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NORTH ANDOVER, MA – Donovan Dijak had just signed with WWE.
And he celebrated by helping two students at his home away from home at the New England Pro Wrestling Academy in North Andover, Massachusetts.
“Your offense is just blah,” Dijak bluntly told the trainee. “You’re just doing other people’s offense.”
The trainee, who shall remain nameless, nodded and agreed. He knew Dijak was not attempting to demoralize him, rather, it was done so he can know his weakness and improve. He’s been told before that his offense needs to be more explosive and creative. He could have asked the opinion of a number of people watching his drill. It’s the wisdom and respect for Dijak, however, that made him instantly gravitate over to ask for his opinion.
“People who don’t know him think he’s a big guy who just does flippy stuff,” said Josh Briggs, a 6’7”, two-year pro who recently had his first singles match with Dijak at Limitless Wrestling in Maine that received rave reviews from fans, talent, and promoters. “But he’s one of the smartest guys in wrestling. His matches are rooted in psychology and he only does things if they make sense.”
Long before Dijak could dispense advice to trainees, his parents didn’t allow him to watch professional wrestling. As he told me in an April 2016 interview on PWInsider, he had to “sneak around” to watch it. Looking back on those early days, Dijak recalled that he never had a moment where one particular wrestler, match or show inspired him to want to someday get in the ring. He instead focused on sports.
Dijak was a standout high school athlete in Massachusetts who excelled in football and basketball. It was there he had his first run-in with Mikey Webb, who would become a trusted friend and tag team partner as members of the “American Destroyers” years later. They were both opponents and teammates in football as they would become in wrestling.
“He wreaked havoc in football games,” Webb told me. “He was really down to Earth and modest considering his talent level, even back then.”
After accepting a scholarship to play Division 1 football at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, he transferred to Bridgewater State University to be able to pursue hoops in addition to the gridiron. Following his graduation in 2010, it was the infamous CM Punk “pipe bomb” promo on the June 27, 2011 edition of Monday Night RAW that reignited his interest in wrestling. After a while, he decided to take the next step and enter the ring.“He did pretty extensive research online before picking a school,” said Brian Fury, owner and head trainer at the Academy. “He saw the lineage with this school being the Killer Kowalski school as well as the people who have trained here, so he knew right away and came down and signed up.”
Dijak started his training under Fury at the Academy in late 2012. Described as “skinny” when he first started, Fury said that Dijak adapted at an impressive rate, not only putting on size to set himself apart, but also was clearly a student of the game.
“He picked up everything very quickly,” Fury noted. “A lot of the basics and fundamentals, there wasn’t a lot of re-teaching. He would also put in a lot of work before and after classes and would listen to criticism and work on whatever we told him to work on.”
After transitioning from classes to matches in front of paying audiences, it didn’t take long to for Dijak to get noticed. As he started to work in New England, the two companies he became synonymous with in the area were Chaotic and Beyond Wrestling. With Chaotic, he quickly became a standout. In Beyond, however, it was much rockier start.
“I thought, ‘Oh great, here’s a big dumb stupid guy who is in the way of what we’re trying to represent in independent wrestling,’” said Drew Cordiero, who is Beyond’s owner, promoter, and booker. “I really did it as a favor to Fury. I wasn’t impressed when I first saw him.”
Cordiero added that because of Dijak’s size, build and overall look, he was expecting Dijak to be unathletic, clunky and tepid in the ring. While his first match did not go very well, it would be his second chance thanks to a watchful eye that would bring him to prominence in the promotion.
After working more regularly in New England, it was the former Biff Busick (NXT’s Oney Lorcan) who saw something in Dijak. He went to Cordiero and requested to work with him in a Beyond ring.
“Biff was leaving and he wanted the match with Dijak,” Cordiero recalled. “The match was insane. It was a total passing of the torch.”
With Dijak being cemented at the top of the promotion, Cordiero was blown away at what Dijak was able to do.
“He was getting average angles over. He’s so complete as a performer. He can wrestle to protect his size and can also surprise fans with his athleticism. His timing is incredible and so is his ability to create moments. He’s a natural.”
Cordiero wasn’t alone in noticing Dijak’s ability.
“Before I ever saw him wrestle, I thought that he’s ‘real pro wrestler size,’” said independent wrestling standout “The Product” David Starr. “After seeing his match with Biff, I was completely sold on him.”
When asked what specifically made the match with Busick special, he noted, “The intensity. It had that big fight feel. It provided the big moments that pro wrestling is all about.”
In addition to his fellow wrestlers, Ring of Honor also took notice of Dijak and quickly brought him aboard. He would go on to win the 2015 Ring of Honor Top Prospect Tournament and became a regular with the promotion. While he would have some great matches with some of the top talent in the company, it seemed as though Dijak wasn’t breaking through the company’s glass ceiling. His final high-profile match came at the ROH All-Star Extravaganza 8 in Lowell, Massachusetts where he was seconded to the ring by his trainer and mentor Fury. He came up short in a bid for the company’s World Television Title to Bobby Fish.
