AJ Francis (fka Top Dolla) and Tehuti Miles (fka Ashante Thee Adonis), who were apart of the Hit Row group that were cut by WWE this past week, were today’s guests on Busted Open Radio to discuss the sudden release and how WWE had planned a ton of merchandising for them, including action figures. Highlights from the interview can be found below.
Adonis says the release was weird since the whole crew was previously booked for SmackDown, Survivor Series, and Raw:
“Thursday morning was a little weird because we were booked for SmackDown, Survivor Series and RAW and then we were unbooked,” Adonis recalled. “They booked us again and then we were unbooked. So, I’m like, ‘Okay, this is what goes on in WWE, there’s a lot of things to figure out.’ I was like, ‘Oh, okay, maybe they’ll have something for us and we’ll fly out Saturday or something like that.’ But I remember watching Thursday night football and I missed the call from John Laurinaitis. I called him back, he told me budget cuts and stuff like that, and I was like, ‘thank you.’ It is what it is.”
Top Dolla says that they had recently visited WWE HQ and were going to get a whole bunch of merchandise, including action figures:
“We just went to [WWE] HQ, met everybody, and talked to everybody. Talked about how we’re going to get action figures and talked about how we were going to be big deal, and seeing the [WWE 2K22] video game. All these different things and everything got pulled out from underneath us.”
Top Dolla adds that he will not tell people to stop watching WWE:
“It’s unfortunate the way things shape out, but at the end of the day, I’m not telling nobody to not watch WWE again. I’m not tellin’ nobody to never watch WWE again. I’m going to watch WWE — I’m not pretending that I’m not — I watch everything, but also, that’s not the end-all, be-all. That’s not where we have to be successful. We are more than capable of going anywhere in this world and making the same impact.”
(H/T and transcribed by Wrestling Inc.)