During a Karrion Kross and Scarlett vignette on Friday’s episode of WWE SmackDown, the Authors of Pain (Akam, Rezar, and their manager Paul Ellering) in a silhouette type image was shown. During the vignette, Kross specifically said that he needs “Authors”, with much implication that the tag team along with Ellering will be returning to WWE and aligning with Kross and Scarlett.
According to PWInsider, Authors of Pain and their manager Paul Ellering will officially return to WWE at the New Year’s Revolution episode of January 5, 2024.
Authors of Pain are former WWE Raw Tag Team Champions.
We previously reported from that Fightful Select had indicated Authors of Pain were actually re-signed by WWE over a year and a half ago, and started making appearances at the WWE Performance Center in the summer of 2022 before Vince McMahon had returned to the company as the Executive Chairman. The WWE creative team did not have plans in place for AOP at the time.
In May 2022, AOP, under their real names Sunny Dhinsa (Akam) and Gzim Selmani (Rezar) as the tag team name of Legion of Pain, announced the launch of their professional wrestling promotion, Wrestling Entertainment Series (WES). The promotion folded before the very-first show was scheduled to begin.