Ring of Honor’s Donovan Dijak Talks House of Truth, Cesaro and More in Exclusive Interview

ROHWrestling.com

Teddy: Since your short time in Ring of Honor, you have won the ROH Top Prospect Tournament. After that, you joined the House of Truth with Truth Martini. Talk about your time in ROH and how that has been for you so far.

Dijak: It’s been a great experience being around guys like Truth Martini and Jay Lethal. There are a lot of great benefits obviously (of being with HOT). Just being part of the presence and the spectacle of those guys is really more beneficial than anything else. You get to experience what it is like to be that top-level competitor, what it is like to have the spotlight on you, even if it is a resonating, side-spotlight and I just happen to be in the picture (laughs). It is still a cool thing to experience and gives me something to strive and work for. It also gives me something to craft my stuff around, something to emulate so to speak. So that one day, I can be that caliber of a performer.

Teddy: In your match with Busick that I watched, and in ROH, you work as a heel. Do you prefer working as a heel over a baby face?

Dijak: Honestly, it depends on the guy I am wrestling. I say 99 percent of the time I portray the same character and it depends on the crowd whether or not they boo or cheer me. It is such a fine line now-a-days between the two. Even as this character, I have never been the type to do over the top things like get the belt and try to hit someone with the belt. It just doesn’t really fit who I am. (Jay) Lethal does that stuff a lot, which is fine, that fits his character. For me, it is a little different. It is more of a fine line that you try to balance. Depending on who I am wrestling, I might try to tone down some of the more athletic stuff because I don’t want to take away from their move set or their shine. I say most of the time; I go out there and wrestle from a character standpoint and from an execution standpoint pretty much the same way no matter what.

Teddy: You were recently named to the Pro Wrestling Illustrated 500 list. I’m sure that is a huge honor for you. Congratulations. What do you think has caused your rise so quickly in your short amount of time in wrestling?

Dijak: Thank you. There are a lot of contributing factors, but obviously being a part of Ring of Honor gets you noticed right away on a national stage, which is almost certainly the reason I am included in that publication. I’m not going to pretend otherwise (laughs). In terms of the quickness, it is a combination of things. I’m not going to pretend that I’m not 6-7. That’s obviously got something to do with it (laughs). People tend to notice taller guys in wrestling quickly. I have a presentable physique, I guess (laughs). So that would be another contributing factor. In terms of the in-ring ability, that is contributed mostly to my trainer Brian Fury at the New England Pro Wrestling Academy. We have training available three days a week. Since I started wrestling, I’ve gone at least two to three days at the school with Brian. Just taking in knowledge from everybody else (at the school). There are always so many hands on deck to give you extra help. Tommaso Ciampa was at the school for a very long time. Matt Taven and others guys like Eddie Edwards would stop by. There is always such a wealth of knowledge available. My original trainer was “WarBeard” Hanson. He was a trainer at the school for a long time. I also got to train with other guys. A guy I got to wrestle a lot with was Mikey Webb. You guys probably saw him in the (Ring of Honor) Top Prospect tournament. He has done some Ring of Honor shows, too. He is a guy I have wrestled a million times, and it’s good because every time I show up, there is someone else who wants to train, wants to learn and wants to get better. It always helps when you have someone else always pushing you as well.

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