Donovan Dijak Looks To Rebrand Himself As The Best Wrestler In The World In MLW (Exclusive)

"It's a rebuilding process and a rebranding process, and we are right in the thick of things," Dijak told The Takedown on SI.

"Just the ability to rebrand myself. I think every promotion in the world knows that I'm one of the best professional wrestlers in the world, but MLW is the first promotion that I feel deep down in my soul believes I am THE best professional wrestler in the world and that means a lot to me because that's what I believe."

Reflecting on the past year of his career, since departing WWE, Dijak considers it to be the busiest period of his 13-year professional wrestling career where he has done unprecedented things.

"I traveled across the world, I've had some of the busiest weeks, not some of, I've had THE busiest weeks of my entire professional wrestling career. I've wrestled eight matches in ten days, I've done many, many things at this point of my career that I have not done throughout the rest of my career, and now is the time to take a further step in that approach, in that rebranding process."

Coming to MLW has given Dijak a new lease on his career and given him the opportunity to cement his claim as the best wrestler in the world, unlike any other promotion has given to him before.

"And if a promotion doesn't believe that about me, they think, 'oh he's great, this is a guy who can have a great match with anybody, he's always gonna deliver," but that's it, that's all they think about me, that's a, it's positive, right. I appreciate that, I appreciate that a company thinks that I can have a great match with anyone, but my goal is not to have a great matches with people, my goal is to be the best professional wrestler on this planet and MLW is consistently giving me the opportunity to prove that."

The belief in himself and the belief from the promotion has given Dijak the motivation to what to become a leader in Major League Wrestling and take them to new heights.

"So I'm going to do that, I'm going to take the reigns, I'm going to score the touchdown, all the figurative speeches that I can possibly give is what I'm going to do in MLW because they believe in me, so I believe in them."

On Saturday, May 10, Dijak has the perfect opportunity to achieve this when he challenges Matt Riddle for the MLW Heavyweight Championship at the company's latest major event, MLW Azteca Lucha from Chicago, Illinois.

Dijak and Riddle are two men that are very familiar with one another, dating back nearly a decade from their time across the independent scene and WWE.

"Yeah I'm glad you touched on that long, long history that me and Matt have. I think dating back to 2015 or 16, so we're coming up on ten years and I'm hard-pressed to think of a year in that decade where we didn't wrestle each other for some brand or some company, you know," Dijak said remembering his many battles with Riddle.

"For a very long time, he and I were, what we call married on the road, not in a positive way like as in a tag team, but in a negative way as though we were facing each other every single night for NXT when we were doing those touring house shows."

Despite their many meetings inside the squared circle, things have been taken to an even more personal level during their time together in Major League Wrestling.

"So yeah it's a long storied history, but yeah this feud in MLW has taken it to a whole new level. Like you mentioned, the breaking of the ribs, the instructions by St. Laurent, it's all adding to the story of, his partnership with "Filthy" Tom Lawlor, all of that is coming to a head and I think it's gonna culminate with me holding the biggest, literally and figuratively, championship in all of professional wrestling."

Dijak's main focus has been on becoming a world champion and setting a new standard for MLW, as well as himself. He feels like this matchup with Riddle at MLW Azteca Lucha will be the next step in rebuilding himself.

"I've already spoken to (MLW owner) Court Bauer about this. It's gonna be consistent, ground breaking performances, promos, appearances, everything that I do is going to rattle the cages that's all I've learned of the course of my 13 years in professional wrestling is that you don't accomplish anything by doing what everybody expects."

"So I'm continue to achieve what's unexpected, I'm gonna continue to have the greatest matches in MLW history, the greatest matches across the pro wrestling landscape because this is what I've been doing, right."

Dijak's mindset has remained the same. He wants to reach the top of Major League Wrestling and has to capture the MLW Heavyweight Championship to do just that.

"Becoming a world champion, defending that world championship, becoming a specific household brand name and making my claim as the best professional wrestler of this planet. I'm not just gonna continue to say, I'm gonna continue to prove it, that's all I ever done when I'm in the ring, when I'm on the microphone, that's all I ever done. That's what I'm gonna continue to do, but now the spotlight is on me, so now people can focus and understand what's happening."

