AJ Francis Says Steve Corino Came Up With Idea For Him To Tease Plancha On WWE NXT

AJ Francis will never try to hit a dive over the top rope in a WWE ring again, unless he’s at WrestleMania. 

AJ Francis was in action on the June 17 episode of WWE NXT. He teamed with Trick Williams and Wes Lee against Josh Briggs, Yoshiki Inamura, and Elijah. During the match, he teased diving over the ropes. Famously, Francis had once attempted to dive on an episode of WWE SmackDown while working for WWE, and the dive didn’t go as planned. 

Speaking with MuscleManMalcolm on Muscle Memory, Francis revealed that the idea for the spot came from the mind of Steve Corino. Francis also said that it was pitched that he hit the dive, but he says he will never do that again unless it’s at WrestleMania. 

“I didn’t think of the spot actually. That was Steve Corino. Steve Corino wanted me to do the dive, and I told him, I’ll never do the dive again, except at WrestleMania. You know, since all these people want to pretend that that’s the only thing I’ve ever accomplished in my life is is fucking up that dive. They don’t have the same energy for Vikingo, who did it more recently than me. They don’t have the same energy for Jey Uso, who did it more recently than me. They don’t have the same energy for a lot of people that have done it more recently than me. They just are dick eaters and go out of their way to try to make it the only thing I’ve ever done,” he said. “I’ve main-evented two TNA pay-per-views in the last six calendar months, I’ve made Superstars like Joe Hendry in the last year. I’ve helped make First Class the greatest team in TNA, as well as made myself the best big man in the business, bar none, and that’s all people want to talk about. 

“So, Steve Corino comes up with the idea. I said, ‘Well, instead of actually doing the dive, which I’ll never do again until WrestleMania, instead, how about I fake like I’m gonna do the dive and then I troll the audience?’ I was gonna go out and do [a more direct gesture] to the audience after I didn’t do the dive. Shawn Michaels was like, ‘Can’t do that on TV.’ So I was like, ‘Alright, I’ll just point at them and laugh.’ That’s fine. That’s fair. It came off really well. It was a great spot. It was a great break spot, going into commercial. Obviously, WWE posted it on all their social media. So, they appreciated it, too. It was a good thing. So, shout out Steve Corino,” 

Elsewhere in the interview, he spoke about wanting to win the WWE NXT Championship from Oba Femi. Read more here. 

Unfortunately, Elijah suffered an injury in that match. Learn the latest on his condition here.

Learn more about the collaborative relationship between WWE and TNA at this link. 

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