Ilja Dragunov recently spoke to Andrew Spoors Wrestlesphere ahead of his match this weekend with Carmello Hayes, he commented on his ability to manage pain while in a WWE ring:

“I think it’s more of a decision, I love what I do, and I hope everybody sees that. There’s nothing worth having that you are going to find in a comfortable situation. If you want to do great things, you are always going to find yourself in an uncomfortable situation. To get things that are worth having, you have to suffer, you have to go through a lot. It doesn’t matter which profession we are talking about.

“If we didn’t have these feelings, physically and emotionally, then it wouldn’t have any meaning, and that helps me. If I feel it, and I push myself through all of that, the reward is that people around me feel something honest, and authentic. If it’s authentic, people can connect to it because it’s the truth.”

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Ilja Dragunov comments on his INSANE pain threshold, thoughts on IMPERIUM and more