Former WWE Superstar Top Dolla of Hit Row has discussed how Triple H’s approach to the group in NXT left other stars feeling “salty.”
Top Dolla was a part of the Hit Row group on NXT that also featured B-Fab, Ashante “Thee” Adonis, and Isiah “Swerve” Scott – now better known as Shane “Swerve” Strickland. The group found success together and were moved to SmackDown during the WWE Draft in 2021.
Just weeks later, B-Fab was released from the company and in the following days, the remainder of the group was also let go from their WWE contracts as part of ongoing budget cuts.
Speaking on the Public Enemies Podcast Top Dolla of Hit Row – now known as AJ Francis – discussed how Triple H gave the group creative freedom on NXT:
“That’s the thing, and I always give Triple H credit for this. The fact that like the first time we did a promo, somebody, I don’t even remember what producer it was. But they wrote up like a rough outline of what they thought we should say and they were like, ‘you can change parts of it if you want to,’ like they do with everybody.”
“Triple H got in their ass. Triple H was like, ‘don’t write anything for them. Let them do what they want to do, let them say what they want to say. We can’t tell them how to be them, we can’t tell them how to do this, let them do their thing.”
According to Francis, this approach to creative for the group left others backstage “salty:”
“There were some people because I would see the looks and I would hear the conversations when they didn’t think I could hear them. Or didn’t realize I was in the other room of the locker room. People would be salty because they didn’t get that kind of freedom. And they’ve been on the show for a lot longer time.”
Francis’ partner in Hit Row, Shane “Swerve” Strickland recently competed in his first match for AEW after debuting for the company at their Revolution pay-per-view.