“We spoke and weren’t able to reach any conclusions,” Dijak told me in a March 2017 interview about his contract negotiations with ROH. “So I decided to move on from that point. It was a difficult decision, but it’s a decision that I’m happy with.”
After completing his near three-year run in ROH, there were reports that Dijak was on his way to WWE. Those reports changed when Sinclair Broadcasting, the parent company of ROH, sent WWE a cease and desist letter charging contract tampering. Past ROH talents would have their contracts expire and then be in WWE a short time later, leading ROH officials to believe that they had been communicating with WWE prior to their contracts expiring. A number of talents who were expected to be with WWE during the early part of 2017, such as Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly, Bobby Fish, and Lio Rush, all waited until considerable time had passed before signing.
Between the time Dijak departed ROH until his farewell to the independents, there were a lot of moments that led to genuine interest from WWE. From competing in the prestigious WXW 16-Carat Gold Tournament in Germany to checking dream opponents off of his list, Dijak continued to work feverishly wherever he could find bookings (which were not hard to find given his high profile).
Dijak’s hard work is something that also sets him apart from the pack. It’s one thing to have size and to be able to work a good match. It’s another to continue to strive to improve. After speaking to countless people for this story, it’s apparent that work ethic was a common theme amongst everyone who spoke about him.
“I’ve never seen another wrestler with such a driven singular focus to succeed who did absolutely everything in his power to make it,” Webb marveled. “He stands out because of his work ethic. He’s always reviewing his matches and watching everything he can. I can’t think of a single person in wrestling who works harder, and I’m not just saying that. It’s legitimate.”
The hard work and focus of Dijak isn’t a singular undertaking. While he is the one hitting to road and making the towns, he has a support system at home that has made it possible for him in the form of his wife Ashley.
“Dijak is smart and dumb at the same time,” Webb said. “He might be dead by now if his wife wasn’t managing the rest of his life. So often, people like to tell sob stories about how they sacrificed relationships and friendships to make it. I think his marriage and friendships only strengthen and support him.”
That support helped drive him through the tail end of his run through the independents. One of his marquee rivalries began on May 29, 2016 in Providence, Rhode Island for Beyond when Dijak went one-on-one for the first time with Keith Lee. The Texas-based independent wrestler, who was an unknown in the Northeast, came in and had the match of the night with Dijak. It was such an incredible match that the two of them were booked against each other all over the world to try and repeat the magic that ran through that tiny building in downtown Providence that night. They stole the show in high-profile fashion WrestleMania weekend in Orlando for EVOLVE, opening a lot more eyes to their talent in the process.
“He’s still my absolute favorite opponent,” Lee told me. “Before the match, I said to myself, ‘this guy is good, so I’m fairly certain it will be an entertaining match.’ After the match I thought, ‘Holy crap, he’s incredible and not enough people know it yet! What a friggin’ athlete!’”
Once Dijak stopped taking independent bookings beyond the summer, it became apparent that his farewell tour was in motion. He would go on an incredible run of killer matches all throughout the world, from Cody Rhodes in Blitzkrieg Pro, Matt Riddle in WXW, Travis “Flip” Gordon in Northeast Wrestling, and Mikey Webb, Joey Janela and David Starr in Beyond. It was as if Dijak couldn’t produce anything but an outstanding match.
He wrapped things up in New England with a series of matches that were amongst his best. He wrestled Briggs in Limitless Wrestling to bid the state of Maine farewell. His swan song with Chaotic Wrestling came in the form of a tremendous triple threat match where he won their New England Championship over Briggs and Christian Casanova. Following that match, he received an extended standing ovation in addition to a classy video package showing his entire career with the company.
The WWE-bound Dijak received a similar reaction in his final match with Beyond in Somerville, Massachusetts when he defeated WALTER, a wrestler who was long on his list of dream opponents. Dijak took the microphone after the match and thanked everyone in the building, especially Fury. It wasn’t lost on him, he noted, that his work in Beyond was the reason that he’s going where he’s going next. While he said Ring of Honor was a great platform for him, it wasn’t until he started working in Beyond that he started to get noticed. It was the best moment on a show full of great ones. For most, this would be the pinnacle of success. For Dijak, however, his idea of success is much more defined.
“Success is fleeting,” Dijak told me in April 2016. “If you’re not going one way, you’re going the other. I have goals and aspirations I want to meet. I want more. I don’t want to ‘make it’ and say, ‘Okay, I did it.’ And obviously, and this point, there’s clear room for improvement.”
Dijak had one more box to check off his independent wish list when he traveled to Reseda, California on Labor Day weekend to participate in the “Battle of Los Angeles” tournament for the Pro Wrestling Guerilla promotion. On Night 1, he teamed with his rival Lee to take on Matt Riddle and Jeff Cobb in what many experts said was the show stealer. On Night 3, he faced off against Lee one more time in tournament action. It received incredible praise across the board, with many calling it not only the match of the night, but one of the best matches of the year. It was the final moment in a long journey that brought him from the sweaty, weary walls of the New England Pro Wrestling Academy to the state of the art WWE Performance Center in Orlando.
From North Andover to the Sunshine State, whether he is the student or the teacher, there will be no time to celebrate as Dijak knows that more hard work is to come if there is to be more success.
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