Where Should Dijak Go After Leaving WWE? | Question Of The Day
06/28/2024 03:00 AM
As stated yesterday, Dijak has left WWE as of his contract expiring today. This brings the end of a 7 year run, starting back when WWE attempted to sign him in January 2017, only for contract issues to put a stall on his debut until September that year.
Throughout his time in NXT, on the main roster, back in NXT, and back on the main roster after being traded to Raw in the 2024 WWE Draft (for seemingly no purpose), he’s had some amazing matches and some terrible gimmicks thrust upon him.
From my personal perspective, Dijak came onto the scene as a guy I saw main event world title potential in. He needed to fine tune his promo skills and figure out a character that could connect with the audience, but the in-ring talent and look was already there. I was assuming this guy would be beating people like Randy Orton within a year or two, capturing midcard titles on his way up to a world championship and a career as one of the future guys the company would be built around.
Sadly, that didn’t happen. T-Bar and Retribution wrecked far too much of his career. After getting back on track in NXT did he start to rehabilitate himself, only for WWE to not bother doing anything with him, and seemingly just write him off.
Thus, I present to you the first of what I’m hoping are many EWN Question of the Day entries, with a rather simple one: “Where should Dijak go, now that he’s gone from World Wrestling Entertainment?”
Piggybacking off the Monday Morning Q&A I used to do, this is all about getting your thoughts in the comments. Chat it up and let us know what you think about this topic!
Let’s break down some of the potential scenarios. Here are my opinions:
Option 1) All Elite Wrestling
This is easily my favorite scenario, for personal preferences. Admittedly, that’s in large part because AEW is the only other company I watch outside of WWE, and I like Dijak, so I want to see his matches.
But there are TONS of people I think Dijak would have fantastic matches with on this roster.
He could toss around all the smaller guys like Action Andretti and Dante Martin to look strong. Bigger guys like Brian Cage, Powerhouse Hobbs, Killswitch and Lance Archer would probably fair similarly to his Keith Lee matches, which were always great. Put him in the ring with Bryan Danielson? Orange Cassidy? Will Ospreay? Dijak against PAC or Darby Allin? A Death Match against Jon Moxley? Forget about it. The list goes on and on.
Option 2) TNA Wrestling
The main positive of being in TNA would be that “big fish in a small pond” situation that’s always talked about. If Dijak were to go there, he’d immediately be a top contender for the world title and as viable an candidate as anyone to dethrone Moose as the head honcho.
Since I’m not too familiar with the roster, I can’t speak to a ton of specifics of people I’d like to see him go up against. However, I know he’d have a great match with solid talents like Frankie Kazarian, I’d like to see him work opposite Nic Nemeth in this environment, and I’d be down to see him brawl with some people like Sami Callihan.
Plus, if this partnership with NXT and TNA continues, there’s always a chance he comes back to WWE, even though right now, it doesn’t seem that’s as much of a concern for him, and I don’t blame him.
Option 3) New Japan Pro-Wrestling
While not quite the “big fish in a small pond” situation as TNA, going to New Japan offers a different bonus of “fresh face in a foreign land.”
Plenty people, especially bigger guys like Dijak, have gone to New Japan and immediately become top talent that are pushed to the moon. He’s a well known enough name that he has value and could be a prospect for any number of factions to join the ranks of something like House of Torture or Bullet Club proper.
Like the other companies, there are of course tons of wrestlers he’d have awesome matches with. In particular, I’d like to see him go up against Jeff Cobb, wrestle Zack Sabre Jr., or battle it out with guys like Tomohiro Ishii.
Realistically, I don’t think he would be hot-shotted into the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship scene, but it could happen. The IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship is a more likely goal, or the STRONG Openweight Championship.
Option 4) Tour the Indies
Then again, why sign to a company if you don’t have to, and if you can make as much money (or more) and have a lot of fun bouncing around in different promotions? It’s worked for some guys like Matt Cardona.
Dijak could be a go-to utility guy who pops up at all sorts of events, be it GCW, NWA, Bloodsport, you name it. After being in WWE for so long, he might enjoy that freedom and potential downtime more than anything else.
I wouldn’t personally want this to be where he goes, as I’d essentially never watch any of his matches. But that brings us to the last option…
Option 5) Leave Wrestling All Together
Sometimes, people just reach a point where they don’t want to do this anymore. They’ve wrecked their bodies and don’t want to be suffering too much more in the future. After giving it their all, and not succeeding at the level they wanted, they decide to move on to other careers and interests.
This is the type of thing that none of us can speak on Dijak’s behalf (as if we could with the other stuff). If he were to choose to go down another road, that’s largely unbeknownst to us. However, it seems like his intention is to stick around wrestling, and I know that if I had any say in it, I’d definitely like to see him continue to step between the ropes.
What would you like to see happen next for Dijak? Is there a place you want him to go, or people you’re looking forward to seeing him wrestle? Drop your predictions and thoughts in the comments below!
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