Top Dolla and Ashante "Thee" Adonis Address Hit Row's WWE Release and When They Knew It Was Coming

By Matthew Aguilar

WWE shocked a lot of fans when they released all of Hit Row, which at that point included Isaiah "Swerve" Scott, Ashante "Thee" Adonis, and Top Dolla. The group had already lost one of its members when WWE released B-Fab out of nowhere, despite just signing a new contract. Hit Row had just been moved up from NXT to SmackDown a few weeks earlier, and so it was a bit of a blindside to then suddenly release them. During an appearance on the Busted Open podcast, Top Dolla and Ashante talked about how they were dealing with the release as well as when they saw it coming, and both had WWE Hall of Famers reach out to them after their releases.

"I mean, to be honest, we know that we are talented and we know that us being released is just a child of circumstance. There's not really much more we could have done to prove we belonged," Top Dolla said. "When I get released and WWE Hall of Famers are the first people to reach out to me and say, 'Man, I don't know what they're doing,' then I know that I did something right."

"Yeah, I agree. I talked to a lot of people, WWE Hall of Famers as well reached out to me. A lot of people in WWE reached out to me. My mood, I mean, I'm doing good," Ashante said. "Still shocked and stuff but I'm doing good. I feel like I have a really good mindset about everything and I'm just ready to start the next chapter."

They admit they were surprised when they had just had a meeting at WWE headquarters about what was coming, including action figures and an appearance as DLC in WWE 2K22, but it wasn't too much longer before Top Dolla saw the writing on the wall, as things started to happen that mirrored what happened to B-Fab.

"Thursday morning was a little weird because we were booked for SmackDown, Survivor Series and Raw and then we were unbooked," Ashante said. "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."

"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," Top Dolla said.

"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," Top Dolla said. "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."

Hit Row was a fan favorite on NXT despite not getting a ton of airtime, and they were destined to be a popular group on SmackDown. Sadly WWE didn't see it that way, but I'm sure we'll see these amazing talents knock it out of the park at another company.

Where do you want to see Top Dolla and Ashante "Thee" Adonis go next? Let us know in the comments and as always you can talk all things wrestling with me on Twitter @MattAguilarCB!

H/T Fightful

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