Former RAW Tag Team Champions The Authors of Pain and WWE Hall of Famer Paul Ellering could be returning to work for the company soon, but not on the main roster, and there’s talk that they may have been under contract for months.
As we’ve noted, it was reported back in January that WWE had interest in bringing Akam and Rezar back to the company, but other sources indicated that AOP was already in talks for a return, going back to some time in 2022.
In an update, a new report from PWInsider notes that there has been a lot of internal talk in the last week about Akam, Rezar and Ellering returning soon to make some appearances, most likely for the WWE NXT brand.
It was noted that the talk first made the rounds about three weeks ago, but backstage at Tuesday’s NXT TV tapings there was talk of AOP and Ellering possibly making appearances in September.
AOP would be used to help boost the NXT tag team division, which is currently led by NXT Tag Team Champions Tony D’Angelo and Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo, along with acts like The Creed Brothers, Bronco Nima and Lucien Price, The Dyad, Gallus, Charlie Dempsey and Drew Gulak, Brooks Jensen and Josh Briggs, Hank Walker and Tank Ledger, among others.
Regarding the return of Ellering with AOP, word is that Akam and Rezar have an incredible amount of loyalty to the legendary manager. It was reported that Ellering was leading AOP’s contract negotiations with WWE, and that they made sure he was involved. AOP has remained close with Ellering, and they received his blessing to use the Legion of Pain name outside of WWE as this is a reference to Ellering’s most famous on-screen and off-screen clients – WWE Hall of Famers The Road Warriors, also known as The Legion of Doom.
Ellering is believed to be still signed to a WWE Legends contract, but there’s no word yet on a new talent contract if he and AOP really are returning. At one point it was rumored that Ellering parted ways with AOP in April 2018, when they were called up to RAW, because he did not want to deal with the travel that comes with working on the main roster, but he later dismissed this talk.
On a related note, Fightful Select adds that multiple sources are saying AOP has actually been signed to a WWE contract since 2022, but this could not be confirmed. The group was included on an internal travel list back in May.
Akam, age 30, and Rezar, age 29, have not wrestled since the March 9, 2020 RAW episode, where they teamed with Murphy (aka Buddy Matthews) and current WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins for an eight-man tag team match win over The Street Profits and The Viking Raiders. Their last standard televised tag team bout was a win over Zack Ryder (aka Matt Cardona) and Curt Hawkins (aka Brian Myers) on the November 25, 2019 RAW. Their last NXT match was a win over TM-61 at the non-televised live event in Sanford, FL on April 19, 2018. Their last televised NXT match came at NXT TakeOver: New Orleans on April 7, 2018 as they worked a Triple Threat with Butch (aka Pete Dunne) and Roderick Strong, and the winners, then-NXT Tag Team Champions Adam Cole and Kyle O’Reilly. Akam and Rezar were released from their WWE contracts on September 4, 2020, which came as Rezar was recovering from a torn biceps suffered in that March 9, 2020 RAW match. AOP held the RAW Tag Team Titles on one occasion, and the NXT Tag Team Titles on one occasion. They also won the 2016 Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic.
While AOP has not wrestled since leaving WWE, they had big plans for their own promotion in mid-2022. World Entertainment Series (WES) was announced in May of that year, with plans to debut on Saturday, July 9 in Nottingham, England at the 10,000-seat Motorpoint Arena. The WES debut event was to air on FITE, but there were several issues surrounding the launch, with talents speaking out and backing out, among other controversies, as detailed here. The event was then cancelled just three days before showtime, with at least some of the blame put on talents not showing up. Ticket and pay-per-view refunds were issued, along with an apology. WES promised that this would not be the last we heard of the new promotion, but it was. WES had several matches advertised for that first show – Moose vs. Alistair Overeem for the WES World Title, Lina Fanene (fka Nia Jax) vs. TBD for the WES Women’s World Title, Legion of Pain (fka AOP) vs. BT Gunn and Kez Evans for the WES World Tag Team Titles, Steph De Lander (fka Persia Pirotta) and Anastasia vs. She Wolves for the WES Women’s World Tag Team Titles, Samuray Del Sol (fka Kalisto) vs. Lince Dorado, and Damo Mackle (fka Killian Dain) vs. Dean Muhtadi (fka Mojo Rawley), plus two pre-show matches – Eric Young vs. Zac Zodiac and Levis Valenzuela Jr. (fka No Way Jose) vs. Jody Fliesh.
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