Ilja Dragunov Wants To Be 'The Boss' Of WWE NXT UK

This weekend sees one of the most hotly anticipated rematches of recent times, as Ilja Dragunov faces NXT UK Champion WALTER at NXT TakeOver 36 on Sunday night.

Ahead of TakeOver, Ilja Dragunov has been doing the media rounds, and in an interview with ViBe & Wrestling Dragunov spoke of his mindset heading into the big bout:

"My mindset is... it is the decision day. For a very long time, I looked up to WALTER as a person, and I thought, this is a person who I want to be, he is a person how I would like to define myself. He is the boss in this moment of time, but now my mindset is different because I know that I'm on his level, and I can be higher than his level.”

Defeating WALTER will be no easy feat, but if Dragunov achieves victory he will reign atop an NXT UK that has been built in WALTER’s image for over 860 days.

"With everything I did through the last year, with everything I am, and I can present with all the uniqueness that I have, I can be the boss," Dragunov added. "I can be better than him, and on this day, I can show that I am better than WALTER and show the incredible performance we both can deliver, and the people will see something else, pure and that they have never seen before."