On recent episodes of NXT, it appeared Dominik Dijakovic was about to feud with Velveteen Dream over the North American championship. He was not present at the taping last Weds., May 1, however, and a new challenger emerged for Dream (click here if you want to know who that was).
A lot of folks, including this writer, assumed it was a sign WWE was pulling back from Dijakovic’s recent character work as... an anti-immigration immigrant, I think? That does seem to be the case, and that’s a bummer - because the real reason means the big man needed to undergo surgery for a torn meniscus:
— Dominik Dijakovic (@DijakovicWWE) May 8, 2019
“Yesterday my knee was surgically repaired in Orlando, Florida. Now I know that many of you, you’d consider this a burden or a setback, but not me. No, I consider this a gift. I’m happy that I had a tear in my meniscus. Because this represents sacrifice, this represents discipline. I had to rip away the weakness to rebuild it to be stronger than ever using my blood. My blood. And when I was through, the only ones waiting for me were my family. The only ones ever waiting for me are my family. They will drive me - they will drive me to return stronger than ever and regain what is rightfully ours. That’s the North American championship.”
As you can tell from the fact he’s still talking about the belt Velveteen holds, and that he still seems to be in self-made man character, recovery from a meniscectomy isn’t too long. There’s no official timetable for his return, but 1 - 3 months is probably a safe estimate. And that means he could conceivably be cutting promos for a NA title feud as early as post-TakeOver: XXV taping.
We wish Dijakovic a complete and speedy recovery, and we’ll keep you posted on his status.