WWE Speed Results (07/17/24): Ilja Dragunov, Carmelo Hayes provide throwback NXT greatness

As the latest bracket of the WWE Speed tournament gets underway, the Universe has now seen two athletic brutes fire things up when Baron Corbin and Angelo Dawkins threw hands, and bodies, one week ago en route to Corbin taking the victory. Swinging wildly in the other direction for the latest match, it’s Ilja Dragunov and Carmelo Hayes rekindling their former NXT warfare.

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Dragunov appears only two days after his Intercontinental Championship match against Sami Zayn went awry due to the interference of Bron Breakker, with Dragunov being one of the latest recipients of a ringside spear at full speed.

It was impressive to see he was in condition to take on Hayes at all on Wednesday and, speaking of Hayes, he’s attempting to sharpen his sword en route to facing Andrade but not only as a potential finalist in the WWE Speed tournament — also on SmackDown after the two had a heated exchange last Friday.

One way or another, Andrade wants to get his hands on the former SmackDown first-overall pick, and it could be on more than one occasion in the near future.

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Dragunov stood in Hayes’ way though, and the Mad Dragon is not exactly an easy out.

Hayes nearly took the win in the first 30 seconds though, but Dragunov knows this is a big opportunity for him as well and, as usual, he scratched and clawed and made Hayes regret being in the ring with him a time or two.

And it was he who then nearly pinned Hayes at the 90-second mark.

A superkick by Hares with one minute remaining couldn’t put Dragunov down either, and a big lariat with only 25 seconds on the timer help set him up to finish Hayes, but he couldn’t do it before the buzzer sounded.

It was a draw and, as such, both are eliminated.

Corbin will take on Andrade next week for the WWE Speed title.