Ilja Dragunov Explains Why He Thinks His Family Hates His Wrestling Style

In an interview with Metro, Ilja Dragunov spoke about how his family feels about his wrestling career and why he thinks they don’t like his style. Here are highlights:

On his intense wrestling style: “I think my family hates my wrestling style. Literally, until this day, my son didn’t see one match of me. He’s seven, and he’s going to turn eight this year. So, because I know what I do in that ring, and I know how I do that, it would be a bit too much for a seven year old to understand. He’s going to need a bit more time until we get to that point.”

On not dwelling on how his family feels: “It sounds a bit ruthless, but I really can’t think about that too much, because I think as more you pay attention to something, the more you you create a self proclaimed prophecy. I just have the belief that my body is able to take what I expect from my body, to take in a certain performance that I do, because if I don’t do it like I do, then I have no place in this business, and I have no business doing anything, right? There’s a certain way to my persona to carry myself, and how I compete and how I fight and how I do the things that I do, and if I can’t do them that way anymore, where is the sense, right? I don’t do that for for just like I don’t know fame or being like a celebrity or whatever I just do. I do that because I can fully express myself in this business. That is my reason. Number one.”

On a painful move he suffered in a match against Ricochet: ‘It was the Superplex Bomb that I took literally straight on my head or neck. When I did that, I kind of overshot, I don’t know what I was thinking. That was quite uncomfortable to get up after that, and also bothered me for a couple of weeks, but now everything’s fine again.”