I felt that this rivalry deserved more than a popup review. I present reviews of every singles match these two have fought, save for the two early matches between them that ended in disqualifications.
September 19, 2015 – Borken, North Rhine-Westphalia
Big Daddy Walter dco. Ilja Dragunov
From the wXw 15th Anniversary Tour. As far as I can tell this is the first match ever between the two. This was very stiff, and there were hints that down the line these two would be capable of doing something lot more fun against each other. But the match here never took on a life of its own. It was chop chop chop, big move from Walter, and then Dragunov’s evil manager distracting Walter and getting both guys counted out at 12:30. ***¼
November 26, 2016 – Oberhausen, North Rhine-Westphalia
Big Daddy Walter def. Ilja Dragunov
From wXw Shotgun PLUS 284 – Open Challenge. As the episode name suggests, Dragunov was answering an open challenge from Walter. This followed a very similar template as the match from the year before. The big difference here was that Dragunov got angry when his manager interfered. That wound up screwing him, as being distracted by his own manager left him open to huge attacks from Walter. After a lot of blatant and clumsy interference, Walter choked out Dragunov at 16:13 ***
March 12, 2017 – Oberhausen, North Rhine-Westphalia
Ilja Dragunov def. WALTER {Tournament Finals}
From wXw’s twelfth annual 16 Carat Gold. Dragunov’s belly button is looking as deep as WALTER’s here, a far cry from how shallow it would later become. Man, that’s a weird way to describe someone’s level of fitness. The chops in this match for real made my teeth hurt. Granted I’d just eaten ice cream, but after a while seeing Dragunov’s chest turn to mush and WALTER continue to chop it to bits started to shoot lightning into my mouth. This was the fifth match between the two but the first to receive widespread acclaim. It certainly deserves it, even if they’d have much better matches down the line. After getting destroyed for almost the entire match, Dragunov hit the Torpedo Moskau for the somewhat unconvincing win at 16:09. ****
April 14, 2018 – Dresden, Saxony
Ilja Dragunov def. WALTER {wXw World Unified Championship Match}
From wXw True Colors 12. These two were firmly in their groove by this point, though this one had an interesting twist. Unable to put Dragunov down because of an errant ref bump, WALTER became frustrated and attacked a replacement referee. A third referee called the match off, but Dragunov wasn’t having it and insisted that the match continue. WALTER was stiff frustrated, throwing Dragunov around ringside and allowing his moves to be countered. And that’s what cost him, as Dragunov turned mounted punches into a powerbomb and WALTER’s choke into a side suplex. The Torpedo Moskau put WALTER down at 23:35. I still don’t buy that as a WALTER killing finisher, but the rest of the match was a doozy. ****¼
May 5, 2018 – Oberhausen, North Rhine-Westphalia
Ilja Dragunov def. WALTER {wXw World Unified Championship Match}
From wXw’s fifth Superstars of Wrestling. Dragunov wanted this rematch with WALTER quickly because of the ref bump shenanigans in their True Colors match. This was quite a bit different from their usual gos. WALTER hurt his hand early here so his chop was pretty much not a factor. Instead he tried to boot and choke Dragunov as much as he could. Dragunov was able to control much more of the match than usual, which was a good look for the champion. WALTER desperately ripped off the Torpedo Moskau. Want to see a one-armed powerbomb? WALTER did that here too. And I don’t mean the way Raquel Gonzalez does it where she lifts with two arms and throws down with one. This was one armed up and down. In the end, Dragunov simply overwhelmed the big man, forcing him into pinning positions and then jumping into arm submissions the moment WALTER instinctively flipped to his belly. WALTER freaked out and quit at 24:28. I loved this. It was a side of WALTER I’ve never really seen. If anyone knows of matches where WALTER gets legitimately spooked, please pass them along. This makes me want to see him vs. someone bigger or stronger than him. Is there such a person who is actually good in 2021? ****½
July 7, 2019 – Manchester, Greater Manchester
WALTER def. Ilja Dragunov {Progress Unified World Championship Match}
