WALTER is ready to bring his rivalry with Ilja Dragunov from WWE NXT UK to the forefront of the primary black-and-gold brand this weekend at NXT TakeOver 36.
In an interview with Alex McCarthy of talkSPORT, the reigning NXT UK Champion previewed his bout with Dragunov and called the challenger perhaps his biggest rival, given their shared background and similar styles.
“Ilja is maybe my biggest rival over the past few years,” said WALTER. “He follows me everywhere [laughs]. Ilja and I come from the same place in regards to wrestling in Germany and we have a similar mentality about how wrestling should be.
“Also, our wrestling style in Germany was always very physical and very intense. I’m glad I get to introduce my kind of wrestling to a big audience now, especially as the representative of NXT UK or European wrestling in general.”
This championship bout is finally happening after Walter’s hand injury forced NXT UK to postpone it. In the interview, WALTER made it clear that he’s “good to go,” and he shared his stance that having the bout at a Takeover show is a silver lining to this delay.
“[The injury] nothing crazy, just a basic movement and it just went wrong,” said WALTER. “That stuff can always happen, it is what it is. It’s all healed up now, I’m good to go.
“Now it has led to us being able to do it at TakeOver right after SummerSlam, so it led to something good I would think.”
Beyond this weekend, it’s easy to speculate on the possibility that WALTER could move to the main NXT brand and dominate there, much like he has thrived overseas. But as he has stated previously, WALTER isn’t particularly intersested in moving to the United States, so he will likely remain in Europe. In the interview, WALTER noted how being a representative of European wrestling arguably requires him to live in Europe.
“I’m happy in the situation I’m in now,” said WALTER. “I’m the only guy who holds a European Championship in WWE and I’m a representative of European wrestling. To be authentic with that, I kind of got to live in Europe if that makes sense [laughs].
“…For now, I focus on being the NXT UK champion and I have a big match coming up with Ilja on Sunday and the outcome of that is going to decide which direction I go in my future, so I can’t even make any assumptions or speculations myself.”
RELATED: Pete Dunne Defeats Ilja Dragunov After Distraction From WALTER
