Backstage Details On Impending WWE Departure Of Donovan Dijak

The wrestling world has been abuzz since Donovan Dijak announced that he would be a free agent as of Friday after WWE opted not to sign him to a new contract. Now, more information has been revealed by Fightful Select as to the events surrounding his departure.

Sean Ross Sapp has reported that Dijak was made aware of WWE's decision to not resign him two weeks ago, after he had faced The New Day's Xavier Woods during a taping for "WWE Speed." Those close to Dijak told Fightful that there had been talks between Dijak and WWE, and while preliminary discussions were said to have gone well, there were no "serious" talks after that, and radio silence on WWE's end up until the decision not to re-sign Dijak was made known to him.

Dijak put pen to paper with WWE back in 2017, and competed on "WWE NXT" until he was called up to the main roster in the summer of 2020 as part of the ill-fated Retribution stable ("Michin" Mia Yim will now be the only member of Retribution still working for WWE). He returned to "NXT" in November 2022 — in an as-yet-unreleased interview with Sapp, Dijak said Michaels personally called him to welcome him back to the brand — where he remained until he was called back up to the main roster on "WWE Raw" as part of the WWE Draft in April of this year.

Following his return to "Raw," some talent "expressed their surprise that Dijak wasn't a regular" when asked by Fightful's Corey Brennan; Dijak noted to Sapp that he became wary about his future WWE career when he wasn't immediately factored back into "Raw" plans after being drafted. He's not expected to have any trouble finding work on the independent scene, with Sapp reporting that Dijak has been contacted by "major companies" and Brennan reporting interest from a pair of European promotions.