Swerve Strickland recently sat down with Vlad TV in an interview recorded after AEW Revolution.
In the interview, Swerve recalled Hit Row (Swerve, AJ Francis, Ashante 'Thee' Adonis, and B-Fab) being released by WWE in 2021. Swerve noted that B-Fab had travel booked, but then the travel disappeared.
Swerve said, "Then we meet with Vince [McMahon] or whatever. Apparently, one of the members of the group was just, they complained at the office because he was calling, asking her for her flight, what’s going on. They’re like, ‘We can’t disclose that information to you.’ He’s like, ‘What?’ He started getting aggressive on the phone apparently at Titan Towers.......We got the little bit of scolding, but it was just the one member of the group that made that call, and apparently who he was talking to in the office complained about he was ‘aggressive’ on the phone or whatever. Who’s to say how that conversation actually went. Probably a recorded phone call somewhere, I don’t know."
Swerve did not name which member of the group allegedly "got aggressive" and he never said the person was "aggressive," but AJ Francis commented by saying, "Apparently I was an “aggressive black man” for standing up for a black woman. And I’ll be that time and time again."
Speaking to Adrian Hernandez of Unlikely, AJ commented on his relationship with Swerve and more.
"I don't have no issues with Swerve. I just saw him on Sunday and it was hunky dorey. I just don't know where the shit is coming from. He obviously did the interview before he saw me on Sunday at the Benefit for Bey. That was the first show we have both been booked on together in four years since WWE. Wasn't no problem, no issue. When I woke up today and saw people tagging me in Vlad interview, I was confused. I don't know where the static is coming from. I talk facts. Fact of the matter is, the first time I saw Swerve in two years was at Mike Tyson-Jake Paul, we were in th same suite. As soon as he walked into the suite, I walked right up to him and said, 'Yo, are we good?' He was like, 'Yeah, yeah, we're good.' I'm not really understanding where this is coming from. I was ready for the static and there was none. I'm not sure where this is coming from. I don't know why it even got brought up. Why are we talking about me on Vlad TV? What am I doing with anything you have going on? I made a point to not talk about Swerve. You will not find one person on this earth, in the hundreds of interviews I've done, the millions of conversations I've had with fans and others, you will not find one time where I brought Swerve up to them. They bring him up to me. Today, he was brought up to me. I want [him] to make all the money in the world, just leave me the fuck out of it. I got nothing to do with it. If we're going to talk real, let's talk real," he said.
On November 4, 2021, B-Fab was released by WWE. AJ continued, recalling what happened from his side of things.
"The whole situation with B-Fab and her flight, we're not even telling the whole story. What happened was, all of us had our travel to SmackDown and randomly, B-Fab's travel came off the app. 'Oh, it must be a mistake.' I ended up being like, 'Call them and see what's up.' She's like, 'No, it's not a mistake. They're saying I'm not needed for TV.' That was weird to me because we had just gotten drafted up and she was an integral part in what we were doing. I called John Laurinaitis and I offered to pay for her flight. I'm thinking, This is the main roster. They didn't see what we were doing with Hit Row on NXT. Maybe we're coming up for a dark match and they're thinking we save money on the flight because we just need the guys, which they did another time on the European Tour. Something happened with Montez [Ford's] passport and the Street Profits couldn't go, so they had two flights and hotels booked, not three, so they sent me and Ashante. That kind of thing happens. I'm thinking they don't need her for TV because we're just doing a dark match. I was like, 'I'll get her flight. I just want to make sure she is there.' He's like, 'No, you don't need to get her flight.' I left the conversation being like, 'That's kind of weird.' When she got released, that threw me the fuck off. I worked my ass off with B-Fab, with Ashante, for a year to create Hit Row behind the scenes at the Performance Center. Swerve didn't even join until two weeks before we debuted. The reason why we were debuting is because I, a person who didn't need wrestling to make myself a star unlike everybody else that keeps my name in their mouth, I was already hosting WWE's Most Wanted Treasures. The show came out and was a hit and is still the most watched thing they've ever done on A&E. They were like, 'We need to get this guy on TV.' Triple H came to me, 'What do you think about putting Swerve in your crew?' At the time, I was like, 'If it gets me on TV, you can put the Dalai Lama in my crew.' I knew I was going to make it work. I know that I'm the chef and I was going to make shit work.
