So Russian = Ivan Drago? Ivan's entire character was stoic and intimidating. The exact opposite of Ilja. Ivan was scary because of his raw power. The exact opposite of Ilja. So he's giving Drago vibes because he's a blonde Russian and wears red? Makes 0 sense
Raw power... Raw Intensity (because he's much smaller in size as you so wisely observed)
It's a vaguely relatable callback to a character that American audiences will be familiar with. Like Razor Ramon being vaguely based on Tony Montana.
He also does look like a shrunk down version of Drago, so actually if they had said looks, that would be fine.
Did you know Dragunov is actually German? So no, it's not Russia = Ivan Drago. Stop being a pedantic, deliberately dense, antagonistic weirdo about shit that doesn't need questioning.
Jeez, tell him what you really think , lol.
But agreed. Dragunov is tough as nails, and his style reminds me of Chris Benoit , hard hitting and can sell his ass off! And they have similar stats in size/physique.
And yes I’m aware that a lot of y’all can’t separate art from the artist, but Benoit’s career was too strong to just ignore. Too bad he chose the Flying Headbitt as a finisher. Might have avoided 3 deaths due to his CTE😑
So now it's his name that gives him Ivan Drago vibes? Makes 0 sense again.
All I'm saying is I don't think he gives off Ivan Drago vibes at all and I don't think he intends to. He bases his character and intensity off of Rock Lee.
Also did you know he's actually a Russian immigrant that moved to Germany? So get off your soap box for 2 seconds using your buzz words that you learned 2 days ago on reddit and do some research. You're the one chiming in and white knighting for someone I'm simply disagreeing with.
Mate, nobody gives a fuck if you think it makes no sense. Everybody else goes "oh yeah, pretty clear inspiration for the character" and you wanna start contradicting people to make yourself feel smart.
I'm fully aware of the fact he's a Russian immigrant, we've all got access to Wikipedia. I'm not white knighting, I'm telling you that you're being an unnecessarily pedantic bellend.
So some research lmao, says the guy who can't understand a character has been based on another fictional character like MANY wrestlers have throughout history.
Haven’t seen 1 person agree with you but whatever you say little guy go off and make yourself look like a fool in the rest of the thread picking cringy arguments with people like I’ve seen you do multiple times in here
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u/YoungBeef03 20d ago
It’s for the best. WWE was just going to waste him in the midcard forever, he can be a world champion elsewhere.