Ilja Dragunov says WWE wanted to keep him, but its contract offer was not enough to make him stay.
Speaking on The Ariel Helwani Show, the former WWE United States Champion was asked whether WWE tried to re-sign him before his contract expired in August.
“There was no intention of the company to let me go,” Dragunov said.
He said the decision came down to “a lot of things,” including the offer and how he wanted to work creatively.
“Like I spent the most of my 20s in WWE. That’s a very very long time, and the landscape in this beautiful business changed,” Dragunov said. “So the beautiful thing is nowadays we have a lot of we have other opportunities, and for me personally, after such a long time being with a company, to not seek out new opportunities, maybe even a place where I see myself more fitting-who wouldn’t do that?”
Dragunov would not say whether WWE offered him a raise, a pay cut or the same money.
“To be honest, I’m too much discreet and too much of a businessman and a gentleman myself to talk about these kind of things,” he said. “Everything I can say is there was nothing that I felt satisfying.”
Ilja Dragunov opens up about why he chose to leave WWE:
“There was no intention of the company to let me go.
It was an accumulation of a lot of things. Of course, the offering, because we all know at the end of the day, it's a business. But also, it's definitely based on my… pic.twitter.com/p7OjN0kJbb
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) October 20, 2026
Dragunov’s last WWE match was the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal on the April 17 SmackDown. He said he did not know at the time it would be his last.
“No, absolutely not,” Dragunov said. “I didn’t know at that time that I was leaving.”
Asked why he was off TV from April until his contract ran out, he said there was no bigger story.
“At some point of time, you’re just waiting for the next opportunities to come because a lot of new people came up, a lot of stories were full, and we all know that there’s only a certain amount of time for certain people,” Dragunov said. “Everything I knew is that the expiration of my contract came, and that the negotiations didn’t lead anywhere.”
He said he began to feel WWE was no longer the place for him after he lost the United States Championship. Dragunov won the title from Sami Zayn on SmackDown in October 2025, in his return from a torn ACL, and lost it to Carmelo Hayes in December.
“After I dropped the belt, things kind of like went into directions where I feel like okay, it could have been better. It could have been more time to go into a story, into something that is outside of just holding a championship, captivating for the people,” Dragunov said. “So I think around April, maybe even a month before that, I was already like just thinking about it.”
“It never changed anything about my work mentality,” he added. “But I also know it’s just a part of the business. Can’t change that.”
Ilja Dragunov reveals when he began to feel that WWE might no longer be the right place for him:
"After I dropped the belt, things kind of went in directions where I felt like, ok, it could have been better.
There could have been more time to go into a story, into something… pic.twitter.com/lnV93QFZDU
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) October 20, 2026
Dragunov said leaving without a guaranteed next job meant betting on himself.
“I had always faith in myself, and one thing I never did was questioning my beliefs, and I never questioned to bet on myself,” he said. “It’s not to blame anybody because there are a bunch of beautiful people that I spent time with in the last seven years that I spent with WWE. But it all came down to bet on myself and believe it’s going to be all right.”
Asked whether he left with any regrets, Dragunov said no.
“Why should I? I just celebrated a beautiful, beautiful next chapter in my career. I definitely made a name for myself. I was highly successful in NXT UK. I was highly successful in NXT,” he said. “I still consider myself pretty successful on the main roster because, again, I have a beautiful fan base.”
Dragunov’s departure from WWE was first reported in August. He was introduced as AEW’s newest signing at WrestleDream on October 17 in Orlando, and said at the post-show media scrum that he needed “a place to breathe new, fresh air.”
He is scheduled to wrestle his first AEW match on Wednesday’s Dynamite at the Watsco Center in Coral Gables, Florida.
