Ilja Dragunov's mid-card status discussed on Wrestling Observer Radio

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RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA - MARCH 20: Ilja Dragunov enters the ring during SmackDown at Lenovo Center on March 20, 2026 in Raleigh, North Carolina. (Photo by Cooper Neil/WWE via Getty Images) | WWE via Getty Images During a recent episode of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer spoke on Ilja Dragunov and the way he is viewed within WWE right now. The quotes, because it doesn’t read as a news breaker breaking news but rather an observer simply stating what seems obvious based on all the available evidence: “You add some people and some people get lost in the shuffle, but to them, he is an interchangeable mid-card guy. They don’t see him as a top guy. They just don’t. He’s never really had the opportunity to be anything more than the guy who gives you really, really great matches and he’s got a level of intensity that no one else has, which is his calling card. He’s very unique, and I think the fact that he can go out there and bring something out of the crowd because no one else works like that in AEW or WWE, that could be a calling card because he could be memorable and different. I don’t think they feel he’s as marketable as Trick Williams.” Which, yeah. The reality of the industry is that you need guys like Ilja Dragunov on your roster to be exactly what he is — an insanely talented wrestler who is going to have fantastic matches up and down the card with damn near every wrestler he is in the ring with. He’s credible enough to work with the top guys, and even score wins over them, but he’s probably never going to be the top guy himself. That’s okay! He’s still going to be wildly entertaining, and bring something different to a show that features a whole lot of uniformity everywhere else. Not everyone can be QB1, as Cody Rhodes would say it. You can aspire to be Rhodes, or Roman Reigns, or CM Punk, but it’s totally okay if you’re Dragunov. Plus, hey, you never know, right? There was a time we didn’t think Rhodes would ever get to the position he is in now.