Ilja Dragunov Says Things Felt Different After WWE US Title Loss

Ilja Dragunov thinks the championship change caused a shift in the company

This past Saturday at WrestleDream, Ilja Dragunov made his first appearance as part of AEW. The Russian-born star left WWE earlier in the year, just months following his impactful return in October 2025 which saw Dragunov win the United States Championship, though he would lose it come December to Carmelo Hayes. From there, the Royal Rumble saw Dragunov unceremoniously thrown out by Brock Lesnar, before he’d have a quiet end to his run, culminating with the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal According to the man himself, it was after the title switch that he noticed a change in his WWE tenure.

Speaking with Jon Alba of Sports Illustrated, Dragunov lamented the difference after he lost the United States Championship.

“It has been a very complicated time for me because, you see, I came back from an ACL tear that happened in the most unexciting way possible. I worked myself through rehab and was training very hard, and was very dedicated. I came back, and I won the United States Championship basically on my return, which was an awesome, memorable moment. But then certain times, like after I dropped the belt and I was going through my next performances, I felt like I felt in my gut things are different. And I don’t blame anybody. I’m a gentleman and I have way too much respect for the last seven years that I the most of my 20s that I spent with the company. But I felt like it is fine for me and reasonable to ask myself, ‘Is there more? Is there a new air I can breathe?'”

-Ilja Dragunov

Dragunov was essentially frozen out of WWE in April 2026 after reportedly being stuck in a contract stalemate with the promotion. As such, he was inactive for months, being kept out of the ring for what became around six months as he left one company and arrived in another. You can catch up on the reported contract dispute here.

Now part of AEW, Ilja appeared at WrestleDream in a non-physical capacity. Introduced by Renee Paquette, Dragunov entered to his original indie theme and with a large prop metronome on the stage. This followed vignettes which teased his arrival that showed shots of intense workouts set to the ticking of the metronome, in reference to Dragunov’s conductor-like movements. The former WWE United States Champion has since made his AEW in-ring debut, defeating “Speedball” Mike Bailey on last night’s AEW Dynamite.

Dragunov has spoken about his excitement at joining the AEW roster and that he has no fears of getting lost in the shuffle. You can read more about that here.

As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on Ilja Dragunov as soon as we hear more.