"Let me focus on myself" – Former WWE Superstar Top Dolla reveals how Hit Row was formed
Former WWE Superstar Top Dolla, aka AJ Francis, recently spoke about how Hit Row came into existence on NXT.
Dolla, Isaiah "Swerve" Scott, Ashante "Thee" Adonis, and B-Fab formed Hit Row in 2021 on WWE NXT.
Top Dolla revealed how Hit Row began on the Public Enemies Podcast. Dolla said he initially wanted to do the same thing as everyone in WWE but wanted to do it with Isaiah "Swerve" Scott and Lio Rush, but the latter was released:
“When I got to WWE, I was like, ‘yo, I want to do the same thing.’ At the time, I wanted to do it with Swerve and Lio Rush, right? But Lio got released, and then Swerve was doing his own thing. So I was, like, you know what, let me focus on myself, and I was just doing my own thing.” (H/T - Wrestling Inc)
Top Dolla initially asked B-Fab to be the rapper of the faction and suggested Tehuti work as the producer. Eventually, this is how Hit Row came into existence:
“I was like, ‘look, Briana, I already know you rap, I already did the rap faction before I got here, let’s do it again. We can pretend that Tehuti is the producer, even though I am really the producer. We can pretend Tehuti is the producer, you rap, I rap, and we are a crew.’ So we did that, and we were called The Hit Makers.” (H/T - Wrestling Inc.)
Top Dolla, along with his stablemates, got creative freedom
All Hit Row members, including Top Dolla, Scott, Adonis, and B-Fab, were given creative freedom by WWE COO Triple H.
Dolla appeared on the Public Enemies Podcast and revealed how The Game wanted Hit Row to be themselves and didn't want to limit their talents.
It bothered some personnel, and according to Dolla, they were salty about it as they never got such an opportunity despite being on the show for a long time:
“People would be salty because they didn’t get that kind of freedom. They’d been on the show for a lot longer time.” (H/T - Wrestling Inc.)
The members of Hit Row got drafted to SmackDown as part of the WWE Draft 2021. However, B-Fab was released on November 4 last year, while others, including Top Dolla, were released 15 days later.