From PROGRESS Chapter 92: Entertaining Friends. WALTER comes out with both PROGRESS titles (the World Championship and the Atlas Championship, which he’d won just a couple months earlier) and the NXT UK Championship belt. It’s a very Triple Crown vibe. Speaking of, they had a total King’s Road style match, where Dragunov had to suffer through WALTER’s onslaught and find openings to start picking away at his much larger opponent. Then, when his comebacks started to get cut off, he had to gut through WALTER’s suplexes in order to get more offense in. He kicked out of one of WALTER’s world-ender moves and survived an STF that made more veins pop out in his neck than I knew a human had. He tried to hit the Torpedo Moskau out of a chop battle, got caught in a choke, but countered to a DVD. He also kicked out of WALTER’s crazy powerbomb. Some of the dramatics around Dragunov’s attempted cradle piledriver were dumb, but that’s the only part of the last ten minutes of this match that I didn’t like. WALTER’s final lariat for the win at 23:22 was also a little anticlimactic after everything else, but that’s also part of the style of match they were working and the crowd just wasn’t really on board. ****¼
October 29, 2020 – Newham, London
WALTER def. Ilja Dragunov {NXT UK Championship Match}
From NXT UK 120. The Thunderdome fan windows are back. Why? They give up on it after a few minutes. They started this at the end, with Dragunov coming out firing missiles, going for the Torpedo Moskau, and getting hit with a sleeper suplex. And from there they never let up on each other at all. Nigel McGuinness calls out legends of All Japan to express how he feels about this match and it couldn’t be more appropriate. From the brutal strikes throughout to Dragunov’s channeling of Mitsuharu Misawa with consecutive enziguiris, this was as good an ode to the style as I’ve seen from non-Japanese wrestlers. I was jumping out of my seat so many times hoping that Dragunov would win this thing, and so many near-falls were incredible. In the end, WALTER put Dragunov down with a crazy, bloody sleeper hold at 25:09. I’m only upset because I now wonder what this could have been in front of the Dublin crowd for which it was meant. Earlier I said that Dragunov almost had to win here with Dunne gone for the States, but now I’m just hoping, praying, begging for a rematch. This was easily the best match in NXT UK’s short history, the best match in WWE this year, and in my opinion the easy Match of the Year for 2020. *****
August 22, 2021 – Orlando, Florida
Ilja Dragunov def. WALTER {NXT UK Championship Match}
From NXT Takeover 36. God damn did this deliver. They worked a less horrifying style than they did last October, spending the first five minutes trading gnarly holds on the mat before any bombs were thrown. Then, they threw bombs. But not as many as they did when they were fighting in front of no crowd. I appreciate that. Here, they had fans cheering on everything they did, so there wasn’t a need to lay it in as stiff. That’s not to say they strayed from that completely, as Dragunov still left the ring covered in blisters. But they were able to incorporate Dragunov’s triggered rage storyline and believably have him break down and tap out WALTER. There are few pairs of guys who have delivered as consistently at the high level these two have against each other. Dragunov locked WALTER in a sleeper hold and viciously wore him down until WALTER tapped at 22:04. Dragunov standing with his foot over WALTER in celebration was a perfect way to end the big man’s reign. Apropos of everything, WALTER was in the best physical shape I’ve ever seen him in here. *****
From Diamond Ring Kensuke Office Changes. They emphasize that Nakajima beat Dragon Gate wrestler Kenichiro Arai 
From Dynamite 131. This is a qualifying match for the Owen Hart Foundation tournament. Joe debuted at ROH Supercard of Honor, saving Jonathan Gresham from Jay Lethal (whose soul searching apparently led him to turn heel) & Sonjay Dutt after the main event. And now that ROH and AEW are the same thing, that seems worth mentioning. Caster’s pre-match rap was cute. This was real squashy, with Joe needing only two minutes to put Caster down with the Muscle Buster at 2:52. Lethal & Dutt pop up on the big screens and Lethal says he’d been trying to get a hold of Joe during his difficult soul searching time, and Joe never picked up. They have a present for Joe next week. N/A
From Dynamite 132. Jay Lethal & Sonjay Dutt were in the front row cheering on Joe. Sarcastically, probably, as they brawled with Joe at ROH Supercard of Honor XV. 
From Rampage 39. 
From Dynamite 137. 
From Dynamite 138. This is a 
From Double or Nothing. 
