Know the intense history between WWE RAW stars Gunther and Ilja Dragunov

Gunther and Ilja Dragunov will unfortunately not collide in the semifinals of the 2024 King of the Ring tournament after the latter lost to Jey Uso in the main event of the latest episode of RAW. Still, the two arch-rivals continued to tease their feud, so fans should expect them to collide sooner rather than later.

The two WWE Superstars have a long history that started a few years ago. They first collided on October 15, 2017, when they were part of a Fatal Four-Way Match with John Klinger and Jurn Simmons for the wXw Unified World Wrestling Championship. Neither Gunther nor Ilja Dragunov emerged victorious in the bout.

In 2018, Gunther was a Pro Wrestling Guerrilla World Champion and teamed up with Timothy Thatcher to defeat the team of Ilja Dragunov and Shingo Takagi at the PWG Battle of Los Angeles event.

In the same year, The Ring General competed in a three-way match with John Klinger and The Mad Dragon for the wXw Unified World Wrestling Championship. Dragunov stood tall and claimed the title.

The two superstars met in another wrestling promotion in the summer of 2019, named PROGRESS. Gunther was the Atlas Division Champion at the time and beat Dragunov for the title at the Chapter 92: Entertaining Friends event on July 7.

A month later (August 3, 2019), the RAW Superstars teamed up, this time at the wXw Shortcut To The Top event, and became wXw World Tag Team Champions following their victory over Aussie Open.

Their feud then moved to WWE and NXT UK, where Gunther beat Ilja Dragunov in October 2020 and remained the NXT United Kingdom Champion. This match is considered one of the best in the company's history.

Their final match took place almost two years later when The Mad Dragon came back and beat The Ring General for the NXT UK Championship at NXT TakeOver 36 on August 22, 2021. This marked the end of an era for Gunther, who lost the title after 870 days.

Whether the two behemoths will meet in the squared circle again remains to be seen.

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WWE Superstar Ilja Dragunov explained how his feud with Gunther helped him become a top wrestler

Ilja Dragunov was the one who ended Gunther's historic championship reign in NXT UK. This was the final time these two met, and their feud has been re-ignited on RAW recently.

The Mad Dragon recently opened up about how this match and his feud with The Ring General helped him become a top wrestler.

"It feels like one of the greatest accomplishments to me because you’re standing in the ring with one of the absolute best without any doubt. If there’s one person who made me into this form I am today and this impression the fans have about me, then it was Gunther. No one else. That makes the story about me even more deep and even more connectable… I think a lot of people would love to see that again," Ilja Dragunov said.

Based on what we have seen over the past couple of weeks, we expect things to intensify between the two, but what remains to be seen is if Gunther will be the new King of the Ring when they collide.