Dijak on WWE Not Renewing His Contract, WWE’s Decision to Bring Him Back to Main Roster Despite No Plans for Him, & Original Plans for Retribution Stable

As noted before, Dijak’s contract with WWE expired today and he is currently a free agent.

Fightful held a recent interview Dijak. One of the topics discussed included Dijak’s thoughts about when he was informed by WWE officials that his contract would not be renewed.

“(I was told) not that long ago. For one reason or another, I was told to not get in the specifics of the date. I don’t know whether it matters or not. It was somewhat recently. Let’s put it this way; I’ve been trying to negotiate with WWE. When I started, and even as recently as two years ago, contracts were renegotiated years in advance. I’ve had probably five or six contracts with WWE. Right now, is the deepest into a contract by two years that I’ve ever gotten. The closest I’ve gotten on another deal before it was renewed, was two years out.”

Dijak also gave his thoughts about WWE’s standard practice of including a 90 days no-compete clause for the terms of their main roster contracts.

“It’s a double-edged sword. The pros are, save everything for a couple days in advance and go, ‘I’m free tomorrow,’ and all of a sudden I’m the fun new toy right away. Where others go this guy has been released, they make their fun video, and everyone has to wait three months to book them. It’s a big pro. I was on WWE programming eight days ago on Speed. ‘Haha, Speed,’ it’s still viewed by 2.3 million people. I was the pinned tweet for WWE yesterday. I found out (about the contract not being renewed) after I wrestled Xavier Woods, obviously. Maybe not obviously, because I probably would have done it regardless. I’ll state it as fact; I found out after I wrestled Xavier Woods, but I found out before everybody publicly advertised that match and it got posted.”

Dijak also gave his thoughts about his belief why WWE officials called him up back to their main roster for this year’s WWE Draft despite not having any real plans for him.

“An excellent question that no one has given me an answer to. I’ve asked it, but no one has given me an answer. You can rolodex ten, twelve, fourteen reasons. I’ve been in WWE long enough to where I know generally how things operate and how things take place. My gut feeling is they had a general idea of when my contract was up. I don’t know whether the decision-makers have that date in front of them. I think they were generally aware of when my time was coming up. My guess would be that these decisions were made in some capacity before I went to NXT. A group of individuals likely looked at me as a whole and said, ‘Here’s T-BAR, he’s up in June 2024. Do we release him now or do we try to get as much out of this contract as we possibly can?’ Thankfully, on my part, the conclusion was, ‘Let’s put him in NXT and see what he can do.’ Nobody is more thankful for that than me. I’ve been super public. I’ve thanked Hunter and Shawn publicly and privately a number of times. It saved my career. I’m thankful for that. That being said, it’s disheartening, and I don’t know this to be fact, but my gut tells me, no matter what I did the decision had been made. I didn’t feel that way in NXT. In NXT, I was like, ‘Fuck yes, this is my chance. I’m going to out-wrestle everybody. I’m the best wrestler in the world. I’ll lose every match. It doesn’t matter. They did me a favor. I’m going to put this guy over huge. I’m going to have everybody’s best match. Every TV, every pay-per-view, I don’t care who it is. I don’t care if it’s two minutes. I’m going to do everything in my power to have the best matches possible to show and prove that I’m the best and I deserve this opportunity.’ Every time I went out there, ‘You fucking nailed it.’ As recently as two months ago at Stand & Deliver. ‘I fucked nailed it.’ Triple threats are hard as hell. Everyone was watching. It’s WrestleMania weekend. The draft is coming up. Everything is working out. Then, I’m sitting there during the draft. The draft is a shoot. Nobody knows what’s happening. I’m watching the names. There is an angel and demon on my shoulder. Part of me is sitting there grumpy because I thought it would be funny and I’m in character. Why would I stand an applaud? Internally, I’m thinking, ‘You’ve been told there are plans for you to be in the main event picture for the NXT Championship. Also, your contract is up in a month or so.’ There is an argument in my head, ‘Do you want to stay in NXT with Trick and have this cool feud. Will they renew you in NXT?