From PWF York Cougar Football Fundraiser. I didn't know that this match happened until over a month after the fact. This started out as a non-title match, but we'll get to why I've listed it as a title match in a moment. FTR have Mick Foley in their corner while their opponents have Bill Behrens. I’ve never actually seen Behrens do an on-camera gig before. He's holding a tennis racket, presumably as an Umaga to Jim Cornette. But it's confusing because there was actually a tennis player named Bill Behrens. They announce this match as having a 20-minute time limit. Only 11 minutes in, they say there are three minutes remaining. Until then, this was as run-of-the-mill as a modern FTR match gets. But the announcement snapped everyone out of their heat-on-Wheeler funk and forced them to go for desperate pins. They announce ten seconds remaining a couple of times, but no one can get the roll up pin they're looking for. The 20-minute time limit expires at 1
From NXT UK 183. McGuinness started by essentially saying that Fraser is going to pee or poo himself during the match. Unnecessary. Had Shawn Michaels been game to have a good match against Vader, this is what it would have looked like. Actually, a more appropriate and modern analogue is Brock Lesnar vs. Seth Rollins from SummerSlam. Much like that match, Frazer used quick strikes and avoided his larger opponent’s signature big move to stay alive. Here it was the powerbomb whereas there it was suplexes. Here, Frazer also successfully damaged WALTER’s knee, which slowed the big man down and made it hard for WALTER to hit the powerbomb. Unfortunately for Frazer, WALTER was able to bide his time and clothesline Frazer’s legs out from under him. An inevitable powerbomb followed and won the match for WALTER at 14:02. I hate to say this because I’m happy that he’s healthier, but the way WALTER has slimmed down has taken some of the magic away from his aura. At least for me it has. That said, dude can clearly still go as well as ever in the ring. ****
From NXT 659. Strong was feeling it here, which is thanks in large part to the crowd being maniacally loud from the get go I’m sure. His whole game was fast and devastating stick and move attacks. That worked pretty well, as WALTER was dazed from time to time. But as with all good WALTER matches (which is pretty much all WALTER matches), everything WALTER does is devastating here so it takes very little for him to take back control. And eventually he did just that and hit the powerbomb for the win at 9:46 (shown of 12:18). After the match, WALTER gets on the microphone and says that his name is Gunther now. I did not think WALTER would be a victim of the renaming curse this far into his run. What will they rename Strong?! ***¾
From NXT UK 185. Andy Shepherd helpfully announces from inside the ring that the reason for the stipulation is that the feud has gotten so violent that it wouldn’t be safe to have fans around. Devlin says during the match that it’s because he thinks Dragunov could only muster the energy to win if he had the crowd behind him. I like that explanation a lot more. The only real reason I could think of to do this without fans is that there was a scheduling conflict with one of the wrestlers for the regular TV taping date and they needed to get this thing filmed. We just had such a long stretch of empty arena NXT UK episodes that I can’t imagine anyone was dying to get another taste of it. This aired the day after Adam Cole vs. Orange Cassidy in a match that was also no disqualification and falls count anywhere, and this served up everything I felt was missing from that match. Now you might say, “Brad, Cassidy is not the same kind of character as Devlin or Dragunov, how could you expect the same level of violence or intensity?” To that I say, when Cassidy started his match by breaking his own sunglasses and rapidly punching Cole, he was indicating that level of violence and/or intensity. And instead the match was mostly wacky. Anyway, this was not wacky. It was stiff and intense and featured weapons that made sense and spots the didn’t take forever to set up. Dragunov got in trouble when his eye injury acted up. Devlin took control and beat the crap out of him. I wasn’t wild about how meek Dragunov was when Devlin was zip tying his hands, but I did like that in the end it turned out to be an error on Devlin’s part anyway because Dragunov’s finisher requires no hands. And indeed, a bound Dragunov jumped off the steel steps (which had been brought into the ring) and hit the Torpedo Moskau on Devlin for the win at 21:43. NXT UK is still sneaking in these dope matches that no one is watching. Y’all should watch them. ****¼ 
From AAA Triplemania Regia. FTR come out with Vickie Guerrero. This was supposed to be explained at an earlier AAA taping but FTR and Guerrero all missed them. AAA is notorious for having this kind of luck/being incompetent lately. FTR is also wearing Eddie Guerrero tribute tights, with American flags on one side and flames on the other, I suppose to pay homage to his Gringos Locos and Latino Heat gimmicks. This match mostly sucked, but one cool spot saw FTR tie Pentagon’s mask to the ropes and force him to unmask with his hands over his face to stop them from climbing the ladder. That would have been a very meaningful moment to lead up to the Lucha Brothers winning the titles back, but unfortunately instead it led into nothing. He just got his mask back and the match continued on in its lame, derivative way. At one point, Pentagon was the only man standing, but instead of climbing the ladder he grabbed a table from the floor. So the titles mean enough to him that he’d unmask to stop his opponents from winning, but not enough for him to get the titles when he had a clear path to do it? Vickie powered Pentagon, causing him to voluntarily jump through the table and Harwood grabbed the belts at 12:12. This was abysmal. *
