Donovan Dijak Didn’t Know He Was Getting Drafted To Raw Until It Happened
Draft night was a whirlwind for Donovan Dijak.
After spending over a year on his second run in NXT, Dijak was drafted to the Raw brand in April 2024. Dijak went on to make zero appearances for the brand, as he departed the company just weeks later.
Speaking with Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp for a new interview, Dijak recalled anxiously texting his wife throughout the night.
“Great question. I was tweeting. Here’s the exact breakdown of exactly what happened. First and foremost, I’m texting my wife because it’s a draft, but it’s a real draft, right? So this is my real life and my real job that affects my real income with my real family. My son is right in front of me. It’s not like, ‘Oh, let’s pretend, hey, we’re having fun, fake fighting, fake wrestling.’ It’s like, I’m finding out whether I’m employed on this thing. So it’s important. I’m a person who studies the business. So I read between the lines a lot and I know this is the final night of the draft. I’ve heard rumblings and rumors from people. Basically, I heard rumblings in the company that I might be moving to Monday Night RAW. So I said, ‘Okay, if I’m moving to Monday Night RAW, I know my contract is coming up in three weeks or something at that point, or maybe a little bit more.’ I don’t remember the exact timeline. But I know it’s coming up. I know for a fact that even though the draft is a work, that where they put you is very — symbolic is not the right word, but it shows what they think of you. Carmelo Hayes drafted first because they think highly of him. Somebody else drafted in the second round because they think almost as highly. That part of it is very real.”
Dijak said that he found out about his Raw placement at the same time that everyone else did.
“So as the draft is going, we get down to round five and round six or whatever, I’m both thinking to myself and texting my wife actively. I kinda hope I’m still in NXT and I don’t get drafted to RAW and that was wrong. Because if I’m supplemental drafted off TV, that’s a bad sign, right? I turned out to be 100% right ’cause that was a bad sign. They had no plan for me, there was nothing. Which again, I’m not like angry, ‘You should have had a plan.’ I wanted to give my wife, who relies on me, I wanted to give her as much foresight that like, ‘Hey, I might not have a job in a month.’ We need to start planning financially. We have a mortgage to pay. We have children to feed. So I wanted to give her as much heads up as possible. So I’m texting her saying, ‘I think this is what’s happening, I will let you know as soon as I find out.’ I found out when everybody else. It’s on YouTube, you can go watch it.”
Dijak then praised the company for putting his draft video on YouTube.
“So they didn’t have to put that on YouTube, and I appreciate them putting it on YouTube because it makes what would have been not a big deal into a big deal, so I appreciate that. Because I’ve been supplementally drafted before as T-Bar, right? ‘You’re drafted on Hulu,’ or whatever, the way they used to do it. But on this one, they made a big deal out of it. All these people are super happy for me and I’m super appreciative and I’m putting on a face and I prepared because I got a red shirt, I got a blue shirt, I got a red Prime, I got a blue Prime, I got red glass, I got blue glass. So I wanted to make a big deal out of it and cut a promo and do all that stuff.”
At this point of his run in WWE, Dijak was simply trying to stay active so he could keep his job.
“So I’m prepared for all of it, but in the back of my mind I’m going, ‘You’re doing what you’re supposed to do performatively, but this is not good.’ From a real life financial [standpoint], being a father standpoint,
this is not a good thing. You need to talk to someone. You need to start pitching things. You need to figure
out what you did wrong to try to get in a better position. What you see me do on my phone when the
camera pans to me is tweeting and texting at the exact same time. I’m texting my wife letting her know
what happened. I’m tweeting to say, ‘Oh, by the way, I was just drafted to RAW,’ or whatever. Because I
knew that would get me pretty good numbers. Again, a lot of my brand at that point is on Twitter because
that’s what is motivating the character at that point. The ratio stuff is starting to make its way into the
commentary stuff that I’m doing and things like that. That’s kind of what my thought process was.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Dijak recalled suffering a dislocated thumb during a match in NXT. Fans can check out his full comments by clicking here.
Fans can check out Fightful’s full interview with Donovan Dijak in the video linked at the top of this article. Also, head over to our YouTube channel to check out more of our recent interviews.
