In an exclusive interview with PWMania.com, former WWE Superstar Donovan Dijak revealed that his memorable NXT rivalry with Keith Lee was originally intended to last just one match, before an overwhelmingly positive backstage reaction convinced WWE officials to change their creative plans.
Dijak also revealed that Lee personally approached Triple H about working with him, discussed how their rivalry almost never happened on the independent wrestling scene, and expressed hope that the two could eventually reunite in the ring. You can read the complete interview at this link.
Watch the complete video interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_YPIh_U3rw
Here are some highlights:
On Keith Lee personally requesting to work with him in NXT:
“Keith told me straight up, he told Hunter like, ‘Hey, just put me with Dijak, please.’ And I was specifically told from the office that it was supposed to be a one-off.”
On WWE’s original plans and the backstage reaction that changed everything:
“They told me the day of. I remember the exact conversation I had with the lead writer Joe Belcastro. He told me straight up, he’s like, ‘Hey, we’re going to run you and Keith just one time and then we’re going to move you into this program. We’re going to do this, this, this, and this with you.’ And I was like, ‘Cool. Sounds good.’ And we had that match and we came to the back and they were head over heels about it. They were like, ‘We are doing this over and over and over.'”
On how his first match with Keith Lee almost never happened:
“I remember Drew messaged me and he asked me, ironically, whether I wanted to wrestle Damo or Keith. And I had just wrestled Damo in England. This was January of 2016. And so I said, ‘Oh, I loved wrestling Damo. I’ll wrestle him again.’ And then like two or three days went by and I was like, ‘Man, you know what? I already wrestled Damo. Let me wrestle this other guy, Keith Lee, instead.'”
On being surprised by Keith Lee’s athleticism:
“‘What if after I knock you down, I give you a standing moonsault?’ And I just looked at him. You know, this is a 6’4″, 350-pound guy. He’s just straight muscle. And I’m like, ‘I’m sorry. Did you just say a standing moonsault?'”
On their unique chemistry in the ring:
“There’s nobody else on the planet where I can dive over the top rope and they can catch me out of midair. Just no one else can do that, right? He can. So that in and of itself led to a hundred different options of cool things and cool visuals that we could do, and we were always willing to adjust something or try something new or give it a new coat of paint or whatever.”
On hoping to wrestle Keith Lee again:
“Unfortunately for he and I, the last time we wrestled was in like an eight-man tag on Monday Night Raw where he was Bearcat and I was T-BAR. So not really the ending that we wanted for that, but hopefully we get to do it again and put a good sort of bookend on the end of it.”
The interview also features Dijak discussing his experiences working under Vince McMahon, Triple H and Shawn Michaels, along with his WWE career and future ambitions. You can check out the complete interview at this link.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this interview, please credit PWMania.com with a h/t to PWMania.com for the transcription.
