Dijak is enjoying his feud with Ilja Dragunov on WWE NXT.
The two stars have been engaged in a heated rivalry in recent weeks, and they will clash in a Last Man Standing Match at NXT Battleground.
Speaking on Stick to Wrestling, Dijak described why he is enjoying his feud with Dragunov and noted that he has always wanted to be involved with compelling storytelling as a wrestler. He made it clear that he’s proud of the work they’ve done with the storyline.
“It’s been tremendous. All I’ve ever wanted out of professional wrestling, especially with WWE, is story. It’s funny because me as a person and as a character and as a presentation, I feel like the focus always becomes the in-ring, whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing. It’s certainly a passion of mine. I put all of my thought and all of my energy and all of my focus into the in-ring product because I train constantly. To this day, I still train, even though I’m training with younger guys. Most guys, they kind of stop training after a while, certainly consistently. But I just have a consistent need, especially if I’m not wrestling frequently and NXT doesn’t do a tremendous amount of house shows, so I try to be in the ring, doing matches and stuff like that, the in-ring is extremely important to me.
“I wish it was more important to the overall product, but the reality is, if you’re being honest with yourself as a performer, it’s not. It just isn’t. It’s the stories and the characters, and those things end up becoming more important and valuable to the consumer, to the fan. I recognize that as a consumer and as a fan. Now, as a worker myself and being in the WWE and part of the system, I know important it is to be a part of those storylines and things like that. This one specifically has been done tremendously well. I’m super proud and excited about all the work that we’ve done, the vignettes, the whole thing.”
Dijak also noted that the vignettes that were filmed as part of the storyline were his idea, and it originated back when he found out he was returning to NXT a year ago.
“Those dark vignettes with the table and the light, and the tape recorder and the interrogation was all a manifestation of ideas that I had in my head that I put together, and I put together a scene in my basement at my house where I live now, and I fixed all the lighting and stuff, I put a table out, I bought a tape recorder, and this is all before I even knew I was going to NXT. Maybe I just found out, sometime about a year ago, and I had this whole idea.”
WresttleZone will have coverage of WWE NXT Battleground as it airs on May 28.
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