Isaiah ‘Swerve’ Scott Explains How Hit Row Came Together In NXT

Isaiah “Swerve” Scott got back up in a big way in his Falls Count Anywhere match against Leon Ruff in May as Top Dolla, B-Fab and Ashante Thee Adonis helped and supported Scott to victory.

On the May 11 episode of NXT, Scott officially introduced Hit Row to the world. The group has already found plenty of success with Scott winning the NXT North American Championship and the group performing a championship cypher at Great American Bash.

Speaking on WWE After The Bell, Scott explained how the group came together.

“The way it came about is very simple. It wasn’t a long constructed idea. There was Top Dolla, Ashante Thee Adonis, and B-Fab. They were performing something called The Hit Makers as their own trios group. They were together about eight months and doing a lot of the in-house shows together. It was a project they were feeling out but Ashante was still doing 205 Live and AJ Francis was doing WWE Treasures, so scheduling wise it was hard to get them to come together at the same time. I was transitioning from the Cruiserweight Title stuff to doing my own thing and doing something different and unique myself,” he said.

Scott continued, discussing how he wanted to take his character in a different direction.

“I was kind of done with my look and a lot of where my mannerisms and character was going. I didn’t think the volume was turned up high enough. It was time to really dive into it and go into a different way that no one else looks like, not just in WWE, but anywhere in wrestling. I want to go somewhere like ‘this guy is standing out and doing something unique.’ After one of the NXT TV shows, Triple H approached me with the Hit Makers idea and wanted to put them together. He said there was a lot they could learn from me and my 12 years of wrestling experience and TV (experience). I could guide them in a way and they can bring a different flavor and add muscle and impact to where I was transitioning. It was a perfect storm,” commented Scott. “It just so happened that we are all music artists. How often do you get musicians that compete at a high level in-ring together at one time? We played around with names and AJ, before he came to WWE, he was doing a faction called The Row on the independent scene. It was a Death Row spin-off thing. We were like, ‘what if we took that hard grittiness, in your face, rugged, unscripted filter and we brought it here.’ We put that spin on it and the fact that I had been on NXT TV for two years, we had that legitimacy. We started throwing out ideas and everyone was agreeing, which is very rare.”

Scott commented that the four are often on the same page when it comes to wrestling and music.

Now you know the story of Hit Row.

On Tuesday’s episode of NXT, Hit Row got into a confrontation with Legado Del Fantasma. If you missed anything from NXT, check out Fightful’s full report by clicking here.

If you use any of the quotes above, please credit the original source with a h/t and link back to Fightful for the transcription.