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What's the story?
Following their emphatic Raw debut win against Heath Slater and Rhyno and a teased split with manager Paul Ellering, the Authors of Pain have been filmed in a backstage interview confirming they are closing the chapter on Ellering.
In case you didn't know...
The Authors of Pain are widely known as one of NXT's most successful and dominant tag teams ever. They've won the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic Tournament. They've claimed the NXT Tag Team Titles and they took part in the return of the WarGames match. The whole time Paul Ellering has been with them, guiding them.
However, after making light work of the team of Heath Slater and Rhyno Akam and Rezar are walking up the ramp with Paul Ellering when they stop and force him to stay behind, the pair then leave without him.
The heart of the matter
In the interview, Akam and Rezar are asked what was going on with them leaving Paul Ellering at the ring.
"This is not about Paul, this is about how we just destroyed the first ever SmackDown Live Tag Team Champions."
Paul Ellering then finds the group backstage and confronts them, asking them why they acted the way they acted the way they did when they left him down by the ring.
"What are you guys doing, what is in your mind, I developed the strategy for winning the Dusty Rhodes Classic, I developed the plan to win the NXT Tag Team Championships. What are you thinking?"
Paul Ellering is then told that he is done with the AOP as his chapter ended in NXT.
What's next?
Currently, the Raw Tag Team Titles are vacant after Braun Strowman and ten-year-old Nicholas were forced to vacate them due to scheduling conflicts with Nicholas' education.
Kurt Angle announced a tournament that will see either The Revival or Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt face The Bar at the Greatest Royal Rumble. I imagine whoever wins will find themselves up against the Authors of Pain.
Author's take
The Authors of Pain have been past due to a call-up for quite some time now so their main roster debut isn't a huge surprise. What is a surprise, however, is the decision to separate them from Paul Ellering, although I guess it's because Ellering can't keep up with the weekly episodic schedule of Raw.
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