Former WWE Star Reveals How He Accidentally Got His Ring Name

Published: Jan 29, 2025 by Dave Adamson | Last Updated: Jan 29, 2025 by Dave Adamson

Dave has been a website writer for WrestleTalk since October 2022, having previously written for Den of Geek, among a number of wrestling, movie and television-related sites. Dave has been around the independent wrestling scene for more than a decade, including behind-the-scenes.

WWE

Former WWE star Top Dolla has revealed how he accidentally got his ring name, noting that he always wanted to wrestle as AJ Francis.

Francis signed with WWE in January 2020 and was introduced as Top Dolla in May 2021, teaming with Isaiah “Swerve” Scott, Ashante “Thee” Adonis and B-Fab to form Hit Row.

Speaking to the Going Ringside podcast, Francis revealed that the Top Dolla name was a ‘mistake’ after he submitted a list of potential WWE names broken down into preference, saying:

“I actually got the name Top Dolla by mistake. I wanted to just be AJ Francis because I did the Most Wanted Treasures show as AJ Francis and now I’m back as AJ Francis, clearly AJ Francis was a better idea.

“So, I put in this list of names and the number one name I had on the list was Dolla. It was just Dolla by itself.

“Then I had these 20 names but I broke them into five groups of five, so it said bottom five, next five, next five, and then it said the top five.

“When you look at it, it said top five and then the right name underneath of it was Dolla. So they thought that I wanted my name to be Top Dolla.

“I was like, yeah, that sounds great, sounds like a cool name, you know what I’m saying? It’s a unique thing. It’s funny, it’s a happy accident.”

Francis would stay as Top Dolla until the whole of Hit Row were released in November 2019 only to be brought back in August 2022, alongside Adonis and B-Fab, before being let go again in September 2023.

Scott wouldn’t return to WWE, signing with AEW and debuting as Swerve Strickland in March 2022, going on to sign a new contract in August 2024 during his initial three-year deal.

AJ Francis recently signed a new contract with TNA Wrestling, having made his debut in January 2024 at that year’s Hard To Kill.

With WWE and TNA Wrestling in a multi-year partnership, Francis has commented on potentially reuniting with Adonis.

Transcript from Fightful.