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Top Dolla Says He Wanted To Have Match With Michael Cole

By John Canton • Published 23rd September 2023
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Former WWE superstar Top Dolla says he actually talked to Michael Cole about having a match.

The Hit Row trio is no more in WWE. On Thursday, Top Dolla was released by WWE while B-Fab and Ashante Thee Adonis remain in the company. For whatever reason, WWE felt like it was time to let Top Dolla (real name AJ Francis) out of his contract.

Since Hit Row really wasn’t being used that much, WWE likely felt like it was time to split up the group. The trio was re-hired by WWE in August 2022 when Triple H took over the creative team.

Over the last year, Hit Row started out as babyfaces and then they became a heel team on Smackdown. They really didn’t have many memorable moments except when Top Dolla tried a dive that didn’t go well at all.

In December 2022 during a tag team match, Top Dolla ran the ropes and attempted a dive over the top to the floor, but instead, he hit the ropes and flopped over the top to the floor. That led to veteran WWE announcer Michael Cole remarking “I guess there’s a reason he doesn’t do it that often.”

In the months that followed, Cole kept on criticizing Top Dolla whenever Dolla was on television.

Top Dolla wanted to have a match with Michael Cole

Following his WWE release, Top Dolla revealed that he actually wanted to have a match with Michael Cole and that Cole was eager to do it. Keep in mind that Cole has wrestled in the past, but the last match was in 2012, which is probably a good thing.

As Dolla made clear on Twitter/X, he wanted to have a match with Cole and was happy to have Cole win, but “they” meaning WWE management didn’t seem to want to do it.

“I offered to put Cole over & he wanted to do it too… we talked about it at length of how could build it… even had him winning by a small package out of a stalling suplex… they didn’t care beyond having him drag me every week… which made ppl talk about me so I loved it.”

Those of us that remember Michael Cole matches in the past should probably say “thank you” to the WWE Officials that thought this match would be a bad idea.