"Plus, [Swerve] has TV equity. That matters in wrestling. He had never done hip-hop as a character. I came into WWE with the Hit Row idea and was already doing it on the indies. I add Ashante and B-Fab because she's a rapper and a beautiful woman. He is a great wrestler and we were going to be a tag team. I produced, engineered everything anyway. 'We'll say Ashante is the producer,' and that was how Hit Row was created. Two weeks before the debut, they wanted to put Swerve in the crew, and we were cool with that. We had no problem with it. 'Fuck yeah, let's do it.' It worked. Fastest call up ever. That's me cooking. Let's be for real. Nobody ever wrote a promo for me in my career. [Looks at camera], can you say that? Nobody ever produced or wrote any lyric for me on any song. [Looks at camera], can you say that? I know what I did to make Hit Row pop. I know I was in the kitchen and we were having group meetings in my house. I know we recorded the song in my house. I know who wrote the hook. I know who structured the song. I know who did all that shit, and so do they. If I'm the bad guy, somebody ask Vlad to ask Swerve why [Ashante] and [B-Fab] don't talk to him. Since I'm the bad guy, why is it that me, her, and [Ashante] were talking today about this foolishness."
At this point, AJ pulled out his phone to confirm he was speaking facts. Though he didn't show his phone to the camera, and messages were not read, Hernandez confirmed AJ's story.
AJ continued, "Everything I say is backed up by facts. I don't just talk out the side of my mouth. People want to come and say, 'Oh, he was aggressive.' Every black dude in America that is big and has something to say is aggressive. Keith Lee was called aggressive. Keith Lee is one of the nicest people I've ever met in my life. I was called 'aggressive,' why? I never raised my voice. I was never disrespectful in any way. When I was 12, me and my father almost got killed by police because they thought we were two grown men that robbed a bank a week earlier because we were two black dudes in a white truck even though it was a white van that did the robbery. That didn't matter. At 12 I learned, 'The world sees you as a fucking threat. You have to account for that.' That's why I wear bright colors and when I go to a sundown town, I wear my Ovechkin Capitals jersey. Why? White people ain't scared of a brother in a hockey jersey. They're actually willing to talk to you. I know what happens when I go places. I know how people stare at me. I know how people shudder when the elevator door opens and I'm standing there. I know what that is and what that's like. I go out of my way to not be that way. When I talk to people, I keep my hands behind my back so I seem less threatening. I do that shit consciously. No, at no point did I get aggressive with anybody. Come on, man.
"So many people have talked about this bullshit lie for years, trying to talk down on my name. None of [them] are doing community outreach like I do every year. Canned food drive, gun violence charity basketball games, Toys for Tots, Down syndrome Foundation in Florida. WrestleMania week we're going to a children's hospital. I really do this, and people constantly talk down on my name to get gravy points. I don't understand that at all. I'm the realest [person] in this business. That's the problem, honestly, this business and industry is fake, so real looks fake, but it's real. There is not one person that will say something bad about my name publicly that I wouldn't have 1000 [people] stand up and tell them they are wrong. Ask anybody about me, anybody that actually knows me. People that have had a conversation with me. 'I'm aggressive.' I'm aggressive because I stand up for my people? Come on, man. That's bullshit. That shit pisses me off. Isn't that what you want? Y'all want me to see B-Fab get fired and be like, 'Chalk it up to the game.' No, that's corny as fuck. I'm not a corny ass [person]. When me, B-Fab, and [Ashante] were in the trenches, all the time, coming up with concepts we wouldn't get to use, storyline ideas ignored, hours upon hours on the road, come on. I'm supposed to be cool with her being gone? Clearly, she's back and doing everything, so clearly I was fucking right. I say that, and I'm supposedly the asshole. Stand on it. If you are the person that said I was aggressive, stand on it. I got a good couple ideas that I know who the people were. If it is exactly who I think it is, which I think it is, I got some shit to say about them too. Stand on it. You got something to say about me or anything I've done, stand on it. Say it with your whole chest. Capital letters. I'll be right there to address it. Fuck outta here. I've been too successful in too many different avenues to give a fuck about what these cornballs think about me. I was on TV for ten years before I took my first bump. I made my first million before I was 25. What the fuck do I gotta do to prove to you [people] that you're not in my league. Literally."
Fans can watch the full interview with AJ in the video below.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit and link to the original source with a h/t and link back to Fightful for the transcription.
