Ilja Dragunov has come a long way.
During a recent discussion with Under The Ring to promote his NXT Championship showdown against Carmelo Hayes at NXT No Mercy 2023 this Saturday night, the NXT Superstar spoke about the progress he has made throughout his WWE career.
“I think I’ve improved a lot,” Dragunov said. “This whole business is about the journey and about experience. And experience is something you can’t buy, you can’t learn, you’ve just got to make it. And this whole time, I was able to learn so many things. I was able to progress at so many levels, first of all, because of the trust that the right people always put into me.”
Dragunov continued, “I always felt very free to do things my way, and other people responded to this, other people reacted to this, how much freedom they gave to me to just be myself, and to use strength to develop my character, to develop myself, to develop my performances. It was a beautiful time, it was a time with a lot hard work put in. I’m happy about every moment I got, and I learned so much. And only through this time, in this company, I became the person I am today, and I’m very, very proud of this person.”
Check out the complete interview at Apple.com. H/T to WrestlingInc.com for transcribing the above quotes.
