Hit Row Members Discuss WWE Releases, Met With WWE About Video Game DLC

This Thursday (November 18) marked the most recent set of WWE releases, where eight main roster stars were released from their WWE contracts, including all the remaining members of Hit Row.

Two of those members, Top Dolla and Ashante Adonis, were guests on Busted Open Radio, where they discussed Thursday’s news, and how they reacted to it.

Both men admitted that the events leading up to their release were odd, with them being booked and unbooked for several shows. Top Dolla noted that it came just off the heels of them visiting WWE Headquarters, where they were told about action figures and video game DLC featuring them.

They said:

Ashante: “Thursday morning was a little weird because we were booked for SmackDown, Survivor Series and Raw and then we were unbooked. Then they booked us again and then we were unbooked. So I’m like, ‘Okay, it’s what goes on in WWE. There’s a lot of things to figure out.’ So I was like, ‘Okay, maybe they’ll have something for us on Friday or Saturday.’ I remember I was watching Thursday Night Football, and I missed the call from John Laurinaitis. I called him back and he just told me, ‘Hey, budget cuts and stuff like that,’ and I was like, ‘Okay, thank you.’ It just is what it is.”

Top Dolla: “We just went to HQ and met everybody and talked to everybody. Talked about how we were going to get action figures and be DLC in the video game and all these different things. Everything just got pulled out underneath of us and to be honest, when we got taken off of this weekend, I knew then that we were about to get released even though I didn’t contact anybody or tell anybody because that’s the same thing that happened to Briana. When Briana got released, we were all booked to do a Black Friday commercial together, which we ended up shooting without her, which obviously they’re not going to be able to use this Friday anymore. We were all booked to do the commercial together and then she got unbooked and we didn’t understand why. Then found out that she was released, so once we were booked for Friday and weren’t booked for Survivor Series and Raw yet, so then they unbooked us Thursday morning for SmackDown but then said we’re still needed for Survivor Series and Raw. Then they were like, ‘Actually, we don’t need you for Survivor Series and Raw, either.’ As soon as I saw that I knew what was going to happen.”

Top Dolla went on to describe the creative process in WWE, sharing a story about how they were asked to write promo for other teams after their call-up. Dolla added:

Top Dolla: “The craziest part about the creative process with us, is when we first got called up to SmackDown, they were like, ‘Alright, we want you guys to do promos, write promos for The Usos, the New Day, the Viking Raiders, the Women’s Division for Briana and an introductory promo.’ The introductory promo that we did on SmackDown on our debut was the promo that we wrote that night when we wrote all five of those promos. I bring it up because it was 2 o’clock in the morning and we’re writing these promos and we record us saying the promos so we can send it to them so that they can see what we’re going to say, how we’re going to say it because sometimes you see something on paper and it doesn’t translate the same way. You know what I’m saying? Sometimes you can’t comprehend from the paper how it’s going to come off. So we sent them the videos of us doing the promos so that they could see it, and they were like, ‘Wow, we love the work ethic. Nobody does anything like this. Nobody dedicates themselves to do things like this.’ Then like, all for not, so it’s just wild to me.”

Reports came out the day after that Top Dolla had heat backstage with people in WWE. Top Dolla commented on those reports, saying:

Top Dolla: “They got mad when Briana got released that I called up to the office and was like, ‘I don’t understand why you would release Briana.’ We were a foursome group. You take Briana out of the group and yeah, we’re still cool and yeah, we can still do all of the same things, but we’re just every three-man wrestling group. And, they were upset, because when they took Briana out of the group, they wanted to re-do the song. So they did a remix of the song but the song doesn’t sound the same without her part. So what we did is we went in the studio and made a new song. I guess they were upset that we made a new song, but we’re a rap group, so it’s like, ‘How are we a rap group if we can’t make a song?’ Then we’re just wrestlers.”

Top Dolla released a rap the day after his release, where he named several companies that he hopes to sign for when his 90 day non-compete clause is up.

transcription via Fightful

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• Ashante Adonis
• Hit Row
• Top Dolla
• Release

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