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Former NFL Tackle Recalls The Undertaker Training Him on His First Day in WWE: “I Got to Work With Taker and Sell for Him”

Published 01/17/2022, 6:30 AM EST

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AJ Francis aka Top Dolla was released by WWE back in November 2021. While his last day may not have been ideal, his first day with WWE is a story worth telling because it involves The Undertaker.

During his conversation on MuscleManMalcom, Top Dolla spoke about his first day at the WWE Performance Center. He ended up working in The Deadman’s class, and even worked with him in the ring!

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“I saw Undertaker had a class and I was like ‘well, you know what class I’m going to!’. The best thing to me was that I actually got to work with him in it. You don’t see that in the documentary [The Last Ride].”

“In the actual class, I got to work with Taker and sell for him. He gave me his patented corner punches. You know. It was a really cool day to be able to get into the ring and just do some stuff with The Undertaker as your first day at WWE. Doesn’t get much better than that!”

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Undoubtedly, this would have been any rookie’s dream but for AJ Francis, it actually came true! Not everyone gets to work with The Undertaker during their entire WWE career and Top Dolla got to do that on his very first day.

Top Dolla wasn’t supposed to work with The Undertaker at the Performance Center

The fact that he ended up in Taker’s class was purely luck. He revealed that his original scheduled class’ teacher hadn’t yet shown up and he was instructed to go to any other class available.

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“I was part of the class and if you watch The Last Ride documentary, I’m in it, in that class. It was cool, it was a bunch. All the big guys and to be honest with you, I wasn’t even supposed to be in that class. That was my first week when I got to the PC [Performance Center] and they were like ‘yeah, your teacher’s not here yet so just hop in somebody else’s class’. I was like alright cool, let’s go.”

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It’s one of those stories that stay with a pro-wrestler forever even if they aren’t working with the company or the industry anymore.

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The Undertaker’s Wife Michelle McCool Owns Charlotte Flair on Twitter

Coming to the current situation, while Top Dolla feels he can still return to WWE sometime in the future, The Undertaker will probably never do the same!

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Written by:

Shuvangi Sen Chaudhury

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Shuvangi is a senior WWE and AEW author at EssentiallySports. She has over 1000 published WWE articles and also has experience in content operations with Forbes. Having completed her undergraduation from Royal Holloway, University of London, Shuvangi is closely aligned to the fitness industry, having amateur skills levels in tennis and basketball while rowing at a regatta level.
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