Paul Ellering, former manager of AOP and The Road Warriors/Legion of Doom, recently claimed on The Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling podcast earlier this month (via Heel By Nature) that he planned to return to WWE full-time to manage the AOP once again. However, once the pandemic happened, those plans are seemingly now off the table.
“I didn’t expect it at all. Triple H called me and ran through the idea with me. They flew me down to Orlando to meet the Authors of Pain and they are just two fantastic guys. As soon as I met them, I knew I wanted to manage them. I was there to lend them some credibility and help those guys get over, I think we accomplished that in the two years and had a great run in NXT. Well, the idea was to bring me back in to manage them full time on Raw and go on the road with the Authors of Pain, but the pandemic happened. So with Covid going on, I’m not sure what happens next.”
However, in an updated report by The Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Paul Ellering’s name had not been mentioned before or after the pandemic because Vince McMahon reportedly doesn’t like him. This is also why the AOP turned on him during their debut on the main roster for Monday Night RAW.
The AOP were a part of Seth Rollins’ stable and then-RAW executive director Paul Heyman was going to push them as the top heel tag team. Things however went south very fast after Rezar suffered a torn biceps and Akam was also removed from television until their eventual return.
The internal belief is that will happen sometime between late next month and the end of the year. When it happens, the current plan is that they won’t be paired with Rollins again, but this could change.
