What Happened To The Authors of Pain?, The Rock Tells NXT Star To Stay Above Backstage Politics

– 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 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. Their only other match since then is a house show match on May 27, where they teamed with Baron Corbin in a win over Breezango and No Way Jose.

The Authors of Pain did not work last night’s Tag Team Battle Royal on Raw, with the winners facing The Deleters of Worlds for the Raw Tag Team Championship.

Wrestling Observer Newsletter editor Dave Meltzer addressed their whereabouts in a tweet during Raw. He says since they’re not booked for Money in the Bank, WWE creative doesn’t want to lump them with teams not getting a push.

They aren't booked on the PPV and they don't want to lump them in with the non-pushed teams. https://t.co/R2Y6paYHtp

— Dave Meltzer (@davemeltzerWON) June 5, 2018

– During a recent interview with Byron Saxton for WWE.com, NXT Superstar Dakota Kai cited Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as a big reason for her interest in wrestling growing up.

“My brother was the one who actually got me into WWE. He watched it all the time, and I started to watch with him,” Kai said. “I was hooked on The Rock and his ability to captivate an audience. From there, one of my friends I used to do athletics with told me about a local company that needed more girls. That was in 2007, and I haven’t looked back since.”

The official Twitter feed of NXT tagged Johnson in a link to the interview, and he responded to Kai with the following.

#WWENXT Superstar @DakotaKai_WWE talks @QoSBaszler, the influence of @TheRock, and how she came to realize her dreams of sports-entertainment. https://t.co/slZsMJfLYA

— WWE NXT (@WWENXT) May 31, 2018

Very cool and flattering @DakotaKai_WWE. Thank you! Look forward to following your career. Work extremely hard, have FUN in the ring performing for the fans and always stay above bullshit backstage politics 😉🤙🏾👊🏾 https://t.co/OI4PTiW20I

— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) June 3, 2018