Throughout 2021, Shane Strickland, then known as Isaiah “Swerve” Scott, reached new heights as a member of Hit Row, which also included Ashante “Thee” Adonis, Top Dolla, and B-Fab. He won the NXT North American Championship and moved to the main roster when the stable got drafted to WWE SmackDown in October. But the group’s main roster run ended in November when the four members were released in two waves of budget cuts. Many fans remain curious about what went wrong for the faction in WWE, given its fairly quick twist of fate.
During an appearance on “Casual Conversations with The Classic“, Strickland, who now goes by Sw3rve The Realest, looked back on B-Fab’s release and recalled how Hit Row found out about it like everyone else.
“As far as like what happened with Briana, we were on a flight, and her flight got cancelled. So we were like okay, so Top Dolla ended up calling and saying, ‘Hey is everything okay?'” said Strickland. [He was] checking in with them, and they were like oh no, they were just, ‘She’s not needed at the time.’ We’re like okay, so we got on the flight. We see on our WiFi, on the plane, we’re seeing on the Internet, just blowing up, all these releases are happening. We saw Briana’s name and we’re like, ‘Woah, what?’ So they didn’t even tell us that, they just happened.”
Strickland then shared his belief that Hit Row was ultimately released because “the office” had an issue with the members asking about B-Fab’s release and the creative team didn’t know what to do with them.
“So I guess us asking about, enquiring about what was going on was like an issue for them in the office. So we were like oh wow. So that was one thing. I feel like they got frustrated with the group because they wanted, you had like the New Day, you had Hurt Business and all that. So it was just, they didn’t know what to do with us and they just ended up letting us go.”
When he discussed B-Fab’s release, Strickland described how he subsequently lost his own interest in Hit Row in WWE, as he felt like the company wasn’t fully supporting him or the group.
“Truth be told, like after Briana got let go, it kind of, for me, I kinda lost the interest anyway,” said Strickland. “I’m a person that’s 100% go or not. And so they’re not 100% behind me, it’s like okay, I can’t behind this.”
As for his release, Strickland made it clear that he has accepted that WWE’s decision-makers will run the company as they see fit, and he’s “cool” with doing his own thing elsewhere.
“So it’s cool, like WWE’s gonna WWE,” said Strickland. “They’re gonna do what they do. They have want they want. And they’re happy with what they got.
“I’m not necessarily happy with what I’m noticing with the product change. But they’re happy with it, it’s their money, it’s their product, it’s their investors. So give them what they wanna give them. And if I don’t fit in that, cool. I’ll go do some other s—- anyway.”
Strickland is venturing back out into the wrestling world; he has been advertised for upcoming shows with TERMINUS, NJPW STRONG, and GCW.
