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

Teddy Couch
Teddy Couch

Daily DDT

Check out the in-depth interview with Ring of Honor’s Donovan Dijak. 

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Donovan Dijak started wrestling not long ago, and he is already on the Ring of Honor roster and was named to the Pro Wrestling Illustrated 500 list recently.

The 6-7, 275 pound Dijak won the 2015 ROH Top Prospect Tournament and went on to join Truth Martini and the House of Truth.

ALSO ON DAILY DDT: WWE SummerSlam Review

Before Dijak decided to lace up his wrestling boots, he played college football at the University of Massachusetts.

He started his career in Chaotic Wrestling, where the likes of Kofi Kingston, Sasha Banks, Darren Young, Damien Sandow, Biff Busick and others wrestled in the independents. Dijak held the CW heavyweight championship for 148 days before losing the title to Chase Del Monte on March 21, 2015.

In the interview, every subject is covered from his time in Chaotic Wrestling, his time in Ring of Honor, CM Punk vs. Kevin Owens, his favorite sports teams, Stone Cold Steve Austin, favorite matches of all-time, his time as a Rose Bud in WWE and much, much more! You may be surprised to hear who he thinks is the best wrestler of all-time.

Make sure to follow Dijak on Twitter and Instagram, like his Facebook page and go buy his T-shirts at prowrestlingtees.com!

You can catch Dijak on Ring of Honor on Wednesday nights on Destination American at 11 p.m. EST, 10 p.m. CST.

Next: Growing up as a wrestling fan, favorite sports teams, beginning of his wrestling career, CM Punk vs. Kevin Owens

Teddy: For those who don’t know, tell them who Donovan Dijak is.

Dijak: I’ve been wrestling for about three years now. I wrestle consistently for a few companies, most of which are based in the northeast (of the United States). I started at a company called Chaotic Wrestling. I still work for some other of local companies: Northeast Wrestling, XWA, Beyond in Rhode Island and more recently than that I signed with earlier this year with Ring of Honor. As far as style goes, I like to consider myself someone who can do a little bit of everything. I’m a taller guy. I use my height to my advantage.

Teddy: Did you grow up a wrestling fan?

Dijak: Sort of. I started watching wrestling when I was 12. That’s really in the peak of the Attitude Era. My brother started watching around then. Before that, I didn’t really get cable channels, so it wasn’t too available to us. My parents kind of discouraged us from watching it. We would try, but it would be more unsuccessful than usual. Then finally, around 1998-1999 is when I started watching a little more religiously. I would sneak in at night and record Monday Night Raw on VHS tapes. Every so often, we would get pay-per-views over at my friend’s house and things like that and that’s really when I started becoming a wrestling fan. Then from 1998 until about 2002-2003 is when I watched pretty consistently, but after that was when high school sports started to take over most of my time.

I would sneak in at night and record Monday Night Raw on VHS tapes.

Teddy: Who was your favorite wrestler?

Dijak: My favorite wrestler was probably Stone Cold Steve Austin. I enjoyed a lot of the character stuff from him. As a teenager, he is who I gravitated towards.

Teddy: You played football and basketball in college. I saw you’re a New England Patriots fan, so I’m sure you’re happy with the win over the Steelers in Week 1. Do you watch any college football?

Dijak: Not often. I’ll flip on a game when it seems to be exciting, but I never really gravitated towards college football. I played college football, but I never really found the product super exciting just because it’s hard for me to get invested into something if I don’t specifically have a team. I played for the University of Massachusetts, but we were I-AA (FCS) at the time. Boston College was one of the bigger teams, but it never felt like my team so I never gravitated towards college football that much.

Teddy: Who is your favorite NBA team?

Dijak: My favorite NBA team is the Celtics. I always watched the Celtics, even when I was a little kid. Now it’s a little tougher with my training schedule and I’m always on the road. It doesn’t seem like I’m missing too much because they are terrible (laughs).

Teddy: What made you decide to start wrestling?

Dijak: After I graduated from college in 2011, I had a lot more free time, because at the time, I was used to playing two to three sports, so I never really had any sort of free leisure time. After I graduated, I started working full-time and it was a nine-to-five job and I had my nights free. I didn’t really know what to do with them, which was strange for me. So I started watching wrestling again in my free time. That was around 2011-2012, I guess. It was around the time CM Punk was starting to gain some steam and some momentum outside of pro wrestling. That kind of drew me in at the time. So I watched the product, both WWE and TNA, and whatever else was available for about a year casually as a fan. In late 2012, is when I found out the school that I currently train at: The New England Pro Wrestling Academy. That’s when I put all of the pieces together and I signed up there.

