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WWE superstar Ilja Dragunov has admitted his family ‘hates’ the way he wrestles – but he’ll never change.
The 30-year-old former NXT UK Champion, who is in Europe this week ahead of this weekend’s huge Bash in Berlin premium live event, is known for his intense and incredibly physical style in the ring, which doesn’t go down well with his loved ones.
He exclusively told Metro.co.uk: ‘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.’
Despite acknowledging his own style and how his family doesn’t approve, Ilja confessed he doesn’t let himself dwell on it in case he overthinks things in the ring.
‘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,’ he explained.
‘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?’
He pointed to the way his on-screen ‘persona’ should carry himself, and he feels he has to hit those levels to justify his place in the business.
He added: ‘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.’
That’s not to say the Tsar – who was born in Russia but raised in Berlin from the age of five – doesn’t get scared, but he thinks that’s natural for any performer in the wrestling world.
‘I’m generally scared a lot of times,’ he confessed. ‘But it doesn’t change anything, because it’s, it’s up to my decisions what I want to do about it.’
He pondered: ‘Somehow my will and my passion and my bravery is always stronger than the fear that I have, and without the fear, I wouldn’t feel it that much, right?
‘And this is just kind of my mentality. I think there’s a lot of things I’m really not good at, but if there’s something that is my strength, it’s that I can take a lot of damage, but I can also recover very well and keep going.’
Ilja has endeared himself to fans with his capacity for punishment, and he recalled a particularly painful moment against new AEW signing Ricochet when they faced each other in the King of the Ring tournament in May.
‘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,’ he said. ‘That was quite uncomfortable to get up after that, and also bothered me for a couple of weeks, but now everything’s fine again.’
Now, Ilja’s focus is on WWE’s ongoing Road To Bash In Berlin tour, which has included dates in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.
He has already faced GUNTHER twice on the run, and on Friday night he’ll team up with Sami Zayn to take on the World Heavyweight Champion and his Imperium teammate Ludwig Kaiser.
‘It is such a wonderful emotional, wild time right now for me, because everything for me is like a whole circle,’ he said, as his career brings him back to the city where he ‘made his beginnings in this business’.
He added: ‘We’re making history in my country, where I grew up, and not only grew up as as a human, just grew up as a performer. I competed in all those cities.
‘And just this comparison from back in the day, from the indie scene where I made my first touches with this business, to now where I’m at the peak of my career.
‘It just shows me how beautiful this, this, this profession is, and how proud I am to be a part of it. ‘
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Bash in Berlin airs live on Saturday 31st August from 8PM BST on the WWE Network.
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