On the January 6th, 2023 edition of SmackDown, one of SmackDown’s most popular factions cracked under the pressure of having to deal with so much criticism and mockery following a high-profile botch.
32-year old Top Dolla of the stable Hit Row, has been dealing with plenty of feedback following his now-famous botched suicide dive from a few weeks ago.
And while WWE and other wrestling promotions try to ignore botches or cover them up whenever possible, this one was so glaring that the company turned it into an angle.
On this episode of SmackDown, Top Dolla found himself in a Royal Rumble qualifying match against Ricochet. But instead of it being an even and competitive match, Ricochet won decisively in about three minutes.
Heel turn takes place on SmackDown following squash match
After the match, Top Dolla and his Hit Row stablemates all attacked Ricochet as Top Dolla pretended to display sportsmanship following the loss. As the trio beat Ricochet up, Top Dolla could be heard saying that he “wasn’t a joke”, referencing that same botched dive.
But it wasn’t long before someone came out to help Ricochet. Braun Strowman came out and saved him as the three Hit Row members bailed before Strowman could get his hands on any of them.
Hit Row has been active as a faction since May 2021. The stable is composed of Top Dolla, B-Fab, Ashante “Thee” Adonis and Tehuti Miles. Isaiah “Swerve” Scott/Swerve Strickland was previously a member before he was released and debuted in AEW.
The 2023 Royal Rumble takes place on Saturday, January 28th at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. So far, three wrestlers have qualified for the men’s Rumble match, all of them SmackDown superstars: Ricochet, Santos Escobar, and Kofi Kingston.
As for the women’s Rumble match, the only confirmed entrant so far is also from SmackDown, Liv Morgan.