AEW President Tony Khan is keeping tabs on Ilja Dragunov as the former WWE United States Champion’s future remains uncertain.
Khan first addressed Dragunov’s exit from WWE at the Death Before Dishonor media scrum, calling him a great wrestler.
In a more recent interview with TalkSPORT, Khan reiterated that sentiment and went further, making clear he can’t speak to any wrestler’s contract status outside AEW since he has no way of tracking it.
Well, I can’t speak about the contractual status of wrestlers outside of the promotion because I don’t know everyone’s contract. There’s no way for me to keep track of all that, but I do know that that’s a great wrestler.
However, he considers Dragunov an excellent, highly respected athlete and said he will be on the lookout to see what’s next for him.
That’s somebody that is a very excellent athlete and somebody that has competed at a very high level and somebody who I respect imminently. I am a big admirer of his and I will always be on the lookout to see what happens with him.
The comments come shortly after AJ Styles said he was “very sad” about Dragunov’s WWE departure, calling him “awesome.” Between Khan’s public admiration and Styles’ reaction, speculation about where the Mad Dragon lands next is only growing.