Teddy: I saw your tweet the other day about how we will never see CM Punk and Kevin Owens. Man, you nailed it.

Dijak: Oh, yes, yes! I mean, never say never. You don’t know if he could make a comeback in one promotion or another. But yeah, I feel like that would really be an awesome match to watch. Hopefully one day.

Next: In-ring ability, working in Chaotic Wrestling and ROH, working as a heel, making the PWI 500 list

Teddy: I watched your match with Biff Busick on YouTube. Like you said, you are a big guy, but with the way you move in the ring, you don’t move like a typical big guy. What are your strengths and weaknesses as a wrestler?

Dijak: It’s hard to say, talking about strengths and weaknesses, because it’s not an exact science. Everything about pro wrestling is an art form. Some people like things one way, and some people like things another way. So it’s hard to say what I would consider a strength and weakness, because I feel like I do everything to the best of my ability. I feel like I’m proficient at everything, but I also feel like I need to improve on everything at the same time. It’s a funky balance between thinking that you are capable of doing anything, but also having the reality to realize that everything you do is always going to be capable of being improved, if that makes sense.

Teddy: Like you said, you started wrestling in Chaotic Wrestling before your time in Ring of Honor. You held the CW heavyweight championship for 148 days. Talk about your time there and how beneficial it is to you now.

Dijak: Yeah, it is definitely a great promotion and was a helpful time for me. Luckily for me, the New England Pro Wrestling Academy was, and is currently, closely associated with Chaotic Wrestling. The facility actually used to be called the Chaotic Training Center. The two companies have close ties with one another. So right from the get-go, you get early opportunities with Chaotic, which is always beneficial for everybody from the school. It is the right amount of old school with a new school mentality. A lot of storytelling and the fundamentals are pushed very heavily. At the same time, you are encouraged to be creative, and to express yourself in multiple ways. Your character is pushed a lot. It is a great company to grind your teeth in. So my opportunities in that company came early and there were definitely a lot of guys that I was able to learn from and have programs with. It is a fascinating company to be a part of. I’m definitely proud to still be a member of the roster there.

Next: Prefer working as heel or face?

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.

Next: Rose Bud at the Royal Rumble? Working with Matt Hardy, his personal favorite match

WWE Network – Donovan Dijak, right with green wig, pictured as part of Adam Rose’s Rose Buds at the 2015 Royal Rumble after catching Kofi Kingston and placing him back on the outside of the ropes.

Teddy: I saw that you worked at the Royal Rumble as a Rose Bud (for Adam Rose). Is that true?

Dijak: I did, yes. It was myself and Anthony Greene, who has done a show for Ring of Honor. Some people may know him from that. But yeah, we were at the 2015 Royal Rumble as extras for the Rose Buds. We were kind of in the back, so you may not have seen us. Rightfully so, because we had Mandy Leon and Taeler Hendrix in the front, so the camera should have definitely been on them, more so than us goofing off in our green wigs or whatever. Yeah, if you take a real close look, you can find us in the background there. We actually had a spot where we caught Kofi Kingston. We brought him around to the other side and put him up top. You can see us doing that, which was pretty fun.

Teddy: How was that experience?

Dijak: It was pretty cool. I met Kofi a few times. He is a guy who trained at our school, at the original Chaotic Wrestling Center with Mike Hollow, who was the original trainer there. He did a lot of his early indy stuff with Chaotic Wrestling. It’s cool to meet him and talk about some old Chaotic stuff with him. He is still friends with a lot of the guys that I trained with. It was fun to get involved in the Royal Rumble. It was a quick, surreal experience to be out there. It was definitely a lot of fun.

Teddy: You were supposed to have a match with Matt Hardy on Sept. 12, 2015, but the event was canceled. Have you had a chance to work with Matt before?

Dijak: I haven’t, no. Hopefully I will sometime coming up soon. It was supposed to be our first match together. The show got rained out, so it didn’t happen. We have met a number of times before. He is one of the nicest guys in pro wrestling. He is great to hang around, be around, talk with and learn from. So hopefully one day, him or him and his brother (Jeff Hardy) in a tag, or something like that, would be a whole lot of fun, I think.

Teddy: If you wanted to show a fan who Donovan Dijak is, what match would you show them?

