AJ Francis is hoping to make a difference in the lives of his hometown community.
Francis, aka Top Dolla, recently spoke with WrestleZone‘s Managing Editor Bill Pritchard. Francis is hosting his seventh annual canned food drive this weekend. The charity event will take place during the University of Maryland Terrapins’ NCAA football game against the #2 nationally ranked University of Michigan Wolverines.
Francis’ event will benefit the Sarah’s House children’s homeless shelter in Fort Meade, Maryland. He spoke to WrestleZone about where the idea came from and how important it is to give back to his community.
“My dad has been really big in my life, not just with athletics. My dad’s a basketball and football coach, and obviously, football was the way that I changed my life. He was also big on giving back to the community. We would do this canned food drive. We would do trunk or treat at Halloween time, we would do toy drives for Christmas,” Francis explained. “We’d do back-to-school drives in the summer. We would go visit people in prison, and talk to them and try to uplift them while they’re in there serving their time. We did a lot of things in our community that I’m very grateful for my dad having the foresight to have me do.
“Seven years ago, I decided to make this event my own. I’ve done other events,” Francis noted. “I did a charity basketball game for Sarah’s House, and we raised, I want to say, like $5,000 with the charity basketball game, but that was just a one-off. I need to do the charity basketball game again, just my schedule is too crazy to fit that in. But every year, for the past seven years I was like, I’m going to make the canned food drive my thing.”
Lights Out
Francis credited former NFL star Shawne Merriman as another influence. Merriman also went to the University of Maryland, and he hosts an annual coat drive every winter. Francis says he saw that as a good example, and he remains grateful he is in a spot to help out.
“A lot of times, people bring food directly from their tailgate that they haven’t used. Most people go to the store, buy stuff, and bring it to the game. But a lot of people bring stuff straight from the tailgate. To be able to have that opportunity to provide for the less fortunate in my community. Sarah’s House is literally like five minutes from where I grew up, where my sister grew up, where my dad grew up, where my nana still lives. So it’s a really big part of our community, and I’m very grateful that I’m able to give back to it.”
“I’m a hooper”
Francis mentioned his one-off charity game, so it had be to asked; what kind of basketball game does he have?
“I’m a hooper man. I had some D1 offers to play basketball, I just had way more in football. I’m a power forward and six [foot] five, 330 [pounds] at power forward is a little bit too big. But six-five, 330 at defensive tackle is a hell of a player, you know what I’m saying? So I made the right choice there, but my dad’s a basketball coach. My dad has 300 career wins as a head coach. So, basketball was the biggest part of my life growing up, way bigger than football. It’s just, my life took me in the direction of football. But yeah, I’m a hooper, man.”
They couldn’t call it “Rock N Jock” because MTV already has that locked down, but Francis says he’s absolutely on board with a celebrity basketball game in that style if one was to take place. He spoke about his deceptive height, noting that unassuming people will write him off before seeing his athletic skills in action.
“The thing that I got going for me is that I’m so big that people see me and they just assume, unless they know who I am, they know I played in the NFL,” he noted. “Or they know me from WWE, they just see me and they just think I’m some big, fat, slow guy, right? Then I get on the court, and I’m the best player on the court. People are like, ‘Oh my God, what the hell?’
“That happens a lot, so much so that when I go to LA Fitness or something and I go hoop, I’ll be like, ‘Yo, you need one?’ People will pick me just because I’m tall,” Francis added. “They think I’m just going to be Mr. Rebound, which I am. But then I start diming people up. Before it was cool to be a passer in the paint, I was doing it before it was cool. Now, if you can’t pass in the paint, you can’t hoop.”
Francis was released by WWE on September 23, 2023, and he is waiting for his no-compete clause to expire. His last match was a six-person mixed tag team loss to the LWO’s Cruz Del Toro, Joaquin Wilde & Zelina Vega on September 10.
The 7th Annual AJ Francis Canned Foor Drive will take place at SECU Stadium on Saturday, November 18. Fans are welcome to also bring canned food items and new personal care items. If you are unable to attend, monetary donations can also be made on the charity’s website.
Check out our full interview with AJ Francis below:
