Rush reacts to the idea of being in a group with AJ Francis and Swerve Strickland while they were in WWE.
A.J. Francis, formerly known as ‘Top Dolla’, has stated in the past that he wanted to form a group in WWE with Lio Rush and Swerve Strickland. Rush was released from WWE and Francis and Strickland went to be part of ‘Hit Row’.
Lio was interviewed by Andrew Thompson of POST Wrestling and he gave his reaction to that idea:
No, I never heard it. I mean I’ve heard it before, after the fact [that A.J. Francis wanted Lio & Swerve Strickland for the original concept of Hit Row]. But while I was there, it wasn’t brought up to me at all. But that would have been cool and it was cool because I believe we were all there at the same time too so it was definitely a possibility that it could have happened I guess. But yeah, it just didn’t pan out that way but I definitely think that it would have been cool, it would have been — you know, they made their own waves in their own right, you know? It would have been cool to be a part of that and you know, add to it whatever it is that I had to add to it.
Elsewhere during the discussion, Rush spoke about meeting up with Tenille Dashwood (in May 2022) and getting to chat about the comment about her release from WWE in 2017.
Yeah, yeah, that was cool. That was a really cool moment [meeting up with Tenille Dashwood] and I’m glad that it happened and I feel like so much has happened since then. So, you know, both of us talking about it and not really laughing on the situation but just thinking back on how crazy it was and how it changed my career, not so much changing her career [Lio laughed]. But, just seeing what transpired from it and me growing as an individual and seeing how I could have said or not said or approached things differently. I like growing and changing for the better. I never wanna have the same mentality that I had, you know, four or five, six years ago. So, it was cool that I saw her and as soon as I did, I walked up to her, we had a chat and later on in the day, we took a picture and I’m glad that-that moment happened. Definitely one for the books for sure.
