Authors of Pain Debunks Rumors on Pro-Wrestling Retirement
Akam and Rezar of Authors of Pain have fired back at rumors that they have retired from pro-wrestling.
Earlier on Wednesday, Fightful Select reported that the word going around AOP is that both Akam & Rezar are working regular jobs these days. The report also mentioned that one promoter, who reached out to AOP, was informed that both men had retired from wrestling.
Now, both Akam and Rezar have took to Twitter to debunk this report. Both men took turns to post an old picture with Paul Elering from their days in NXT and captioned the tweet “Ain’t Done Yet Bitches.” You can check both tweets below.
AOP’s WWE Career
Akam(real name Sunny Dhinsa) signed with NXT back in 2014. Rezar(real name Gzim Selmani) joined WWE in 2015, and was later teamed up with Akam in Authors of Pain in 2016. The pair won the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classics in 2016 and went on to become NXT Tag Team Champions at NXT TakeOver: San Antonio in January 2017.
AOP were called up to RAW in April 2018 and went on to become RAW Tag Team Champions in the same year. However, injuries to both Rezar and Akam halted their run on RAW. They were later released by WWE in 4 September 2020.
Post WWE Developments
The report from Fightful Select mentioned that other wrestlers had inquired about bringing The Authors of Pain to particular wrestling companies last year, but nothing ever came of it.
It was also mentioned that AOP were brought up in discussion to AEW last year, but AEW officials were not sure if they were a good fit at the time. The door was still left open for AOP to potentially work with AEW in the future.
Fighful also writes that AOP were suggested to NJPW officials. But NJPW was not signing any new overseas talent to Japan last year while the budget required was also an issue.
Retirement Rumors Were Shocking
The rumors around both men of AOP retiring from wrestling were surprising, to say the least. The age of both Akam(28) and Rezar(26) would mean that they have a long career ahead of them. Even if any one of them decides to pursue other careers, the other man could easily decide to work with other tag teams or could still go for a single run in various companies.
The quick rebuttal from Akam and Rezar about this report would now bring them to notice with various promotions. With the independent wrestling scene also opening up in the summer, AOP would have a lot of options in front of them.
One of the reasons Authors of Pain might be away from wrestling, for now, is Rezar’s bicep injury that he suffered last year before his WWE release. Given that that injury was sustained over 15 months back, it can be expected that Rezar would have healed up properly in this time.
Keep tuned in for more updates on Authors of Pain.
