TNA Slammiversary: Interviews with Miami Dolphins alum AJ Francis and Chicago’s Elayna Black

Elayna Black started pro wrestling as a teenager in Chicago.

AJ Francis began his pro wrestling journey after competing in the NFL.

A University of Maryland defensive standout, Francis made his NFL debut with the Miami Dolphins under Coach Joe Philbin. Following his NFL career, he trained in pro wrestling at the Team 3D Academy via Bubba and D-Von Dudley in Kissimmee, near Orlando.

A Chicago Cubs and CM Punk fan, Black dropped out of high school to pursue her wrestling dreams by first training at the Freelance Wrestling Academy in Elmhurst, near Chicago. One of her trainers there was Mustafa Ali, now a TNA Wrestling star.

Speaking of TNA Wrestling, Black, Francis and Ali are gearing for Slammiversary, TNA Wrestling’s anniversary show. The 2026 version, celebrating the company’s 24th anniversary, is Sunday, June 28 from the Agganis Arena in Boston.

Black and Francis’s paths have crossed before as they trained at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando and wrestled for WWE’s NXT.

When their tenures with WWE ended, they eventually found a new home with TNA Wrestling.

Francis also wrestles occasionally for Boca Raton Championship Wrestling in South Florida and competed prior for Coastal Championship Wrestling in South and Central Florida.

Here is my video interview with TNA Wrestling star and Miami Dolphins alum AJ Francis, formerly WWE NXT’s Top Dolla in the stable Hit Row. We talk TNA Wrestling, Florida wrestling, Miami Dolphins and more.

How times have changed in the wrestling business.

TNA Wrestling and WWE forged a working agreement in January 2025, sharing talent, which makes Black and Francis available to again compete in WWE.

Here is my video interview with Elayna Black, formerly WWE NXT’s Cora Jade.

Fans in America can watch Thursday Night iMPACT! in its new home of AMC and AMC+.

iMPACT also airs on Sportsnet 360 in Canada and TNA+ worldwide.

TNA Wrestling’s video library can be seen 24-7 via Roku.

Visit https://tnawrestling.com/

Jim Varsallone

Miami Herald

305-376-3621

Jim Varsallone writes a high school sports column twice a week, featuring top performers in all varsity sports (boys and girls) in Broward and Miami-Dade counties. He also covers pro wrestling, something he’s done since his college days in the late 1980s. Now in his fifth decade of coverage, he currently follows WWE (Raw, SmackDown and NXT), AEW, Ring of Honor, TNA Impact Wrestling, MLW, WOW, NWA, and the South Florida indies, mainly CCW. He writes MMA, too -- mostly profile stories and video interviews with American Top Team and Sanford MMA fighters in South Florida. As for pro wrestling, he writes feature stories and profile pieces, updates upcoming show schedules in South Florida, photographs the action and interviews talent (audio and video) -- sharing the content here and via social media on his Facebook, Twitter and YouTube channel: jim varsallone (jimmyv3 channel). Support my work with a digital subscription