Pro-wrestling star AJ Francis (fka Top Dolla) recently spoke with Solowrestling about his release from WWE, and how he believes the company did not give his group, Hit Row, a chance to properly get over before they were cut. That and more can be found found in the highlights below.
On Hit Row potential reuniting in AEW:
“I won’t say there’s no chance, but there’s not. I mean, they, Swerve is there because Swerve wanted to do his own thing and more power to him. Swerve was the last person added to Hit Row. Swerve was a singles wrestler for 10 years before he joined with Hit Row. So when Hit Row ended in WWE, he wanted to go back to being a singles wrestler and I had no issue with that because he got a family to support. He got a pig to support so, like, get your money. Like, always get your money, and he has a lot of friends at AEW that are willing to stand at the table for him at any given moment. So, like, use that. Use that. Take advantage of the opportunities that are presented to you. Do I think that Hit Row will ever be there? Nah, I don’t. But that’s not, you know, I didn’t think that Hit Row would be released when we were released, so you never really know in this business. But at the end of the day, I’m happy for Swerve.”
Says WWE didn’t even give Hit Row a chance to get over before cutting them:
“They didn’t give us a chance to, but they give other people plenty of chances to get over. Like, you know, we only had I want to say three: New Day, Sami Zayn, Jinder Mahal, squash match, so we only had four segments total on the main roster. So, no, I don’t think that we were given a good chance to get over. But, you know, that’s their business call. That’s what they wanted to do. They give plenty of other people opportunities to get over.”
Talks what he learned at the WWE Performance Center:
“One of the best things I learned in the Performance Center was that, like, I came from – like I said, I worked on the indies for a year, and on the indies, you’re just trying to have a good show. You’re just trying to have a good match. You don’t really care, like, I’m a big dude. If everybody I wrestle is going to be small, a lot smaller than me, but I’m gonna bump for them on the indies because I want to have a good show and I want to do a good thing, you know? And I’m gonna go around and take more bumps than I should and sell more than I should because I’m just trying to put on a good show for the audience. But like, when I got to WWE, it really made me realize, like, ‘Bro, you don’t have to sell nothing for real. Like, you can sell, but like, you got to sell differently than if somebody your size hits you. You don’t have to bump literally at all.’ Like, in my entire WWE run, I bumped once and that wasn’t me doing the bumping, you know what I’m saying? So it’s like, I learned how to wrestle more a big man and less like an indie wrestler.”
(H/T and transcribed by Wrestling Inc.)
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