AJ Francis, formerly known as “Top Dolla” in WWE, played five seasons in the NFL. Despite having not played in the league since 2018, he believes that he could play in the XFL and dominate.
Francis was recently a guest on the MuslceManMalcolm podcast, and he was asked about the potential of him playing in the XFL when the league resumes play in 2023. Francis stated that he thinks he could play in the XFL and that he would dominate, but he added that he does not want to go back to a life of football, and went on to compare the abuse a football career had on his body to the bumps (or lack thereof) taken during his wrestling career.
“I mean, let me say this, do I think that I could play in the XFL and dominate the XFL? Absolutely. Go watch the tape. My last game in the NFL, I had six tackles as a nose guard. I would like to know the list of nose guards that have had six tackles in a game since I got out of the NFL. I guarantee you it’s not long. Let me just talk the actual facts of the situation. But, I’m also 31 years old and football is a young man’s game. So, could I do it? Yeah. Do I want to go back and have my body feel like when I was playing in the NFL? Not really, no.
Now that I’ve not felt like that for three years, like yeah, I feel pretty good now. I don’t want to go back to waking up and having to soak my legs and back every morning just to get loose. I’m off that now. People ask, ‘Well, you were in wrestling. Doesn’t it hurt doing that?’ You got to realize, this is going to shock a lot of people, but wrestling ain’t real.
Yeah you take bumps, and yeah, you do hurt, but compared to 40 plays against a 300-pound man who’s trying to kill me every play as I’m trying to kill him, it’s not the same. It’s not even close to the same. It’s different levels of body movement aching pain. Also, at the same time, in wrestling I’m huge. I’m actually 6’5, 350. That’s not a billed height and weight. That’s actually what I am. In wrestling, a lot of guys are not that. Most people I have matches with are smaller than me and in wrestling, the story is, if I’m bigger than you, the whole match is me throwing you around and then you get me once, maybe twice at the end and it’s over. That’s the story of professional wrestling of forever.
It was easier for me than it is for a lot of guys in the industry because a lot of guys are not my size so they got to take 15 bumps in a match. Look at my entire WWE run, actual back bumps that I took that someone gave me and it wasn’t me doing my elbow drop move, actual back bumps I took, I took one the entire time that I was on camera in the WWE. It was a dropkick off the top rope from Santos Escobar where I controlled my whole way down. It was the one bump that I took that I didn’t give myself. It was easy for me, but not everybody is that lucky because not everybody is the same size.”
You can check out the entire interview with AJ “Top Dolla” Francis below.
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