Tony Khan Says He Didn’t Know Ilja Dragunov Would Be Ready For WrestleDream Until Wednesday
Ilja Dragunov made his AEW debut at AEW WrestleDream, being introduced by Renee Paquette as the newest AEW signee.
On Dynamite, a vignette aired for Ilja, hyping his impending debut.
Speaking at the WrestleDream press conference, Tony Khan revealed when he knew Ilja would be ready for WrestleDream.
“Thanks to the process, it can be an unpredictable process of acquiring a visa. It’s something that I wasn’t sure until this Wednesday night, during a live broadcast, that I would be able to bring you. It’s a great surprise, and it’s something that I was so pleased that we were able to do tonight,” he said. “Some people asked about the timing of the vignette that suggested your arrival at WrestleDream on Wednesday, and then having a second vignette on Friday. There is a lot of unpredictability in wrestling and a beautiful thing that happened for us is, on Wednesday night, in the middle of the show, at two in the morning your time, we got the message that Ilja was going to be able to pick up the visa the next day. We found that out during the live broadcast.
“We filmed the vignette just in case you weren’t going to be able to come to the PPV, we would start the build for when you were here. Maybe it was going to take another week or two, but it happened ahead of schedule, thankfully.”
Ilja Dragunov departed WWE in August.
Fans can find results from WrestleDream by clicking here. Check out the post-show podcast for a full review here.
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