Donovan Dijak Reflects On Competing On Final NXT Before It Went Up Against AEW Dynamite

We had a “Wednesday Night War” between AEW Dynamite and WWE NXT for a while, and Donovan Dijak recently recalled being in the final NXT before it began. From late 2019 until early 2021, AEW Dynamite and WWE NXT went head to head on Wednesday nights. NXT moved into the timeslot just two weeks before Dynamite joined it on Wednesdays, and Dijak was part of the WWE brand at that time.

Dijak spoke with Fightful’s Jeremy Lambert and SP3 on In the Weeds recently and was asked about being on that last episode of NXT before AEW Dynamite premiered. He noted that NXT got hyped up by being told that AEW was (in his words) coming their spot. You can see the highlights below:

On the Mood At the Show:

“It was exciting and nerve-wracking all at the same time. We were told straight up many times that- I don’t think they used the word war, but they they talked about AEW and they said that like they’re- I don’t want to give you quotes, so I’m paraphrasing, it’s not a direct quote, but it was something to the effect of- they’re coming for us and they’re coming for our spot. You know, something in that in that realm like given to us to motivate us, and it worked. I was very much like, I felt like it was us against them, and that’s the way that it was presented to me, and then there were obviously sort of bombs being lobbed in both directions.

On His Mindset At the Time:

“So I was taking everything very personally at that time. Obviously, in hindsight, not in — I probably shouldn’t have been, because obviously WWE did not feel like I was some sort of incredible family member with the benefit of hindsight. But, you know, I did feel an obligation to, you know, like myself and my family and Keith and Keith’s family, especially given that platform to over-perform and over-exceed expectations.”