Donovan Dijak is no stranger to redefining himself. Even going back to his time in high school, the 37-year-old Massachusetts native has always shown to be adaptable.
Dijak is set to face KENTA at Major League Wrestling’s Kings of Colosseum on January 11 at the NYTEX Sports Centre in North Richland Hills, Texas. This will not be their first encounter in the ring.
“Worlds Collide access tournament, I want to say maybe, like 2018 or ’19, something like that. It was just one of those tournaments [where] the winner of this tournament gets to wrestle for the North American Championship at Takeover, or something like that,” Dijak recalled in an interview with SlamWrestling.net. Pre-pandemic memories are hazy for many.
There was almost a world where Dijak wouldn’t have become a wrestler had he made a different decision in his high school athletics tenure.
“I definitely wanted to play in the NBA. Once I got to about sophomore year in high school. That’s when I realized that [the] NBA probably wasn’t happening unless I really buckled down and focused 100% on basketball and just becoming a three-point shooter or something like that,” said the 6-foot-7 grappler.
The powerhouse has always been an intimidating opponent, even dating back to his football and basketball experiences in high school and college. “I would always take a very competitive drive to a sport. I would make the competition a fight. I would turn the the other team into the enemy. It’s just the mindset that I always brought to to whatever I was doing.”
Dijak made his pro wrestling debut in August of 2013 after training under Brian Fury and Todd Hanson. His wrestling career began in Chaotic Wrestling and in 2014 he moved to Ring of Honor, where he would stay until 2017. He was signed to WWE in the late summer of 2017, first finishing off a number of independent bookings after his ROH contract was up in February of that year. The promotion had initially offered him a contract that January before pulling it as he was still contracted to ROH.
Going back to Dijak’s adaptability, he’s no stranger to pivoting when necessary. On June 27, 2024, Dijak publicly announced his departure from WWE after his contract was not renewed. Two days later, he appeared for Connecticut promotion Blitzkrieg Pro. At Summer of the Beasts on August 29, a four-way scramble match between Nolo Kitano, LSG, Jimmy Lloyd, and Little Guido was called a no-contest only two minutes after it started. Dijak attacked all four competitors and announced he was joining MLW.
Fast forward to now, and Dijak is redefining himself yet again in MLW. But the essence of who he is — a fierce competitor — remains unchanged.
With a strong background in criminal justice (undergraduate and graduate degree), Dijak has allowed that part of his background to play a part in influencing his current persona in MLW. He’ll look to lay down the law with KENTA in Texas on January 11th.
Dijak takes on anything with a cool head, viewing challenge differently than some people might.
“I never view anything as a challenge. My style and the way that I was trained, and the way that I pride myself is being able to work to everybody else’s strengths. That’s always been a goal of mine. It’s something that I’ve had a lot of success with.”
Regarding his biggest goal for 2025, Dijak kept it simple.
“Continue to trend in the direction that I’ve been trending in terms of redefining myself as an asset, as a top of the card asset to every professional wrestling company in the world, right? Because I think for a long time that was the uphill battle that I was constantly fighting. It felt like the more I tried to figure out how to get there, the more I started to trend in the opposite direction, right?” he explained.
“Now I’m in a position where I have a clear path. I have a clear direction and idea, and I’m more vocal about that.”
Major League Wrestling hosts Kings of Colosseum Saturday, January 11 at the NYTEX Sports Centre in North Richland Hills, Texas. Event information and tickets can be found here.
RELATED LINKS
- Jun. 27, 2024: Dijak: WWE ‘stonewalled us’
- Donovan Dijak socials: Instagram * X
- MLW website
