Chris Dijak begins to stamp a unique presence on the yellow brand
It was another Wednesday night i.e. the NXT night which saw the Velveteen Dream lock horns with Chris Dijak. In a short amount of time two tremendous performers squared off, Dijak brought something fresh to the table. A unique ring presence, something like Drew McIntyre has been doing since making his return to the WWE.
The former Donovan Dijak has been wrestling for over 5 years now. He garnered attention during his indie days and did quite well especially in ROH and Chaotic Wrestling. He made his career compass point towards the WWE diagonal last year when he marked his NXT debut on Sept. 23, 2017.
Standing at 6 ft 8'' and weighing at 270 lbs, Dijak is the man WWE can focus on towards creating a new star, much like the management did with the Velveteen Dream. Besides sporting a great look, Dijak is not only a talented in-ring talent but he can also talk. He has been honing his craft at the Performance Centre under the tutelage of some of the most respected names in the business.
If you are not familiar with Dijak's work, I suggest you see some of his matches he featured in during his indie days. The 5-star match he wrestled with Keith Lee prior to signing with WWE was a treat to watch. As an independent wrestler, he faced some of the finest performers in this industry like Oney Lorcan, Cody Rhodes, Sami Callihan, and Zack Sabre Jr.
Dijak has been making his presence in the NXT rooms quite often lately. Earlier, he wrestled a short and sweet match with Ricochet but this week, he truly showed the audience a glimpse of how good he is and what he is capable of.
Several veterans advise wrestlers playing a heel to run their mouth during matches as per the nature of the character. The veteran Kevin Owens credit Steve Austin for giving him this advice early in his career and we've seen how seriously he took it. This week, Dijak did it flawlessly.
From the start of the match, he made the audience invest their attention towards the match not only by the physicality but also by his verbal attacks. He did such a great job that the crowd got firmly interested in the affair not more than a minute into the match. Hats off to the Velveteen Dream who complimented him to a T.
WWE has quite some big guys in the employees' sheet but Dijak has begun to show why he is different. Dijak's confidence and in-ring smoothness can certainly work wonders for him. He could be the big bad guy the NXT management would love to invest in. He is beginning to find his feet and hopefully, he will get a proper storyline to prove his mettle in important aspects like story-telling and mic work to the WWE audience.