ALL PURPOSE CONTRACT STATUS/POTENTIAL DEPARTURES THREAD

[Thelone]

He's also bland as fuck and "being a big man who can do stupid FLIPZ" might as well be a backhanded compliment at this point.

[Mr. Mojo Risin]

How fitting. Dijak finally starts to grow on me and he's leaving.

[Memphis Mark]

Man, didn't expect Dijak leaving. He's such a great wrestler and I've always seen him as the next big thing. O'Reilly, Cole, Dijak and Lee out in four months, that sucks.

Why wouldn't Dijak leave? He really hasn't been pushed and he is a taller guy that can fly a bit. He could move quickly up the food chain in NXT possibly and go to the main roster within 18 months.

The Dijak issue is not settled according to the dirt sheets .. Dijak is a smart guy he knows he has leverage in this situation . According to our Irish insider , NXT pays around $ 45 k . That is not much money to relocate to Florida , unless there is some understanding that that Dijak will be fast tracked to the main touring group .


Dijak could take the NXT deal and use it to get more money from ROH . Plus he could try to get some NJPW tours added to the deal . Also, Dijak is part of a tag team called the American Destroyers. He could try to get ROH to finally bring Mikey Webb , so those two could have a ROH run as a team .


Or Donovan 's goal could to be get in foot in McMahon's door , no matter how low the NXT offer. Or he could see what Impact will pay for his services. I don't know. He a young talent who should try to turn his free agent status into a bump in pay grade .

[LJimmy]

PWInsider is reporting that

Adam "Hangman" Page and ring announcer Bobby Cruise have both come to terms with Ring of Honor and have signed new deals.

Donovan Dijak appears to be finishing up here as he's not currently scheduled for anything beyond the February TV taping in Pittsburgh (although one source noted that could change). That may be a by-product of WWE interest as the word that has been making the rounds the last two weeks is that WWE isn't comfortable offering anyone who was under a ROH deal an offer until they are 60 days out of their ROH deal expiring, obviously because they don't want to be accused of contract tampering. So, it's a case of talents now having to give notice to ROH, then wait a few months while working the indy scene to see if they will get a WWE offer. That likely explains why Kyle O'Reilly disappeared after his contract expired on 12/31.

As we noted last week, Keith Lee signed with WWNLive while having a ROH deal on the table. We are told that Lee and former tag team partner Shane Taylor were each offered contracts at the same time. Taylor signed immediately while Lee told ROH that he had other offers on the table. He informed ROH that he was going to sign with WWN over the weekend at the Atlanta TV taping and ROH told him they would finish him out in Texas against the Briscoes, obviously with the idea of closing the storyline out and putting The Briscoes over. Lee announced he was signing with WWN the next day and there's no clearcut answer to whether he'll actually work his final dates with the company.

Since we have gotten a few emails asking about this, ROH's Greg Gilliand, not booker Hunter Johnston is the point person responsible for handling the ROH contracts and getting them signed. Johnston is the booker and is behind the creative direction but Gilliand is responsible for all the major business decisions.

Cary Silkin is the guest this week on Colt Cabana's Art of Wrestling podcast. Silkin has been pondering writing a book about his life working in the rock and roll scene in the old days of Times Square, which sounds like a lot of fun.

So I guess there was in fact something to people's tampering issues claims in recent weeks. I wonder how it will all play out with KOR, War Machine and Dijak.

[WHG]

Dijak is an impressive athlete, but not nearly the wrestler that many have been pretending he is for the past year or so. Losing Keith Lee is way bigger a loss.

[AlexROH]

Dijak is an impressive athlete, but not nearly the wrestler that many have been pretending he is for the past year or so. Losing Keith Lee is way bigger a loss.

Keith Lee is a bigger lost in long term. You can like Dijak more or less, but the ROH fanbase knows him and it would be easier to push him as an important guy.

[rovert]

Man, didn't expect Dijak leaving. He's such a great wrestler and I've always seen him as the next big thing. O'Reilly, Cole, Dijak and Lee out in four months, that sucks.

And War Machine and Fish.

Unless something drastically changes ALL are leaving.

I never got the whole contract tampering thing. If WWE (or ROH for that matter) was interested in a talent if their contract was coming up I see no problem in the company contacting them early.

WWE putting Corino's tryout on their website was asking for trouble.

I still say there's still plenty of legit talent to be had by ROH.

They just have to find it.

May I suggest Chase Stevens?

They want him and others to pay for a ROH tryout seminar first. There's your first problem the next is who presides over them.

Dijak is an impressive athlete, but not nearly the wrestler that many have been pretending he is for the past year or so. Losing Keith Lee is way bigger a loss.

Dijak outside of ROH is a completely different animal. I see dollar signs in that guy.

[AlexROH]

Ouch, I forgot War Machine and Bobby Fish. ROH did it well with Lethal's and Bucks' contracts. But Lee, Dijak, War Machine, Fish, Kyle and Cole leaving is devastating. They need to find young talent, because his future roster isn't looking very good.

Right now, I think that the wrestlers would rather go to WWN (for going to WWE after) than ROH. Times have changed, wrestlers don't wanna make a name for themselves in the indies before going to WWE when they can to EVOLVE, that is one of the hottest promotions and also have a relationship with WWE. It's sad, but is the truth.

