AJ Francis & Shane Strickland Deny Heat Rumours

Former Hit Row faction-mates AJ Francis and Shane Strickland have quashed rumours of heat between them.

Rumours of heat first emerged after it was claimed Francis and Strickland had unfollowed each other on Twitter, with some pointing to them not appearing on a recent episode of Busted Open Radio together as a possible sign of legitimate issues between the former WWE Superstars.

There appears to be no truth to the rumours, though, as AJ Francis replied to a WrestleTalk article on Twitter about the possible heat, writing: "Absolutely false. We shooting a music video next week."

Strickland also replied with: "Yeah there is, I hate him for beating me in Madden..." before both men joked about using NFL running backs Derrick Henry and Jonathan Taylor against each other on the video game.

Strickland and AJ Francis, then known as Isaiah "Swerve" Scott and Top Dolla respectively, worked together on WWE TV as part of Hit Row from May of 2021 until their releases in November of that year. They proved to be a popular group with Ashante "Thee" Adonis and B-Fab on NXT and were called up to SmackDown in the WWE Draft. All four members of the faction were suddenly released, though, after only a few appearances on the main roster.