The Authors of Pain Return To Action At House Show; Why They Haven’t Been On Monday Night Raw Lately

What happened to The Authors of Pain?

The night after WrestleMania 34, The Authors of Pain, along with Paul Ellering, made their main roster debut on Monday Night Raw as heels, defeating Heath Slater and Rhyno. After the match, Akam and Rezar ended their partnership with Ellering by refusing to allow him to walk with them to the backstage area. The following week, The Authors of Pain beat Slater and Rhyno in a rematch.

The Authors of Pain steamrolled a pair of local competitors on April 30, but have not appeared on Raw since then. Their most recent television match is a WWE Main Event bout taped on May 14 in London, England where they beat Apollo Crews and Titus O’Neil.

The Authors of Pain did not wrestle again until May 27 at a house show in Hampton, Virginia, where they teamed with Baron Corbin in a win over Breezango and No Way Jose. Their next match took place at last night’s live event in Peoria, Illinois, beating Slater and Rhyno.

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In the latest issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer confirmed a report from John Pollack of PostWrestling.com last week that the team took a brief hiatus from work because either Akam or Rezar had an issue with their U.S. work visa (Akam is from Canada, whereas Rezar is from the Netherlands).

With the duo back in action, that issue has been resolved, but WWE creative is holding them off from television since their currently focused on pushing The B-Team (Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel), as well as Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre, as contenders for the Raw Tag Team Championship.

“They don’t want them becoming one of the Slater and Rhyno and Ascension teams so the idea is to bring them back when they’ve got time to get them over,” Meltzer wrote.

On Wednesday, Triple H took part in a media conference call to discuss tonight’s NXT Takeover: Chicago II event and he addressed the WWE status of Ellering.

Triple H talked about Ellering being split from The Authors of Pain when they made their debut on Monday Night Raw. He said that he wasn’t part of the decision-making process of whether Ellering should tag along with The Authors of Pain on the main roster. Triple H said that when The Authors of Pain were informed they were being promoted to the main roster, he told Ellering that he would like to find another role for him in NXT when the time is right.

“‘I don’t want to do it today because I don’t want it to come across as a substitution,'” Triple H recalled telling Ellering.

“I loved what Paul did for us in NXT, and I loved him being part of the brand,” Triple H said.

“He was great to have around, talent really liked having him around. He really did add something to The Authors of Pain, both as characters on the show [as] he added credibility to them, but he also added something backstage. I told him then, ‘I want to look for something else, I want to look for the right thing and when I have it, I’ll give you a ring. If you’re still free and available, I’d love to do it.'”

Triple H went on to say he loves using experienced guys like Ellering because they add stuff on-screen and backstage in the locker room.