Ex-WWE star officially confirms he's no longer on talking terms with Swerve Strickland

A former WWE superstar has shared an interesting revelation about his relationship with AEW's Swerve Strickland. The talent in question, AJ Francis, currently plies his trade in TNA.

Before he signed with and debuted in All Elite Wrestling in 2022, Isiah "Swerve" Scott had been entertaining fans in WWE, primarily performing on the sports entertainment juggernaut's developmental brand NXT. In 2021, the former NXT North American Champion became part of a stable called Hit Row alongside B-FAB, Ashante "Thee" Adonis, and Top Dolla (now going by AJ Francis). Despite the group's promise and popularity, most of its members were released by November that year.

B-FAB, Adonis and Francis were brought back by WWE in 2022, although the heavyweight powerhouse was released once again in 2023. During an interview earlier this year, Swerve Strickland had discussed the initial release of Hit Row, and alluded to one of his stable-mates garnering heat from management. This led many to assume that the member in question had been Francis, who had then called out the former AEW World Champion in response.

During a recent conversation with Ariel Helwani, the 35-year-old star remarked on his issues with Swerve, claiming that the two had seemed to be on good terms until around the time of FSW's Benefit for Chris Bey event, before Strickland's interview had come out.

“Yeah, we were cool—until a couple of months ago, apparently. We were cool a week before his interview came out. I saw him at Chris Bey’s benefit show, and everything was cool. This was in April—everything was fine.”

After The Realest had shared his story, Francis had wanted to address it himself. The latter also disclosed that he does not speak to Strickland, and has not talked about him since.

“Then the interview came out, and I was like, ‘Oh, I’m just gonna clear the record. I’mma just say what actually happened, let’s talk about what happened.’ And I haven’t talked about him since—unless somebody brings him up. It’s okay. We haven’t talked. We don’t talk.” [H/T - Ringside News]

Francis was in action recently at TNA Slammiversary 2025, where he unsuccessfully teamed with KC Navarro in a four-way tag match for the TNA World Tag Team Titles.

Former WWE superstar Swerve Strickland's new AEW feud

After he and Will Ospreay defeated The Young Bucks at AEW All In : Texas and stripped them of their EVP titles, The Jackson Brothers' Elite stable-mate, Kazuchika Okada, called out Swerve Strickland this past week on AEW Dynamite. The former WWE superstar promptly confronted The Rainmaker in response, but instead of escalating things the new AEW Unified Champion elected to leave the ring alongside his manager Don Callis.

It remains to be seen if a potential title match between Swerve and Okada is looming in the horizon.

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Edited by Anurag Mukherjee