Donovan Dijak discusses winning NXT Match Of The Year.
NXT Stand & Deliver 2024 featured a number of praised matches, but the triple threat bout between Donovan Dijak, Josh Briggs, and Oba Femi went on to win the NXT Match Of The Year award at the end of the year.
By the time the match was celebrated, Donovan Dijak had already been out of the company for months, as the company elected to not renew his contract in June.
While chatting with Jeremy Lambert and Joel Pearl of Fightful Overbooked's In The Weeds podcast for a new interview, Dijak said that he was thankful to be a part of that conversation before also stating that the accolade means quite a bit to him.
"It was bittersweet, but I’m super thankful that it was allowed to be part of that conversation. They didn’t have to do that. By they, I assume that Shawn Michaels had to greenlight that in some capacity. The inclusion of that match in the End of Year Awards discussion. They very easily, and kind of what I expected to happen, was for them to not include it and pretend it didn’t happen, but they didn’t. They included it and it ended up getting the most votes and winning the award. I’m super thankful that was allowed to happen. I’m thankful for all of the fans that voted for it. Honestly, it means quite a bit to me. In a space where a lot of stuff that happens and a lot of accolades that happen are out of our control because at the end of the day a lot of it is someone else’s decision. A match that I do, I’m given the platform, but what happens in the match, a lot of it is my responsibility or the responsibility of the wrestlers. There are obviously agents and referees, and it’s a big collaborative effort, but ultimately, a lot of the content that you’re seeing in a match is the work of the professional wrestlers. In that aspect, the award and being recognized, ‘this was the best match we had this year on the brand,’ that means so much to me because this is our work. We got to decide what happened in this match, and for everybody to unanimously praise it, it’s a great feeling in a landscape where that’s not always the case. I’m super thankful for that."
Elsewhere in the interview, Dijak talked about Knuckles being featured at NXT Stand & Deliver. Learn more by clicking here.
Fans can check out Fightful's full interview with Dijak in the video linked at the top of this article.
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