Okay, so people kept mentioning this wrestler, Ilya Dragunov. Saw his name pop up here and there. Sounded intense, maybe interesting. Figured I’d check him out, see what the fuss was all about.
So I pulled up some matches. First thing you notice, right? The guy’s intense. Like, really intense. Stares, yelling, the whole nine yards. It’s a lot to take in right off the bat. Watched a couple of his big title matches. The physicality is nuts, honestly. Lots of chops, lots of gritty back-and-forth.
Then I kinda went down a rabbit hole. Started looking for older stuff, his matches before he got to the big leagues. Found some pretty wild bouts from his time in Europe. The style was similar, maybe even rougher around the edges back then. Spent a few evenings just clicking through videos, trying to piece together his whole deal.
My Whole Process, Kinda
Here’s the thing, this whole Dragunov dive wasn’t exactly planned. It started ’cause I was putting off reorganizing my workshop. You know how it is. Got this pile of tools and wood scraps just sitting there, mocking me. Needed a distraction, I guess. So wrestling it was.
- Fired up the streaming service.
- Searched “Ilya Dragunov”.
- Watched the big NXT UK title match first.
- Got hooked by the sheer chaos of it.
- Spent the next few days digging through older matches instead of sorting screws. Classic me.
Tried explaining it to my neighbor, Dave. Showed him a clip. He just blinked. Said it looked like two guys trying to actually hurt each other. He’s more of a classic Hogan-era fan, you know? Different strokes, I suppose. Didn’t really get the storytelling through just pure intensity that I was starting to see. Or maybe I was just seeing things ’cause I’d watched too much.
End result? My workshop is still a mess. But I kinda get the Dragunov thing now. It’s not the technical wizardry you see sometimes, it’s more about raw emotion and making you feel the struggle. It’s exhausting to watch, honestly. Took me a while to appreciate that specific style. It’s like… acquired taste wrestling? Yeah, something like that. Still haven’t sorted those screws though. Maybe next week.
