AJ Francis, Formerly Top Dolla, Opens Up About Latest WWE Release

AJ Francis — formerly Top Dolla — was released by WWE for the second time in September last year. He had not long returned to the company in 2022 after previously being released a year earlier. Francis opened up in an exclusive interview with Wrestling Inc.'s Jon Jordan about how he felt after his second WWE departure. 

"I let myself be p***ed off for 24 hours and then it was time to gameplan," Francis said, "Actually, I get an opportunity now to show, and I've already been doing it, that I'm a star. I'm not background. I'm not just another person that happens to be on your roster. I can carry your roster if you give me a microphone and let me go. I am at the point now where I'm hotter than I ever was in WWE and I'm doing it all on my own." Francis continued to describe how WWE doesn't need people with outside connections due to their own reach. But he said that since his release he's been able to make connections of his own with ESPN, ABC, NBC, TMZ, and more, all from contacts he made prior to his wrestling career. He noted the only people in wrestling who had been on "The Pat McAfee Show" more often than him had been Roman Reigns and Paul Heyman, and now he feels an appreciation when he uses those connections to promote TNA.

"When I go on "The Pat McAfee Show" and I talk about TNA, the people in TNA are like, 'Oh, thank you so much. I can't believe it,' because other people are capable of doing that ... People think [McAfee] first met [me] at "NXT," that's just not the case. There's a lot that I can bring to a lot of companies, and these other companies see that, and that's why they're all paying me money."