Several NXT stars were released earlier this month due to budget cuts. WWE has been releasing a lot of talent – both main roster and NXT – this year.
WWE is reportedly making changes to the brand by signing and using taller and younger wrestlers instead of older and smaller wrestlers.
Speaking to Sport1, Ilja Dragunov was asked about the changes as well as the possible impact to him.
“Fortunately, I have a profession that concerns me with so many challenges that it does not give me time to worry much about something like that I don’t have in my hand,” he said. “In general, however, I am of course aware of one thing: I am a guy who embodies something with which certainly not everyone can do what. But I also say: This is not my claim, I don’t want that at all. Someone everyone likes has no rough edges. And if you don’t have them, you won’t do anything, because you don’t have anything to set him apart, which gives him recognition value. I have that, I embody what I am in the ring, express something deep inside me – and I would never want to do anything else.”