WWE announced that they have officially signed former ROH wrestler Donovan Dijak, and he is currently training at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, FL.
He was the winner of ROH’s “Top Prospect” tournament in 2015 and wrestled in what many felt was a “match of the year” candidate against Keith Lee at the PWG Battle of Los Angeles tournament this weekend.
WWE also recently signed former ROH wrestlers Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish, putting them in a sort of ROH mini-stable in NXT. We’ll see if Dijak joins that stable or if WWE decides to do something else with him.
Donovan Dijak joins the WWE Performance Center
A new hoss has arrived at the WWE Performance Center.
Six-foot-7, 265-pound Chris Dijak of Worcester, Mass., better known to ring fans as Donovan Dijak, is the latest signee to join WWE’s training center in Orlando, Fla.
Combining heavy-hitting power with cat-like agility, Dijak’s explosive offense has won him admirers around the world. His “Feast Your Eyes” knee-smash, meanwhile, has downed enough opponents to put Dijak on WWE’s radar with only four years’ experience.
A football and basketball standout in high school and college, Dijak stormed onto the New England independent wrestling scene in 2013. He remained a force in the region ever since, crossing paths with the likes of Tommaso Ciampa and Oney Lorcan, and becoming a fixture in organizations including Massachusetts’ Chaotic Wrestling, Connecticut’s Northeast Wrestling and Rhode Island’s Beyond Wrestling.
Dijak’s search for new competition broadened in short order. In 2015, he won Ring of Honor’s Top Prospect tournament, and earlier this year he competed in the wXw 16 Carat Gold tournament in Germany. He has also wrestled for EVOLVE, and this past weekend, he fought in Pro Wrestling Guerrilla’s Battle of Los Angeles tournament, held in Reseda, Calif.
Dijak’s arrival at the Performance Center comes on the heels of WWE signing another sensation from the independent ranks, high-flyer Lio Rush.