Ilja Dragunov reflects on his Last Man Standing match against Dijak.
At the NXT Battleground premium live event in May 2023, Dijak and Ilja Dragunov faced off in a Last Man Standing match. Dragunov came out on top of the bout and seemingly put his rivalry with Dijak to rest for the time being.
With only three months left in 2023, many fans still hold the match in high regard, with many fans saying it was one of the best matches in NXT history.
In a new interview with Fightful, Dragunov reflected on the match with Dijak and noted that he enjoyed the match, despite not being a big fan of Last Man Standing matches.
"I must say, first of all, I’m not the biggest fan of those kind of matches. Because, like you said, I consider my fists, my legs, everything, my body as a whole as my major weapon, you could say so. They’re the things I like to use majorly. I really only can say that I entirely enjoyed it. I have a high pain resistance. There’s nothing that can easily really bring me down to, ‘Oh, this is something I can’t take.’ So that barely ever happens. Especially this match, it just brought another layer to everything. I think this match especially was a great one in the case of the story that led up to this match and make it reasonable, make it suspenseful. I think, especially certain moments in this match, I felt some moments for the next four weeks. They really made some people, when I re-watched it, really feel uncomfortable. I think that’s the purpose of this match, the purpose of the story. So I really like to remember this performance."
Elsewhere in the interview, Dragunov talked about the possibility of facing Gunther at WrestleMania 40. Fans can learn more by clicking here.
Fans can see Fightful's full interview with Dragunov linked above.
