in NXT and now Levesque on the main roster, he explains that the pair’s vision for WWE is definitely more open than it would have been years ago under different management.
“I’ve always had a great relationship with Shawn Michaels. He’s always been a big supporter of me and with Triple H, as far as I’m concerned, it’s the same. There’s a certain belief in our work that they see the same way as we do. In the case of GUNTHER and me, because I had a very successful time in NXT, we’re in the business of making people believe. You want to have real emotions and there is nothing that connects with people more than that physicality.
“When those shots land on the human body and it creates a sound, there is not one person who is not going to want to see more. Because this is excitement, this physicality is showing the true level of performance that will connect with most of the people who are watching the product.”
So, although Dragunov does not find himself in the spotlight for WWE’s double-header in the German capital this weekend, his hard hitting future with the company still appears very bright. Especially considering the unfinished business the Mad Dragon has with Intercontinental Champion Bron Breakker and the everlasting beef he shares with World Heavyweight Champion GUNTHER. The next few months on Monday Night Raw are shaping up to be just as chaotic as they are brutal.
WWE Bash in Berlin airs live on Saturday 31st August from 8PM BST on the WWE Network.