ROH now have Castle, Lío Rush (without a contract), Ospreay and Scurll. That's the only young talent I see being big in the future. Hope this year's top prospect tournament helps. ROH need young talent, but not standard talent, they need future stars and they need them now.

I'm tired of two/three times champions. I like Lethal, Briscoe and Daniels, but I don't wan't them to be main event guys AGAIN. I wanna see something fresh in the ME scene. The problem is that Deliroious and his team don't push young talent into ME positions and doesn't invest enought in the contracts of their future big stars. I know that SBG don't give ROH a lot of money, but at least put some effort in guys like Kyle, Dijak or Lee. They need to improve this and also star making 2 or 3 years deal. That would allow them to grow and book better storylines, knowing that talent isn't going anywhere.

Hope something changes because I love ROH and I don't want it to be full of old talent and low/midcarders without personality. ROH is and (probably) will be always my favourite promotion. But that doesn't mean that I have to love all the decissions they make. I think we all agree with this.

One thing I like about rovert's information is that I've discovered a lot of things about contracts and all of that stuff I didn't know. It's great to have someone with access to all this type of info.

Rovert, IMO, doesn't make this forum 'toxic', he just gave his point of view, and that's great because is what forums are all about. I love reading two/three totally differents points of view about a company. Knowing all the bad decissions that have been taken behind the scenes won't make me stop enjoying ROH shows, but they will help me to know better the promotion I support.

[The Dragon Saga]

Office Boy dealing with the contracts makes sense.

Fish signed an extension so that they could work out a new deal. He had a WWE offer on the table and turned it down to sign that extension. I doubt he'll sign with WWE if he already signed an ROH extension, doesn't make sense.

Dijak will be interesting because I don't see WWE interested in him funnily enough. He's talented and he has size but he hasn't broke out yet as a personality and his overall look I feel needs tweaking. I think if he goes he'll be someone who'll regret it in the long term, he'll get lost in the shuffle.

[DXvsNWO1994]

Dijak will be interesting because I don't see WWE interested in him funnily enough. He's talented and he has size but he hasn't broke out yet as a personality and his overall look I feel needs tweaking. I think if he goes he'll be someone who'll regret it in the long term, he'll get lost in the shuffle.

Honestly, I would be very interested in signing Dijak if I was WWE, but who knows. Maybe he'll sign with FloSlam....

[stevenkmason]

Dijak is boring as hell.

War Machine should be doing whatever they can to get booked in NJPW. That's where they have the best chance of thriving.

Taylor without Lee is useless. Their attire was so shindy and awful that I couldn't get over it to determine if either of them are a big loss.

Fish is 40.

I was really impressed by John Silver and Alex Reynolds on the 1/7 TV episode. I'd like to see those guys in the TPT.

Castle and Scurrl are more interesting to me than any 2 guys in WWN/Evolve or any FloSlam promotion and more than almost anyone in NXT. The big question will be seeing if Scurrl has the same opt out clause in June and what happens with it.

[stevenkmason]

Also I miss Roddy more than any of the departures last year.

[Wilson]

Dijak will be interesting because I don't see WWE interested in him funnily enough. He's talented and he has size but he hasn't broke out yet as a personality and his overall look I feel needs tweaking. I think if he goes he'll be someone who'll regret it in the long term, he'll get lost in the shuffle.

Honestly, I would be very interested in signing Dijak if I was WWE, but who knows. Maybe he'll sign with FloSlam....

Dijak seems like the type of hire WWE would have scouted ten years ago. He would be a bit aberrant in the today’s stratagem as a global indie star vector. Dijak has been getting a mystifyingly strong response from the ROH crowds in recent months. First near Boston, then in New York, he’s been given support despite very noncommittal booking, so one has to think that there is a market for him. If not WWE, he would fit in a place like TNA or could be a great hand in a Japanese promotion. I never thought ROH would be a great match for him or that ROH should be investing in him. A lot about him is similar to Moose.

ROH is not a great place to learn anymore. There’s a lot of possible work for people at Dijak’s level to gain experience, thus increasing their worth. ROH’s isolationism prevents wrestlers from growing, and that’s shown in the ring-work. There’s no reason why the wrestling in ROH should be so much weaker than it was ten years ago. Johnston’s obvious focus on safety is definitely beneficial for the product and, more importantly, the wrestlers, but there are a lot of other ongoing practices that prevent the workers from being educated and improving. I’m sure there’s more to it, though I think a facet of this story is the multiple realization that, unless one is a main-eventer, pursuing ROH ensures only a jobbing (in the more traditional, non-wrestling definition) career path and does not afford long-term professional success.

[AlexROH]

Also I miss Roddy more than any of the departures last year.

+1000.

[Brada]

Losing Roddy was definitely a huge blow.

[SweetDaddy]

Agreed.

[JTCole]

I really hope anyone here who's been bashing Dijak since they found out he might be leaving wasn't praising him beforehand.

[Wilson]

WAIT A MINUTE : HOLD THE PHONE : I JUST REALIZED


. . . what does this mean for Nana?

[monster mafia]

he broke with dijak time ago.

bring the embassy back!

[FanSinceHDNet]

WAIT A MINUTE : HOLD THE PHONE : I JUST REALIZED


. . . what does this mean for Nana?

Didn't Nana have a video of him bumping into Dijak after Final Battle? I'm thinking it was put up night of...

That's seemingly the last we've seen of him.