Dave Meltzer: WWE Made Ilja Dragunov's Visa Situation 'Difficult' Ahead Of AEW Debut

It was nearly two months between Ilja Dragunov departing WWE when his contract expired and debuting at AEW WrestleDream this past Saturday, a longer time period than many would have expected. And the reason for that was one that is too often an issue for foreign talent, and one that had AEW waiting till the last minute on the "Dynamite"/"Collision" double taping to play a vignette signaling Dragunov's arrival. Reviewing WrestleDream on "Wrestling Observer Radio" Sunday morning, Dave Meltzer revealed that visa issues were behind the wait of Dragunov's debut, and seemed to indicate that WWE had played a part in the delay.

"He's been signed, but they had to work out the visa situation, because, you know, his visa was with WWE, and of course WWE is going to make it difficult," Meltzer said. "So he was working on getting a visa. And the visa...he got the word he was getting the visa at 2 a.m. in Germany on Wednesday night, which was in the middle of taping the show ['Dynamite' and 'Collision.']

"So they had to put that...they had the vignette ready, and they knew it was going to be any day now. But they didn't want to put it on if he wasn't going to be at the PPV. I mean, the plan, and the hope absolutely was for him to be on the PPV, but they...he hasn't gotten the visa, and they had no idea. So that's why when they got that they inserted that in the show."

With no hurdles preventing him from appearing on AEW programming, Dragunov is now set to make his in-ring debut for the promotion this Wednesday on "Dynamite." It will be Dragunov's first match since April, when he entered the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal on "SmackDown." As of this writing, an opponent for him has yet to be named.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Wrestling Observer Radio" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription