Ilja Dragunov certainly paid a price to be a champion in WWE.
Newly minted NXT UK Champion Ilja Dragunov recently spoke with Metro UK and described how he struggled to sleep following his title win over now former champion WALTER at NXT TakeOver 36.
“The moment where it actually happened – it was a bit of time until the adrenaline went down. But I remember coming back to my hotel room, completely not able to sleep – and I was extremely tired, my body was completely sore. I couldn’t sleep because I had so many different thoughts in my mind. The whole payoff to it, how it all came together being at TakeOver, getting this kind of attention from the people getting this reaction to what we did. Coming to this match, with the thought in my mind to bring an even more intense performance than that first match – and it all went so well. We were able to do something special again, it was just incredible. I can’t even explain the thoughts on this, because it was a complete mixture of everything.”
Dragunov is scheduled to make his first appearance as NXT UK Champion on the 8/31 edition of NXT, next Tuesday night.
Related: Ilja Dragunov Makes WALTER Tap Out, Wind NXT UK Title At NXT TakeOver 36