Dijak recalls having the most important conversation of his entire wrestling career with CM Punk.
CM Punk has reunited with old friends and made new ones since making his return to WWE in November 2023. Punk has spent a solid amount of time working with the NXT brand in Orlando, especially during his time away from the ring during injury.
While speaking to WWE Die Woche for a new interview, Dijak talked about a match he had with Eddy Thorpe where he busted his head open during a spot with the ring steps.
“The most influential discussion I’ve ever had in pro wrestling took place four months ago, or maybe three months ago, and it happened with CM Punk of all people. It was just that random week when he came back and he came to NXT and I met him for the first time, then he came to TV the following week. The way TV was structured that week, I think it was TV on Tuesday and it was pre-taped and then the next day was to air the following week. So the Tuesday [taping] was to set up the Wednesday [taping], and the Wednesday was the underground match, me and Eddy Thorpe had this underground match where there’s no ropes and all this stuff. People probably remember the underground match, but they probably don’t remember the setup match the week we had before which was just a quick thing where me and Eddy had a regular match. He threw me into the steps and you couldn’t see it very well on TV but I started gushing blood. I was kind of trying to hide it because I was afraid that if there was too much blood, people would’ve came out and stopped the match. The match was so short, but it had a purpose because the purpose was to drive him into the buckle and the buckle is gonna snap and break. Break the ropes, oh the ropes can’t contain them, they need to have a match with no ropes. That was basically the story.”
Dijak then circled back to the conversation that he had with Punk after the match, noting that the advice has practically changed his career trajectory.
“I was bleeding and I was angry because I took the steps and hit my head. Nothing bad happened but I was — after we did the buckle and I got dragged to the back, I came to back yelling and cursing and angry because I was angry at myself, I wasn’t angry at anyone else. I was yelling and I was upset because I was afraid that I had screwed up the whole thing. I wasn’t worried about myself, I was worried about Eddy Thorpe because this was a match that was huge for him. I have had a lot of big matches in my career, it doesn’t make or break me to have a NXT Underground match. It does for him, right, this is his big moment. I was afraid I screwed it up for him by smashing my face into something. I thought medical was going to rush over and say, ‘You have a concussion, you can’t wrestle.’ It’s tomorrow, the match is tomorrow because it’s a pre-tape. For whatever reason, CM Punk was there and we had talked before, I’d asked him for feedback on the Iron Survivor challenge, so we had a bit of a rapport at that point even tho it had only been a couple of days. He came over to me and he talked to me and calmed me down and said that we’ll talk about the match after I get my head taken care of and stuff like that. I talked to him after and I don’t know if he remembers this, but after that, we had the most important conversation that I’ve ever had in my professional wrestling career where he just gave me advice on what he thinks it takes to succeed, maybe in pro wrestling in general but specifically WWE. It’s something that I had thought about before and internalized before, but I don’t know, for some reason coming from him, coming from a guy that’s had so much success based on who he is and what he says and how he approaches this, I’m like, wow, it means so much more coming from him because I know that this is tested advice. It’s not just someone saying something or someone guessing, it’s a code that he’s lived by his entire career. No matter how many things he does and how many times he goes off or says something that he shouldn’t say, this man is always the topic of discourse amongst the entire professional wrestling industry, how can I not heed this advice. The second I took what he said to heart — like my wrestling has always been good, nobody cared really or invested me as a character until the last two or three months and that’s when people are like, ‘Hey, this guy is being himself and I’m really kind of digging that.’ That’s the quickest and most simple way to have success in the professional wrestling industry. Not to say that I’m super successful, it’s trending now. I’m happy for that because it’s always kind of just floated, hey great match. But right now, it feels like people are really starting to gravitate towards me and they’re feeling the social media stuff. When I get in the ring, it’s less of like a pre shape or a plan, I’m just going out there.”
Dijak was recently drafted to the Raw brand during the 2024 WWE Draft. Learn more here.
Punk spent the weekend roaming inside of the WWE Headquarters in Connecticut. Learn more here.
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