Grayson Waller Calls Ilja Dragunov ‘Terrifying,’ Maven Recalls Getting Ribbed By Edge
Grayson Waller wrestled Ilja Dragunov in WWE NXT, and he recalled working with the “terrifying” Russian star in an interview with “WWE Die Woche.”
You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On working with Dragunov: “Ilja’s terrifying. Ilja is actually terrifying. There’s something wrong with him. I don’t know what it is. There’s something wrong with his brain. I wrestled him last year on NXT, and I spoke to Carmelo Hayes this morning about it. When you get across from Ilja, there’s an energy that you see in his eyes, you see in his movements, that this is a different bloke. You can’t go in there and joke around with him. He’s not that kind of guy. You know you’re getting in there and you’re going into a fight, and everything’s gonna hurt. It’s not gonna be a fun experience. I don’t think anyone goes in and goes, ‘Oh, that was so fun.’ There’s nothing fun about wrestling Ilja Dragunov. I think [Carmelo Hayes] found that out.”
On Dragunov: “Everything he does is so intense. Even backstage, you might see him the day of your match, and five hours before the show, he is as intense as he is when he goes out there for the match. So I think Ilja is a very talented guy, but he terrifies me. He’s crazy, man. He’s legit insane. I could never have him on the talk show because I don’t think he gets joke. I don’t know if he has jokes. I don’t think even know if he laughs. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen him laugh. He’s gonna have great skin for the rest of his life. He won’t have a wrinkle because that brother never laughs.”
On his YouTube channel, Maven recalled his experience working with Edge during his time in WWE.
Maven shared a story about how he once got ribbed by the WWE Hall of Famer in OVW.
You can check out some highlights from Maven below:
On Edge: “Easy enough, Edge. Adam. How he’s still doing that he’s doing to this day blows my mind. I get asked all the time. I still do shows, and guys and promoters are always asking, ‘You want to wrestle? Will you wrestle?’ I’m like, ‘Absolutely not.’ How he is still going and working at the rate he works at, no clue. Nicest guy, always helpful.”
On Edge ribbing him in OVW: “I broke my arm. Back then, whenever you get injured or whenever you’d be out of action for a while, to get you back in wrestling shape, to keep you from blowing up, they would send us down to OVW. I was rehabbing, coming off a broken arm, and Adam and I were down at Ohio Valley together. They put us in a tag match together. But he was opposite from me. To play a rib, he ran me. We were calling spots in the ring, he was, ‘Shoot off, take a tackle. Drop down, pin. Shoot off again.’ He was doing it on purpose. He wanted to blow me up. He did. He succeeded in it. When he did, he broke character and started laughing at me because he could see me gassed. Wish Adam all the best. He was the nicest guy. Another guy with a tremendous amount of respect, not only for what he does in the ring, but for what he’s meant to the business outside the ring. It is kinda f**ked though that he took Lita. [Laughs]”
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