From AEW Full Gear. Silver was hamming it up a lot more here than he was the year before in New York. That said, this had stronger just-a-match vibes than the aforementioned match. After Silver ripped out Cassidy’s pockets, Cassidy turned up the heat and these guys put on a middle of the row undercard match. Not bad by any means, but nothing memorable either. Cassidy hit the Beach Break rather out of nowhere for the win at 9:42. **¾ 
From the second Honor Reigns Supreme. The commentators sold this as Gresham getting a big shot against a top ROH guy after being an also-ran in the Television Championship division for a while. This was terrific. Both guys did a fantastic job selling their respective targeted limbs, and Gresham in particular played the role of the tenacious underdog perfectly. He didn’t just watch to see where Lethal would have trouble executing his finisher because of the damage he’d done to the former ROH Champion’s arm, he pressed the assault whenever he could, taking out the arm to make sure the Lethal Injection would never come. But what he couldn’t do was stop Lethal from battering his knee and ultimately winning with a Figure 4 Leglock at 17:54. ****¼ 
From the second Masters of the Craft. Columbus has way more Gresham fans than Concord did. That’s a neat little advancement to the plot, innit? They both went after the same limbs that earned them dividends in their previous match. And then they went ahead and built an incredible match out of that story. At first it seemed as though Lethal wasn’t going to be able to get Gresham’s leg to give out. But about halfway through the match, Gresham’s knee was in trouble. Gresham was able to escape the leglock this time by using the momentum of Lethal pulling him away from the ropes to shift to an armbar. But Gresham’s focus on the arm bit him in the ass. Lethal went for the Lethal Injection and collapsed again, but when Gresham went for a roll up after that Lethal cut back on it for the win at 18:27. This is one of the best American examples that I've seen of a match building on the match that came before. Rather than try to outdo the maneuvers from their first meeting for the sake of a big crowd reaction, they adjust their game plans in logical ways that, to me, were just as exciting. I think this match is slept on, by virtue of the fact that I’ve never heard anything about it before watching it. ****½ 
From ROH Wrestling 364. In real life, 
From Death Before Dishonor XVII. Gresham and Lethal had been teaming, but Gresham grew frustrated and started heeling. Ultimately, he turned on Lethal. It took them a little while to get there, but once they got into a groove this was exactly what I wanted from this match. It was back to their old tricks, with Lethal targeting the leg to set up for the Figure 4 Leglock and Gresham targeting the arm to block the Lethal Injection and set up for his Octopus. In the end, Lethal tried the cutback trick that worked for him in Columbus, but Gresham countered to a pin and then put on the gnarliest Octopus for his first win over Lethal at 17:20. This is the best kind of wrestling series. And none of it felt stale because it was a year after they’d wrestled last and because they found ways to energize the old tropes. And that’s not to mention Gresham busting out what I can only describe as a sumo-style assault. Gresham and Lethal make up after the match. ****
From ROH Wrestling 500. During the pandemic, ROH made the most of their empty arena shows by kicking them off with a tournament to crown a champion for the revived Pure Championship. Gresham won the tournament, and this was his fourth defense of the title. Lethal and Gresham were still allies here. In an interesting move, the other match on this milestone episode was two other partners fighting in Jay and Mark Briscoe. They cut to a commercial break about six minutes in, though the action didn’t get beyond (admittedly fast-moving) mat wrestling until the 10-minute mark. That had me thinking this was going to go long, but things took a different turn. Both guys had abused the other’s shoulders, and Lethal used that to his advantage best. He forced Gresham to use his first rope break to stop a pin, and his second to escape a crab. Then, he used the failed Lethal Injection to bait Gresham into a crossface, forcing the champ to use his final rope break. But he made the mistake of giving Gresham a breather and was quickly caught in a head scissor takedown giving Gresham the winning pin at 14:06 (shown of 16:40). For an empty arena match, this held my attention. It was totally different than their previous matches while still using a couple elements from the rivalry to elevate it just a bit. Not essential viewing, but if you’re working your way through their series you shouldn’t skip it. ***¼ 
