Ilja Dragunov is officially leaving WWE after nearly seven years with the company. The former United States Champion’s contract has expired, and no renewal was reached.
The departure stands out because WWE wanted to keep him. According to reports released Thursday, Dragunov himself chose not to re-sign. His profile has already been moved to the Alumni section on WWE.com.
The situation, however, looked very different just two months ago.
Bryan Alvarez of the Wrestling Observer reported that Dragunov and WWE were still heavily negotiating a return to television as recently as June. Alvarez said he didn’t know what happened after that to cause negotiations to fall apart.
“Not sure what ended up happening but Ilja and WWE were said to be strongly negotiating a return as recently as June.”
That makes the outcome all the more surprising, as Alvarez had reported on June 30 that Dragunov was expected back on TV “sooner than later.” During his time away, he continued training at Natalya and TJ Wilson’s Dungeon.
Dragunov hasn’t wrestled since the April 17 episode of SmackDown, when he competed in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal won by Royce Keys during WrestleMania 42 weekend.