Dijak is no stranger to delivering memorable matches throughout his career, most notably his remarkable final run in WWE NXT where he was part of the 2024 Match of the Year against Oba Femi and Josh Briggs at NXT Stand & Deliver 2024.

Now in MLW, he wants to continue this in-ring excellence, but the 38-year-old star wants to also prove without a shadow of a doubt that he is the very best in the industry as the MLW Heavyweight Champion.

"If you watch my work in NXT, that's what I did. I was almost never on the winning end, now I'm gonna be on the winning end of those matches, so you're gonna see more consistency, more title defenses, you're gonna see it every single week instead of sporadic 'oh once or twice a year, here's Dijak having match of the year contenders," right, or in NXT's case, THE match of the year."

"I'm gonna have that consistently across the landscape of professional wrestling and specifically for that MLW Championship and those MLW Tag Team Championships.It's gonna be just a plethora of outstanding performances because that's what I know I can consistently bring to the table on a worldwide scale."

Following his arrival in MLW, Dijak has received the guidance and managerial services of St. Laurent. As the money guy in the company, this business relationship has helped him in his ascent to the top.

"Yeah well at this point of my career, I just turned 38-years-old and... just spent all week at Disney World and that's not cheap (laughs), so number one on the list is money. St. Laurent's a money guy and money talks and he knows that and I know that, so that is the number one piece of the puzzle, but after we sort of established the money piece of it, the trust began to build and the trust has been building."

"His leadership has taken me into a direction where my success has been paramount and I'm gonna continue to follow him as long as it continues to drive towards more financial gain, more championship gain and more success in the professional wrestling ring and that's all I've been experiencing under St. Laurent. So our relationship has really been blossoming under those principles."

At the last MLW major show, Battle Riot VII, Dijak's connection with St. Laurent led to a new alliance being born as he partnered up with former WWE star Bishop Dyer, formerly known as Baron Corbin.

This partnership is new, but it could also pay even more dividends for Dijak as he establishes himself as a top star in the company.

"Yeah so the relationship is new obviously. He has a lot of those same principles with St. Laurent that I have, so I think we share some common ground there. Obviously, we share a past, we're both in a similar situation in terms of our career path," Dijak said.

"He's obviously accomplished more on bigger stages than I have, but you know, we sort of ended on a similar note in WWE and I think we both draw comparisons because of those similarities and also because of our nationalities and our similar heights and our similar style, and there's so much there to dive into, and I think I'm very much looking forward to exploring that sort of dynamic between he and I. I think that's sort of an untapped reservoir of potential in terms of two of the biggest men in all of professional wrestling."

While his focus is on the MLW Heavyweight Championship heading into Chicago this Saturday, Dijak did not hesitate to admit that he could see this new pairing bringing more gold into their collection.

"No doubt in my mind. No doubt in my mind. Again, I don't know exactly what the future holds for me, I know first and foremost is winning and becoming the MLW Heavyweight Champion, but listen I'm more than happy to have a collection of MLW belts at my disposal, so after I collect that from Matt Riddle, then it's onto the tag team championships with Bishop Dyer and we're just gonna take over the entire company because we're so big that nobody's gonna stop us."

With the main event of this huge show on the horizon, Dijak has made it clear that he is more focused than ever. Everything that he has done in the past year is to place himself on the throne of MLW.

"Ready, prepared, you know. I've been sort of mentally preparing myself for the role of the leader of MLW, the top guy of MLW for almost a year now. And I think it's a great time to sort of rightfully take my place on that throne, you know. Not to take away from Matt Riddle, he's a great talent and I've wrestled him many, many times, but this is the era of Donovan Dijak."

"And I'm gonna prove that I'm "The Disruptor." I'm gonna continue to disrupt MLW, I'm gonna continue to lead MLW because that's my job, you know. That's why I was put on this Earth as the best professional wrestler on this Earth. I belong at the peak of MLW and I'm gonna prove that."

Dijak will challenge Matt Riddle for the MLW Heavyweight Championship this Saturday, May 10 from the Cicero Stadium in Chicago. The show is available for free on the MLW YouTube channel. You can also check out the full interview with Donovan Dijak on The Takedown On SI YouTube channel.