That will be weird and an awkward conversation. You’re on a main roster contract still.’ It’s a weird middle ground. I watch the names get listed off. As they keep going, I’m like, ‘Uh oh.’ I’m thinking, the further this goes, the more likely I am to be in the supplemental draft. If I’m in the supplemental draft, I’m fucked. It just means ‘we don’t care.’ I’m watching the names. They get to the last name, ‘Maybe if it’s on TV, it’s salvaged.’ I think the last name is Blair Davenport. Everyone is clapping. ‘Please still be in NXT.’ Whoever was doing the announcing, they were like, ‘We have one more announcement.’

The second I heard those words, everything clicked together, ‘I’m so screwed.’ I texted my wife or friends or all of them, ‘I think I’m completely screwed.’ I’m connecting the dots. My contract ends in one month, they’re going to call me up in the supplemental draft, that means they don’t have anything for me, that means I’m going to come down to the wire, that means they’re going to bend my over the barrel or fire me.’ I’m connecting all these dots. Meanwhile, there are cameras on me, and I have play pretend that I’m happy. In a sense, I am because they’re cheering for me and supporting me. I’m like, ‘None of these people know what I know.’ Maybe they did, but certainly not the talent. I didn’t just go to NXT. I went back to the Performance Center. I live in New Hampshire. I’m flying down to the PC weeks at a time to train with people, do classes with the younger kids and give back. I’m all in on this Performance Center lifestyle. They’re all shoot happy for me. In my head, I’m like, ‘I’m fucked.’ I try to stay positive. ‘You’re on Raw. Maybe there is a plan.’ I go to the first Raw. There is nothing on the sheet. You start playing the WWE game. ‘Maybe it’s this.’ The more you try to justify it, the more you go deeper in your brain. ‘Yup, you’re fucked.’”

Dijak also gave his thoughts about WWE’s original plans for the Retribution stable during his time in the group as T-Bar.

“The whole feel of it was, ‘we don’t know.’ I know they didn’t know because I was there speaking to him about it. It’s 2020, we’re coming off Portland TakeOver, me and Keith are coming off this great feud. I don’t have a solid sense of what the booking…nobody in WWE has a super solid sense of the booking or the trajectory, especially talent. Maybe those in charge do, but talent, even the top guys, they might have a general idea, but nothing is set in stone. It seems like we’re building to a triple threat at (the next) TakeOver. I have all this new gear that no one has seen. It’s modeled after the Emperor from ‘Gladiator,’ it’s this white suit of armor for entrance gear. It’s beautiful and cost me a fortune because I never used it. TakeOver got canceled and shifted to USA Network, which was a catastrophe. COVID hits, disrupts everything. I start getting a feel, people started talking to me more, that I was in the past as opposed to the future. I was like, ‘I wonder if the plan was to do something at TakeOver and then that got shifted.’ Usually, guys got called up at the Raw after WrestleMania. I thought maybe something was happening around then but the timeline was shifted around. All of Raw is at the PC, there is no crowd, it’s odd. I get notified a little before I wrestled Johnny Gargano, I was the first guy he wrestled as a heel in that run. I had essentially turned babyface. I got notified, at some point in that window, that I was being called up to Raw. ‘Great, this is wonderful.’ It never really happened. This was such a period of confusion in WWE.

Whenever I get called up, it’s a fucking catastrophe for some reason [laughs]. I got called back to NXT, even though I got called (up) and showed up to Raw. It was weird because we were already showing up to Raw because we became the crowd. There was a weird mixed message. Heyman was writing the show. He got fired, Bruce came in. I didn’t know who to go to. I was told I got called up, but no one was approaching me with anything. I’m not even in the locker room. I don’t know what’s going on. Finally, I get a call, ‘Hey, we’re going to bring you back to do a couple of matches and face Kross, who they’re building up to face Keith. We’re going to introduce you with the Keith storyline. Keith is going to win the Championship.’ That was my first time back was when Keith won the championship, I gave him a hug, we ran the program with Kross and he killed me off.”

Dijak also gave his thoughts about his first meeting with Vince McMahon in WWE ended up being a horrible one.

