Donovan Dijak is happy with his run in MLW, which he says is a true collaborative effort.
WrestleZone recently spoke with Dijak, who joined MLW at Summer Of The Beasts in August 2024. Dijak said that his run in MLW has exceeded his expectations, noting how reluctant he was to start talks with a new promotion right after leaving WWE.
“I’ll add to what you have said. It’s exceeded my expectations. Definitely. Easily exceeded my expectations,” Dijak explained. “Court was legitimately one of the first ten people to send me an email on [the day I was not under contract]. He contacted me right away. And I’ll be honest, the last thing I wanted to see at that point was — I didn’t want to be put in a situation that I had just been in for a long time. That’s ultimately what it boils down to.”
Dijak says he weighed his options for a while, and his worries were soon quelled after a productive phone call with MLW’s Court Bauer and Jared St. Laurent. Dijak got “a very good sense that this was going to be different.” He acknowledged he had many great opportunities in WWE, including having one of the biggest matches of his career at NXT Stand And Deliver 2024 in front of 16,000 people. However, he wanted more out of his career, and MLW worked with him to offer a presentation that he relished and took pride in.
Dijak wants more opportunities to be a top talent
“By more I mean, more pressure like more responsibility, in terms of a talent because I was constantly requesting to be featured as a top guy in WWE. I asked everybody. So, that’s what I wanted to communicate to MLW, ‘Here’s how I view myself. If that’s not how you view me, that’s fine no worries. But this is what I’m looking for in terms of presentation, in terms of this, that, and the other thing.’ And my guarantee to whoever wants to give me that is, I’m going to continue to do what I’ve always done, and that’s completely exceed your expectations.”
Dijak says he always sets out to do more than he was asked of. He’s proud that MLW is taking that chance on him, and he’ll keep working towards a creative vision they share.
“The fact that MLW is giving me these opportunities, that’s when my mind starts going just completely over the top. Like, how do I continue to progress this company? How do I put everything on my back? How do I put the pressure of an entire company and say, ‘I’m going to be the top guy, I’m going to take this thing where it’s never been before, I’m going to try to progress us to a point where people look at MLW in the same way that we do, right?
“And that became the collaborative mission and they’ve completely exceeded all my expectations in terms of execution. It’s a complete collaboration. I’m so happy with the presentation so far. And I’m super excited to continue working in that direction towards those goals. Because we all have the same vision.”
Donovan Dijak shares his WrestleMania weekend plans … in England
MLW will host Battle Riot on April 5, an early-April weekend that is traditionally reserved for WrestleMania weekend. This year, WrestleMania is on April 19 and 20, when Dijak will actually be in England. He knows how WrestleMania is fun as a fan, but it’s not always the case being there as a performer that isn’t on the card.
“I’m actually going to England that weekend. I decided Las Vegas is going to be jam-packed, I was like, ‘I don’t even want to…’ I have done so many WrestleMania weekends in a row where I wasn’t on WrestleMania that I don’t even want to be in the area anymore. It’s funny. It reminds me of my first… I’ve never told this story before. So, hopefully, he doesn’t get mad at me,” Dijak explained. “My first WrestleMania weekend I guess would have been 2018 because I was signed in 2017, but I remember I was still texting Cody Rhodes pretty regularly. And I remember asking him, ‘Oh, are you going to be in the area? Can we get something to eat?’
“I think this was his first WrestleMania when he wasn’t there,” Dijak continued. “He’s like, ‘That’s really the last place I want to be.’ And I feel very much the same way right now. Hopefully, my career works out the same way his did, for God’s sake. But yeah, obviously, he’s like headlining all of them now. So, he definitely wants to be at WrestleMania now. But yeah at that point in his career it was like, ‘I’ve been around WrestleMania so often that now I just need my space from WrestleMania.’ That’s where I feel now. So, I’m going to a completely different country that weekend. I need my space from WrestleMania weekend because it can be overwhelming.”
Dijak believes many people can relate to his position
Dijak is thankful that he got such a big opportunity like the one he did at Stand & Deliver 2024, but he’s happy to get a little space. He also had a hectic weekend when WrestleMania 33 was in Orlando, but that also meant events were spread out all over the city (and Ring Of Honor was an hour away in Lakeland.)
“As a WWE talent who has been on the main roster and never had that experience [of being on WrestleMania], it’s a difficult pill to swallow. It really is. And I don’t think I’m telling stories out of school. This isn’t like a foreign concept. Yeah, I was on Monday Night Raw and I really, really, really wanted to be on WrestleMania and I was never on WrestleMania. That’s difficult to be around. I’m happy for all my friends who got to do it. I’m super excited and it’s always a wonderful opportunity. But I really wanted to be on WrestleMania and I never was. So, that’s hard to be around. I think any human being would understand that.
“Even on Stand & Deliver. The biggest match of my life, the biggest opportunity of my life. You finish that and we got on the bus and we dropped everybody off at WrestleMania. And they were like, ‘Hey, do you want to go and go to catering and go to…’ And I said, ’Nope. No, I don’t.’ Because that’s a very very difficult pill for me to swallow. I love it, I watched it. I watch all my friends succeed, I watched all of these great things and I… But just, I’m a competitor and the drive in me, wants to be on that stage. And it’s very difficult for me to sit there and not. So, yeah. I’m a human being just like everybody else.”
Watch our full interview with Donovan Dijak below:
