Top Dolla Says Taking Bumps In Pro Wrestling Was Easier Than Football

AJ Francis (Top Dolla) cannot be accused of being a small man. His experience in football leads him to believe dominance would come for him in the XFL. His time in pro football certainly helped prepare him for WWE.

For most pro wrestlers, taking bumps is the downside of a pretty exciting job. For the most part, these men and women get to play superhero or supervillain and get paid to do what most kids do for free in the schoolyard. AJ Francis states that taking bumps in WWE wasn’t as bad as it is for someone perhaps smaller than him.

It was while speaking to MuscleManMalcolm that he stated it was much harder on the gridiron during his NFL days. That was painful, he states. Taking Bumps in WWE was more controlled, and all because of his size, he stating that taking bumps wasn’t really a big part of his story-telling process in WWE.

“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.

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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.”

His strength was showcased in his matches in WWE and in his many appearances on the WWE’s Most Wanted Treasures A&E Special. It was in a particular episode where they were looking for Iron Sheik’s Persian Clubs that Francis was able to do what only The Iron Sheik himself and Bob Backlund were able to do, which was lift those Persian clubs that seemed heavier than even Francis himself. Looking forward to seeing where AJ Francis ends up.

H/T Fightful