Wolfgang vs. Ilja Dragunov for the WWE NXT UK Championship, from the July 28, 2022 episode of WWE NXT UK

The elephant in the room for this one is that Dragunov is legitimately injured in this match, and there’s a subsect of wrestling criticism that doesn’t award brownie points for making compelling television if you’ve truly hurt yourself doing it. I can’t care, though, so long as the product is good and no one dies in the process. I found Dragunov’s scrambling to discover what he could still do with his failing body against a moderate threat who might have his lucky day to be engrossing. Wolfgang doesn’t mess anything up, I guess, but this is the Ilja Dragunov show.

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