A look back at A.J. Francis’ runs in WWE.
After Hit Row (A.J. Francis, B-Fab & Ashante ‘Thee’ Adonis) were brought back to WWE in the summer of 2022, their second run as a group concluded when Francis was released in September 2023.
He is now working independent dates and is spotlighted on TNA iMPACT in addition to other non-wrestling ventures. Francis was the latest guest to appear on Insight with Chris Van Vliet and as the conversation went on, he opened up about Paul Heyman standing up for him and supporting him in WWE.
The one good thing is that Paul Heyman used to stand up for me a lot and Paul Heyman would say, ‘They can’t see the difference between what, like, John Cena and Max Caster and what you’re doing.’ He said, ‘Theirs is like, not comedy, but, kayfabe rap. It’s rap within the wrestling realm. Yours is like actual, livable, breathable hip-hop’ and he said, ‘Because of that, it makes it more real. So if you’re not into that, you can’t understand it.’ So did they want me to not do it? No, they had no problem with me doing it. They just wasn’t gonna put ‘em on TV. There’s so many times Paul Heyman would text me, ‘Man, this should be how we start the show tonight.’ I would send him my video I’m doing, I sent him one I did for the Christmas show. He was like, ‘This should start the show tonight…’ Sent him so many different ones that we did and mind you, I never get my flowers, Hit Row never gets our flowers. When L.A. Knight had that 2 million-view video on YouTube in 24 hours, from the Madison Square Garden dark show, we were in the segment with him. No one ever gave us our flowers for that. I don’t know how many times that happened on WWE. Not just with L.A. Knight but just on WWE YouTube since, but we never got flowers for that. The only match that was promoted for the Christmas show — which is one of the highest-watched shows in SmackDown history and I think the highest-watched pre-taped show in WWE history — the only promoted match for that was Usos versus Hit Row, for the Tag Team Titles. We never got our flowers for that. But Paul Heyman would always show me love and like, I would send him my videos and he would love them, and I would send other people my videos and they would love them. But they just would never put them on TV and then sometimes, I would make videos, we would make videos, Hit Row, and we would send it to the creative team and they would be like, ‘This is great! We’re gonna try to put this on the show!’ And then something would happen. Don’t know who, don’t know why, but it just wouldn’t be a part of the show.
Circling around to Hit Row’s first go-round in WWE with Francis, Adonis, B-Fab and Swerve Strickland, he recalled a Saturday show at the Performance Center being set up for now-former WWE executive John Laurinaitis so he could scout talents for the main roster.
The first time Laurinaitis saw Hit Row was the trio of Strickland, Adonis and Francis as B-Fab was on vacation at the time. Francis is of the belief that because the first time Laurinaitis saw Hit Row was without B-Fab, there was an assumption that she was not a key piece to the group. Francis went on to tell the story of when he approached Laurinaitis and Vince McMahon about B-Fab’s release.
The first time I got released… nobody’s ever told me (why) and no one’s ever been like, this is what happened. They always make it seem like, oh, this is just business, right? And budget cuts. That’s what they always try to make it seem like. But it never feels like that, it never feels like that. The first time I got released, it felt like I got released because I stood up for B-Fab. That’s what it felt like. It felt like because B-Fab got released — because what happened was when they were doing a bunch of call-ups, they were getting ready for the Draft in 2021. John Laurinaitis came to the P.C. and they would have shows and they would just have him sit and watch acts because John Laurinaitis and Vince (McMahon), they wasn’t watching NXT. I’m sorry if this is a newsflash but they didn’t watch NXT. So, they didn’t know anybody on NXT. So they would literally come to the P.C. and see the talent in the P.C. and like, oh, okay, that’s cool. Well, I wonder what I can do with him? So, B-Fab had already planned a vacation that she was going on, right? They sprung a show up on us on a Wednesday. They were like, ‘Oh, we got a P.C. show Saturday for John Laurinaitis,’ and we’re like, ‘Oh’ but B-Fab was already out of town. So she wasn’t gonna change her stuff to get back and she wasn’t wrestling anyway. It was a singles match, me versus Mace which is funny… Swerve (Strickland) and Tehuti (Miles) were there. So the first time that John Laurinaitis ever lays eyes on Hit Row, it’s just me, Tehuti and Swerve. He doesn’t even know B-Fab is there with the crew, which in my opinion, she was the most integral part of the crew because, let’s say you wanna take the four original members of Hit Row and you want to get rid of one of them. Well, if you get rid of me, you still have a beautiful woman valet, who can also wrestle, and you got a good tag team. If you get rid of Swerve, it’s a beautiful woman valet that can wrestle and you have a tag team. If you get rid of Ashante ‘Thee’ Adonis, Tehuti, it’s still a beautiful woman valet and you got a cool tag team. But if you get rid of B-Fab, we’re just Hip-Hop New Day. We’re not different… we’re just a three-man group. So, she was the special element, plus she raps. She’s sexy. I go places where people see me because they see how big I am. But they stare at her. She got released because whatever reason they released her for. I feel like John Laurinaitis didn’t think she was a necessary part of Hit Row because when he saw Hit Row, she wasn’t with us. So when she got released, I went to Laurinaitis and Vince, and was like, ‘Yo, I feel like you shouldn’t have did that. I feel like she added a lot to the group. I feel like, yes, we can still do this and it’ll still work, but, I feel like we shouldn’t have did that’ and that conversation is somehow how I’m an asshole three years later. Mind you, she’s still in WWE right now. So clearly I was right. Clearly, I was correct.
On the 3/14 edition of TNA iMPACT, Francis’ alliance with Rich Swann was revealed when Swann assisted him in picking up a victory over Joe Hendry.
Francis is not signed to TNA but said it is something he would not be against.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Insight with Chris Van Vliet with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
