Donovan Dijak Recalls His Early Days in WWE NXT, Coming Up With His Ring Name

– During a recent interview with Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp, former WWE Superstar Donovan Dijak discussed his early days in WWE NXT and initially using Dominik Dijakovic as his ring name. Below are some highlights (via WrestlingInc.com):

Donovan Dijak on being named Chris Dijak initially in NXT: “I was standing in Full Sail and the tron was coming up with the thing and it flashed up and said Dijak, and I was like, ‘Oh, just Dijak,’ and then it slid down and said Chris and I was like ‘urgh.’ My real name is Chris but almost nobody calls me Chris.”

On coming up with Dominik Dijakovic: “The thought process being that I have a Croatian heritage. We were having conversations about, ‘How can we make this sound more European?’ The thought process being like a Stipe Miocic kind of thing. I thought seven syllables was way too long for a WWE name, but that’s what was kind of presented to me.”