Ilja Dragunov Doesn’t Want People Giving Him Credit For Trick Williams Improving In The Ring

Dragunov wants all the credit to go to Williams.

During WrestleMania 42 weekend, The Ringer Wrestling Show conducted an interview with Ilja Dragunov.

As the chat moved along, Dragunov’s history in NXT with Trick Williams was brought up, and how Dragunov played a role in Williams showing what he could do on a main event level in the ring. Dragunov said while it takes two to tango, he does not want anyone giving him credit for Williams’ improvement.

“People are saying this but, that’s all Trick’s work… Of course, it’s always two parties in a match… Three at least because you have always a ref in the match. But, I don’t want anyone to give me the flowers for Trick’s progression because, this guy — just had the opportunity, and of course I was a bit more experienced in that sense for sure. But he was ready. It’s just like a person who is waiting for a particular spot and you give him someone who just wants to work with him, and I was very heavily pushed in NXT times, from the get-go, and I was just working with him, and had fights that I thought made sense. But all the stuff that made him with ‘Whoop that Trick’ and his presence and his aura, that is all his work and I don’t wanna take any credit for that…” It was mentioned that there were moments in those matches where Trick leveled up, and Ilja said, “Because I hit him very hard,” he laughed. “And that’s okay because I’m not very happy when people don’t hit me hard back. That’s boring to me.”

Williams is set to be in action on night two of WrestleMania 42. He’ll be challenging Sami Zayn for the WWE United States Championship.

If the quote in this article is used, please credit The Ringer Wrestling Show with an H/T to Fightful for the transcription.