“Now, I’m back on Raw, in some capacity, sort of. At least, I’m going to Raw. We’re physically there because we’re in these tents outside and then we go in, we sit there, Kevin Dunn is yelling at everyone in the ring. It’s a silly mess. Through no fault of WWE’s. They’re trying to survive COVID. I don’t think they did a horrific job at that. They maintained a product when most things stopped. Finally, I don’t know what my status is, I go straight to Vince. First impression with Vince is horrible. During the pandemic, they did a makeshift model of the current arena. That area is where we were running TV, but production was in the other building that was adjacent to it. I think they were renting at the time, but now they own it. At the time, it wasn’t a training facility, it was a big empty warehouse they were renting with separate rooms. Vince’s office was five rooms down. You have to reach these levels of the warehouse to get to him.

You’d go through the SmackDown set, then a production meeting, it was like going to boss to boss to boss. The security guard is standing at one door. ‘Is Vince in there?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Can I talk to him?’ ‘Yeah.’ I’m opening these doors and I don’t know what’s on the other side. Maybe it’s Vince sitting at a desk. I open it and it’s a production meeting and a bunch of writers. They all stop and look at me. Vince is talking to Jason Jordan. I’m standing in the doorway. ‘Ah, fuck.’ I’m clearly interrupting something and I didn’t know. I’m standing and waiting for them to finish. They talked for what felt like a half hour, but it was probably eight minutes. I’m just standing there awkwardly forever. He looks at me, smiles, and waves, I walk over and introduce myself. ‘Nice to meet you. I’m Dominik Dijakovic from NXT. I just got called up. I wanted to know if there is anything you’re looking for specifically.’ ‘Have you talked to Bruce Prichard?’ ‘Yeah, I’ve talked to Bruce.’ ‘He does the creative stuff.’ From that moment, I was like, ‘I’m fucked.’ He doesn’t know who I am. If you were on NXT, there was a pretty clear idea if Vince knew who you were, and that determined how your main roster run would go. ‘Okay, I’m fucked.’ Through the grapevine, I heard he was not happy with that at all. He didn’t like that I came to him and approached him. I was wearing casual stuff, a tank top. I guess he wanted me in a suit or a collared shirt. Then he had a talk with me a month later. Hilarious talk, in hindsight, about professionalism [laughs].”

Dijak also gave his thoughts about wanting to use his exit from WWE’s NXT brand at the time as a storyline fuel for his Retribution debut that was turned down.

“Retribution debuts. It’s a catastrophe. It’s a bunch of writers or extra or small little people throwing things. I viewed it as an opportunity. ‘I can fix this. I can make Retribution a fucking awesome thing.’ I go to Vince. I filmed my own pitch where I had my own mask that kind of looks like the T-BAR mask, but not really. It was meant to be an entrance mask. I film a pitch where I’m talking (with the mask on). I take the mask off, I cut this promo, it’s all dark. I take this video, it’s now my second time meeting Vince, it’s a month later. I take it to show it to him. ‘This is what I think Retribution could be.’ I had a list of names. Nikki Cross, Damo, Mason, Shane Thorne, Tommaso Ciampa. I listed seven or eight people who I thought would fit ‘We’re angry with the company and want to take them out revolution group.’ He watched the video and had no feedback for any of that, but he gave me a five-minute talk on professionalism and talking to people who own companies. ‘You need to be more professional. You need to present yourself better. Not me. I’m one of the boys.’ Clearly, you’re referring to you.

That’s just how Vince operated. He operated in this weird bubble and had a view of himself that was no what he projected. I present it. ‘That’s fucked. He doesn’t care.’ “Two weeks later, it starts to happen. Mason shows up in the group as a hooded character. Another person I pitched shows up as a hooded character. I show up as a hooded character. ‘He kind of maybe listened, or someone listened.’ I sent it to Bruce and the Raw team. It kind of starts to happen and I’m like, ‘Oh shit, this is awesome. We’re all getting called up.’ At this point, there is kind of a focus on Retribution. It’s integrated in the whole program. I know people weren’t watching or hated watching during the pandemic, and had good reason to do so. At that point, it’s a focal point of Raw. The more we do it, the more steam it gets….it originally started and everyone looked like a child screaming and throwing a temper tantrum. The more actual pro wrestlers did it, me and Mace are big and imposing, Shane looks good, everyone is hitting each other hard. The segments are going well. We beat up Dominik Mysterio, Keith, Drew, Braun. We’re on Raw and SmackDown. Suddenly, it falls off a cliff. ‘You guys can’t be on SmackDown anymore.’ I don’t think anyone told us, but we heard that it was because Fox didn’t like it. It was before we officially debuted. ‘We’re screwed. They can trash the whole thing. No one has seen our faces.’”