Dijak: The one I’ve been using lately is a match from Beyond Wrestling with Biff Busick. It’s not the one you saw online. That is the free one we did. This one is a little more recent than that one. That one is from December of last year. It is my best match to date, which isn’t surprising considering the level Biff is on now. Rightfully so, he is getting the opportunity he deserves. That match, I think, brought me to another level in terms of my in-ring ability. Since then, I feel like I have been doing well and been on a hot streak. So hopefully I can keep that momentum up.

Teddy: So that is your favorite match that you’ve had?

Dijak: Yes.

Next: Favorite matches of all-time, dream opponents, best wrestler of all-time, his future in pro wrestling and ROH

WWE.com

Teddy: What’s your favorite match of all-time that you’ve watched?

Dijak: That’s a good question. I think my personal favorite is probably a match from NXT between Cesaro and Sami Zayn. I don’t remember which one; I know they had a series of three. I want to say it is the second one, maybe. All of those matches were really great. It was one that resonated with me specifically. I just remember watching it and thinking it was the best match I’ve ever seen. I’ve been watching a lot of good matches lately. I was drawn particularly to Samoa Joe and Kenta Kobashi. I always enjoyed (Shinsuke) Nakamura and (Kazuchika) Okada. I don’t even remember what it’s from, it’s from 2013. I don’t remember the show. Earlier stuff would be Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels. I always enjoyed The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels. Anything with Brock Lesnar, the list goes on and on. Those are the ones that come to mind.

Teddy: Who would be your dream opponent to face?

Dijak: As of right now, Tommaso Ciampa. He is the one, for whatever reason, never had the chance to wrestle one another. We have done like a thousand class matches. He does some stuff at the school, but he moved to Milwaukee recently, though. We have wrestled in class a bunch of times. We have done spots at shows on Chaotic and Ring of Honor together. We have been on a million shows together, but just have never had an opportunity to have a match with one another. So hopefully that changes sooner rather than later. If it had to be someone from the WWE level, it would be Cesaro. I have a huge respect for him. I feel like he is the best in-ring wrestler in the world as of right now. If it were from all-time, I would probably go with Bret Hart. I would really have to think about that one, I’m not sure.

Teddy: Would you say Bret is the best of all-time?

Dijak: No, I think Cesaro is the best wrestler of all-time in my opinion. It is just a personal preference sort of thing. Wrestling has evolved so much over the past 20 years. I like today’s wrestling style more so than old school styles of wrestling. I don’t think those are to be dismissed. I think there is a lot to learn from the old school style. It was different, because there were different fan bases. People thought it was a little more real than they do now. So you have to tailor what you are presenting to different audiences. I think they did a great job with what they were doing back then. For me, today, Cesaro is who encapsulates what I find the most exciting about professional wrestling.

Teddy: I can tell you are a fan of NXT by telling me your favorite matches. Would you like to have an opportunity to go to NXT in the future?

Dijak: I would like to have the chance to work for any company as a professional wrestler full-time. That’s my goal and I think that should be anybody’s goal who wants to take professional wrestling seriously. If you can make it your job, support your family and do the thing that you love, it doesn’t matter what company are working for. Obviously, it would be fun to be on that grand stage and to wrestle in front of a bunch of fans. Professional wrestling is progressive, so you never know what company is going to do what with whom. But yeah, the ultimate goal is to make it my full-time job.

Teddy: What can we expect to see from Dijak moving forward in Ring of Honor?

Dijak: That’s a good question. Hopefully, the opportunities in-ring continues moving in the direction that they are. You get more and more opportunities as the time builds. You keep stepping up for the challenge. Right now, I’m not a feature guy because it takes time for the crowd to buy into the character. Hopefully, I continue to get some of the great opportunities that I have gotten thus far and I can continue showing people what I am capable of doing. That I am capable of meeting the level of my opponents, and hopefully exceeding the level of my opponents. To show people that I am ready to present something that they have never seen before and something that they can truly invest in.

I hope you enjoyed the interview with Dijak. Remember, you can follow Dijak on Twitter @DonovanDijak. Follow me on Twitter @GT_TeddyCouch.

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Teddy Couch

Teddy Couch

Teddy is a college student at Jacksonville State University, majoring in Communication. He writes in the sports section at the local newspaper in his hometown. He is a big pro wrestling fan and joined Daily DDT in August 2015. For booking, you can contact Teddy at tmcouch93@aol.com.