Top Dolla, also known as AJ Francis, wants to host "The Tonight Show".
The former NFL player signed with WWE in 2020 and later debuted on NXT May 2021. He aligned with Ashante "Thee" Adonis, B-Fab, and Isaiah "Swerve" Scott to form Hit Row. The faction was briefly called up to SmackDown through the 2021 WWE Draft, but WWE released the stablemates in November. Dolla, B-Fab, and Adonos returned to WWE on the August 12 episode of WWE SmackDown. Outside of the ring, Francis is the host of "WWE's Most Wanted Treasures" on A&E.
Speaking with Ryan Satin on Out of Character, Dolla discussed his career, and he stated that his ultimate goal is to host "The Tonight Show". He described how he has been working on improving his on-camera abilities since he was in high school.
“I have one goal left. It’s to host 'The Tonight Show'. That’s my end goal at the end of all of this, 20 years from now. That’s what I want to do. I started, when I was in high school, doing videos, trying to make myself better on camera, being able to perform on camera, understanding how you should present yourself when presenting a scene as opposed to when you’re doing an interview, as opposed to when you are doing wrestling and it’s action, and you have to work different cameras at the same time. I’ve been teaching myself that since I was 14 years old. Now I’m 32, and it’s all coming to fruition," Top Dolla said.
Top Dolla then looked back on how he landed his role on "WWE's Most Wanted Treasures". He described how WWE didn't pitch for him, but the network and the production company liked the work he did earlier in his career.
"When I got that gig hosting on A&E for 'WWE’s Most Wanted Treasures', WWE didn’t pitch me to get that gig. They had no real reason for them to want me to be that role because I hadn’t been on TV yet and hadn’t done anything yet. They wanted somebody that had already been on TV. But the network and the production company were like nah, we see what he’s done on ESPN and NFL Network and FOX and NBC Sports and ABC and all these other things that I did when I was in the NFL and when I was in college. They were like, nah, we want him. Anybody who watches that show knows that it was a great idea for it to be me because I did a really good job in that show, and the show itself was really good," Top Dolla said.
Swerve Strickland previously stated that he's glad that Hit Row is getting another chance in WWE. Check out his comments here.
WWE's Most Wanted Treasures is set to return this winter. Click here to find out more.
Top Dolla will host his sixth annual canned food drive on November 19. More information is available here.
If you use any of these quotes, please credit the original source and link back to Fightful for the transcription.