Dijak also gave his thoughts about when he first found out that he was going to be a member of the group.

“The first time you saw them on screen, when they threw Molotov cocktails at the generator, I don’t think I was officially on Raw. I saw it as an opportunity because I was in this meandering middle ground where it was, they don’t know how to use me. They have no plan for me. I see this faction. I have friends who I like who are talented and in a similar boat, I’m just going to go for it. ‘I don’t think you have a plan, let me give you a plan.’ It kind of started to work. I don’t think they considered anyone or had a plan. It was literally writers, extras, and nonsense.

We’re doing the masks. It’s getting better. It’s not great, but it’s getting better and trending in a good direction. We’re pitching stuff like crazy. I think I pitched the names being big and capitalized. DIJAK. DIO. THORNE. We wear these entrance masks because the company has betrayed us. We all had these reasons and motivation. Then, one day, like a big hammer, boom, ‘Here’s your masks.’ ‘Entrance masks?’ ‘No, you wear them all the time.’ ‘Oh shit. Maybe we can make that work.’ ‘Your name is T-BAR. Your name is SLAPJACK. Your name is MACE.’ ‘Oh fuck.’ In the back of our heads, we’re like, ‘at least it’s us.’ At this point, we don’t have main roster contracts. This is a point where Vince can go, ’Fuck ‘em, fire him.’ That happened all the time. Our jobs are on the line. At least it’s being push. At least our faces are out now so they can’t just replace us. Even though we know it’s all bad, at least we’re here and we’re going to get pushed. If you push us, it will get over. You can do the silly shit in the world, but if it gets pushed and you throw a bunch of championships on it, people are like, ‘That’s cool and awesome.’ Obvously, that didn’t happen.”

Dijak also gave his thoughts about Mustafa Ali joining the group and Ali trying to plead with McMahon to change the direction of the group to no avail.

“Way after the hacker. Everybody who was involved in Retribution, with the exception of Mercedes because she was only there for two weeks because she was like, ‘Fuck this. I don’t want any part of this.’ Everybody else involved put their heart and soul into making it presentable because what they would give us every week was the most atrocious thing you’d ever see in your life. What you saw on TV was so much better than what we were given. That’s not me pretending it was good. It was not good. It was very bad. We took it from inexplicably horrible to just bad, and we worked our asses off to make that happen. Ali would go endlessly into Vince’s office and pitch, ‘Please don’t do this. It’s going to get us canceled. It’s going to get us fired. We’re going to look horrible. We’ll still lose, but don’t let us lose this way.’ Every week was a fucking battle. It was a fight for our lives because we knew we were one step away from being obliterated off the face of the earth, and everyone is a fucking excellent wrestler. ‘Please, just let us be ourselves. Let us wrestle. Give us time. Let us create this. Let use fix what you screwed up.’ They just would not.

There was a problem with everyone. It was fun because I was around my friends, we were on the main roster and people were talking about us, but it was super negative because going to work was treacherous. There’s no fans, so our only feedback is Twitter, and Twitter is fucking eviscerating us. Every time we’re on TV, we’re trending number one but it’s for all the wrong reasons. People endlessly shitting on me. I was in a dark place, mentally. I think we all were. We’re all in this dark hole. The world doesn’t exist. I’m living on Twitter because it’s the only feedback I’m getting from my job. My name is T-BAR. I’m trying to make it interesting so I’m shooting on everyone and saying nonsense. There is plenty of regrettable things I said in character, but sort of not. It’s a complete mess. Decent amount of regrets from that, overall. It was a lot of fun to be around my friends and be in the ThunderDome, which was a unique experience, but it was a wild experience.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com 1 & 2