Tag: akam

WWE teases return of Authors of Pain in SmackDown vignette

Posted on by Ethan Renner

WWE has teased the return of The Authors of Pain and the group aligning with Karrion Kross & Scarlett. 

During a Kross & Scarlett vignette on Friday’s SmackDown episode, an image of Akam, Rezar, and Paul Ellering in silhouette was shown. Kross used the word “Authors” in the promo, heavily implying the group’s return to the company and an alliance with Kross & Scarlett. 

Akam & Rezar are former NXT Tag Team Champions, winners of the 2016 Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic in NXT, and former Raw Tag Team Champions. They debuted in NXT in 2016 with former Road Warriors manager Ellering, and were heavily pushed in the Road Warriors mold as a monster tag team. 

The group was called up to WWE’s main roster in April 2018, where Ellering was quickly replaced by Drake Maverick as the manager. After a Raw Tag Team title reign and alliance with Seth Rollins, Akam & Rezar were taken off television after an injury to Akam in March 2020, before both were released from their contracts in September 2020. 

Fightful reported earlier this year that Akam & Rezar had re-signed with the company as early as 2022, and that travel for the group had been planned as early as May 2023. Fightful also reported this week that the group’s return to WWE television was imminent.

AOP’s Akam and Rezar released by WWE

Posted on by Bryan Rose

AOP, the team of Akam and Rezar, have been released from their WWE contracts.

WWE’s website posted the following message: “WWE has come to terms on the release of Akam and Rezar (AOP). We wish them all the best in their future endeavors.”

The team has not been seen on WWE television since Rezar suffered a bicep injury early this year.

Akam and Rezar were put together as a team on NXT starting in 2016 under the name The Authors of Pain, managed by Paul Ellering. They won the 2016 Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, defeating TM-61 in the finals. They also won the NXT Tag Team titles on January 28, 2017 at TakeOver: San Antonio, defeating DIY.

The Authors of Pain made their debut on Raw on April 9, 2018, defeating Heath Slater and Rhyno. They immediately dropped Ellering as their manager. A number of changes took place in the following months, including shortening their name to AOP and adopting Drave Maverick as their manager. They won the Raw Tag Team titles on November 5, 2018, defeating Seth Rollins in a handicap match after Rollins’ tag team partner Dean Ambrose turned on him. They would lose the titles a month later to the team of Chad Gable and Bobby Roode.

In January 2019, Akam underwent knee surgery, keeping the team dormant for most of the year. Upon their return in November, Maverick was dropped as their manager and the team formed an alliance with Seth Rollins. That was dropped when Rezar suffered the bicep injury.

Authors of Pain join WWE Raw roster

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Another post-WWE Draft roster addition has been confirmed.

After they weren’t selected on either night of this year’s draft, WWE announced today that The Authors of Pain (Akam & Rezar) have joined the Raw roster. 

WWE began hyping the return of AOP on the September 16 episode of Raw. They haven’t had a televised match since taking part in the battle royal at Super ShowDown in Saudi Arabia this June. That match was the first time Akam had wrestled since undergoing knee surgery in January.

The Viking Raiders won the Raw Tag Team titles from Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode this Monday. Ziggler & Roode were then drafted to SmackDown.

Here are the updated rosters for Raw and SmackDown:

Raw —

  • Raw Women’s Champion Becky Lynch
  • The O.C. (AJ Styles, Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson)
  • Drew McIntyre
  • Randy Orton
  • Ricochet
  • Bobby Lashley
  • Kevin Owens
  • Natalya
  • Raw Tag Team Champions The Viking Raiders (Ivar & Erik)
  • The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford)
  • EC3
  • Eric Young
  • Sin Cara
  • Universal Champion Seth Rollins
  • Charlotte Flair
  • Andrade (w/ Zelina Vega)
  • Women’s Tag Team Champions Asuka & Kairi Sane
  • Rusev
  • Aleister Black
  • Cedric Alexander
  • Humberto Carrillo
  • Erick Rowan
  • Buddy Murphy
  • Jinder Mahal
  • 24/7 Champion R-Truth
  • Samoa Joe
  • Akira Tozawa
  • Shelton Benjamin
  • Rey Mysterio
  • Titus O’Neil
  • Liv Morgan
  • The IIconics (Peyton Royce & Billie Kay)
  • Zack Ryder & Curt Hawkins
  • Mojo Rawley
  • No Way Jose
  • Sarah Logan
  • AOP (Akam & Rezar)

SmackDown —

  • Roman Reigns
  • “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt
  • Sasha Banks
  • Braun Strowman
  • Lacey Evans
  • SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Revival (Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder)
  • The Lucha House Party (Kalisto, Gran Metalik & Lince Dorado)
  • Heavy Machinery (Otis & Tucker)
  • Apollo Crews
  • Drew Gulak
  • Heath Slater
  • Tamina
  • The B-Team (Curtis Axel & Bo Dallas)
  • WWE Champion Brock Lesnar
  • The New Day (Kofi Kingston, Big E & Xavier Woods)
  • Daniel Bryan
  • SmackDown Women’s Champion Bayley
  • Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura (w/ Sami Zayn)
  • Ali
  • Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode
  • Carmella
  • The Miz
  • King Corbin
  • Shorty Gable
  • Elias
  • Alexa Bliss
  • Nikki Cross
  • Cesaro
  • Luke Harper
  • Fire & Desire (Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville)
  • Dana Brooke
  • Drake Maverick

Akam returns to the ring in WWE Super ShowDown battle royal

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Akam of the Authors of Pain returned to action at Super ShowDown in Saudi Arabia.

AOP (Akam and Rezar) were both entrants in the 50-man battle royal. They took part in a spot where they faced off with the Viking Raiders and Heavy Machinery during the match, which led to AOP being eliminated. Akam and Rezar threw Tucker over the top rope before being eliminated by the Viking Raiders.

Sin Cara was also in the battle royal. This was his first match since last August.

The battle royal was won by NXT’s Mansoor Al-Shehail, who is Saudi Arabian and was involved in the segment with the Daivari brothers at the Greatest Royal Rumble in 2018.

Post Wrestling’s John Pollock reported last week that AOP had been set to return for a few weeks. Pollock wrote that Akam had been cleared and that it was a matter of coming up with a program for AOP.

AOP are part of the Raw tag team division.

Akam underwent knee surgery in January. While Akam was out of action, Rezar made some appearances on Main Event and teamed with Scott Dawson against Bobby Roode & Chad Gable on the Royal Rumble pre-show.