Spoiler On WWE’s Plan For AOP After Secret Signing

WWE has their eye on the entire pro wrestling world, and it appears that they signed up two former Superstars without anyone knowing. AOP haven’t been around, but Akam and Rezar might be coming back.

Akam and Rezar haven’t been taking indie bookings, but they are still a team. Those two still a ton of potential, and it’s possible that they could have another substantial WWE run in them. Under Triple H’s booking, Akam and Rezar could do a lot of damage.

Sean Sapp reported behind Fightful’s paywall that Akam and Rezar were secretly signed by WWE last year. They just haven’t been used.

Several sources have told Fightful that months after our initial report, that AOP/Authors of Pain/Legion of Pain have actually been under contract with WWE since 2022, though we haven’t confirmed as much. Specifically we were told “it was before Vince McMahon came back, because that put a halt on all signings besides new recruits.” There have been some signings in recent months, however.

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AOP were actually on an internal travel list back in May.

AOP haven’t wrestled a match at all since being released back in 2020, and had some ill fated WES shows set for Europe in 2022. Those that we spoke to said that AOP made sure Paul Ellering was heavily involved in negotiations.

PW Insider went on to note that WWE is making plans for AOP to be a part of NXT. Those plans have not gone down yet, but they may be waiting for the right moment to pull the trigger.

There has been a lot of talk within the last week about The Authors of Pain and Paul Ellering returning to make some WWE appearances soon, most likely for the WWE NXT brand.

We first heard the talk about three weeks back and over the last 24 hours there was discussions backstage at last night’s NXT taping about them possibly making appearances next month, so stay tuned.

The duo were signed to WWE developmental deals in 2016 and released in September 2020.  They had announced and were promoting events under the  Wrestling Entertainment Series banner, but the first event announced was postponed and later canceled.

It was noted that the outlet reached out to AOP and WWE directly, and they were not given an answer. We will have to see if anything happens in this situation.

You never know what can happen in WWE, and they certainly have the money to sign someone just to keep them around. Only time will tell when AOP’s big moment will come, but they could be NXT-bound.

How would you use AOP in NXT? Sound off in the comments to let us know what you think!