Report: Update On Former WWE Tag Team AOP

Since being released by WWE in September 2020, the Authors Of Pain have yet to pop up in another professional wrestling company and they have remained largely silent over the last nine months. 

Fightful Select provided an update on the tag team recently and wrestlers reportedly brought up the tag team to management in All Elite Wrestling and New Japan Pro-Wrestling last year. AEW didn't believe Akam and Rezar would be "a good fit" in the company at that time, though, but they kept their options open for the future. NJPW weren't signing new foreign talent at the time they came up and they reportedly did not have the budget to sign the tag team anyway.  

Any movement to bring them in now was reportedly not on the horizon and both Akam and Rezar are currently working regular jobs. 

Fightful also noted that a promoter who reached out to AOP was told Akam and Rezar had "retired." Sean Ross Sapp noted he was trying to find out more information, and both Authors Of Pain members have since seemingly responded to suggestions of retirement on social media, writing: "Ain't Done Yet B*tches..." with a photo of them alongside Paul Ellering giving the middle finger. 

Akam and Rezar came together as the Authors Of Pain in the spring of 2016 with Paul Ellering as their manager. They enjoyed a rapid rise in NXT, winning the 2016 Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic before defeating DIY for the NXT Tag Team Championship in January 2017.

They debuted on Monday Night Raw following WrestleMania 34, ditching Ellering in the process. They went on to capture the Raw Tag Team Title in late 2018, but both men suffered from long-term injuries that stunted their time on the red brand. 

At the time of their final match in the company in March 2020, they were Seth Rollins' disciples alongside Murphy. Rezar suffered a biceps injury during that match, though, and they were released by the company later that year.